In her book From A Healing Heart, the author, whose son Jody completed suicide shares the mystery of a single Black-eyed Susan that grows on her sons grave every year, out of season.

"Whether it was a sign from Jody or from God; perhaps a bird dropped a Black-eyed Susan seed on the fresh grave, it brought me relief. I felt that my son wasn't far away, and that his spirit would always be with me.

If nothing more, it helped to begin to think of Jody there, at the gravesite. He was dead, and I began to accept that. I started to realize that I would never again see his form as I had known it. But his spirit would be close and would guide me. I would not forget him and what we shared. He would always be special. What we gave to one another, what we had meant to each other, would not die or diminish with the passage of years, and it has not. Each year since Jody's death, a single Black-eyed Suman has grown on his grave.

It is a comfort and a joy. It is a remarkable phenomenon that now makes me smile rather than cry.

Jody was a kid who never forgot my birthday, and never outgrew giving his mom flowers. I choose to believe he still hasn't.

There are many mysteries in life and death that can't be explained, and I think shouldn't be, just accepted."

From A Healing Heart by Susan White-Bowden

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