Nancy and the Pink Cat

 Many moons ago, Nancy and Bert were very close friends of mine.  We shared pursuits we valued. As the moons rolled by my connections to them loosened, but Nancy and Bert remained close. They shared beverages appropriate to the time of day, swapped stories, exchanged book reviews.

 After years of scheduled and unscheduled meetings and meals Nancy stopped responding to Bert’s invitations. Age and all that goes with it were catching up to Nancy. And then Nancy died. Quietly. And now Bert missed her friend, creating a space in her spirit that needed to be filled by someone, by Nancy, by Nancy’s spirit.

 As Bert mourned her friend’s loss, she recalled a book she had read about trying to connect through ‘signs’ with those who have gone to be with the Lord. Because Nancy was a lover of cats, Bert thought the perfect sign she should ask for was a cat. Not just any cat, a pink cat. Not a Pink Panther type sighting, but a real, live, cat that purrs and cuddles. So, she started looking for the pink cat, for a sign of, or from, Nancy, that friends they would remain during the time of bodily separation.

 One day, while out on errand with her husband, Tom, they made an unscheduled stop at the home of a friend.  Bert and Tom were greeted by the friend and then a black and white cat appears. As it sidles up toward Bert, giving her a cat-hug, the cat twists its body revealing that one side of its fur is completely…you know what’s coming…pink.

 Bert, stunned, calls out, “Tom, a pink cat! It’s a pink cat!” Tom smiles, knowingly. The cat owner, not in on the ‘sign,’ is not quite sure what all the fuss is about. She calmy explains that the cat must have rolled in the children’s pink sidewalk chalk.

 What won’t the Spirit do to be the Comforter we are promised? Of course, to gain that comfort, one must first ask for it, and then look for it, and then receive it, joyfully. Nancy is not here. But she is not ‘gone’.  Thanks to the pink cat, Bert can again see Nancy laughing her unique laugh, enjoying the moment of revelation, as she awaits their re-gathering.