Welcome to CCAirwaves! CCAirwaves is the official podcast of the Catholic Cemeteries Association. Our hosts, Paige Muttillo and Joel Hansel, will provide informational and inspirational segments that will help you work through your grief in a healthy way, learn more about our Catholic faith, and much more. CCAirwaves is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and other streaming platforms. If you have a topic you'd like us to discuss, please email us at podcast@clecem.org. We look forward to forging relationships with our Catholic community!
In this episode, we explore touching stories of people who have received signs from loved ones on significant days, particularly birthdays. These stories reveal the enduring connections that persist beyond life, suggesting that our bonds with those we cherish continue to thrive.
Do you have a topic you'd like us to discuss? Please email us at podcast@clecem.org!
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Hello everyone and welcome back to CC Airwaves. My name is Paige Matillo and I'm here with my co-host, joel Hansel.
Speaker 2:
Good morning Paige.
Speaker 1:
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:
I'm fine yourself.
Speaker 1:
I'm doing really good. So it's the 2nd of July as we're filming this and my birthday is in July, so I'm very excited to celebrate that with my friends and family.
Speaker 2:
Well, you're still young and celebrate birthdays. For some of us, when the birthday comes around, it's the anniversary of when we turn 21.
Speaker 1:
Well, I think I'm going to try and celebrate birthdays forever.
Speaker 2:
I think they're an important milestone.
Speaker 1:
I like them.
Speaker 2:
That's fine, you'll change your tune.
Speaker 1:
In a few years I'll come back in 25 years and let everyone know if I'm still celebrating birthdays.
Speaker 2:
It's the 25th anniversary of my 21st birthday.
Speaker 1:
Well, that was my clever segue into the topic for today, which is birthdays. We're going to be sharing messages from heaven from individuals who received birthday messages from their loved ones on their special day. So I will start us off with our first story, which was submitted by Stella Kohler. My son, Jared's 25th birthday was on June 12, 2024, although he only lived 19 months. My sister and brother-in-law visited that day and asked if they could get a happy birthday balloon and bring it to the cemetery. I told her that was not necessary, but that she should visit the cemetery Later that day. We met them at a local park to play disc golf, while my husband did some bird watching and photography. As we were following the call of a red bellied woodpecker, we were led to a balloon in the woods that read happy birthday. Jared got his balloon after all. Thanks for letting me share this message from heaven.
Speaker 2:
Did the sister and brother-in-law visit the cemetery?
Speaker 1:
They probably did. Okay, I believe they did, but this balloon was in the woods at the park away from the cemetery.
Speaker 2:
Okay, all right, I get it.
Speaker 1:
I like the story. I even got the picture that she attached and it was very sweet. It was a good birthday message for Jared.
Speaker 2:
For a minute there. I thought that might have been the balloon from the cemetery.
Speaker 1:
Oh, and it flew from there. Oh, that would have been crazy.
Speaker 2:
I think that's the piece that I kind of missed here.
Speaker 1:
You know, I believe that you know they visited the cemetery but didn't bring a balloon but then they found it in the woods when they were looking at the bird, which, honestly, as we've talked about before, birds tend to be the messengers from heaven, so it kind of seems like it was leading them there.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Especially if it was well, they were following a woodpecker, not a Cardinal.
Speaker 1:
That is true. Cardinals are typically the messengers from heaven. That really would have been like whoa, but what a beautiful story, and thank you so much, stella, for sharing it with us.
Speaker 2:
Story number two was submitted by Grace no last name. It has been three years since I lost my brother, elliot, and his 21st birthday was hitting me hard. As I started my drive to work, I connected my iPhone to my car's Bluetooth and hit shuffle, unsure of what I wanted to hear. The first song they played was here Comes the Sun. Elliot had tried to learn guitar when he was seven and, though he struggled, he managed to master the chords of that song's chorus. He was incredibly proud, even though that was the only song he ever learned to play. Still, he would occasionally strum those chords, always ending in laughter and calling himself a natural. Now, as I drove and remembered him laughing and playing, I found myself laughing too, something I desperately needed on his birthday. But seriously, what are the chances that out of 2,000 songs, that is the one that plays?
Speaker 1:
And that's a good point. I'm not really good at math so I can't tell you what a one out of 2000 chances, but it is very crazy that that is the one song that played that was so similar to. That was the song that was very important to her brother.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, they say things, you know things happen for a reason. Yeah, they say things, you know things happen for a reason. And obviously the algorithm it popped out that song and it just somehow factored in Elliot and his birthday and the fact that he tried to learn that song.
Speaker 1:
Something similar happened to me, though, when I graduated high school. So in eighth grade we had a graduation song, and I can't for the life of me remember it. But when I was leaving to go get my hair done at my cousin's house for my high school graduation, I hit shuffle on my car and the graduation song popped up, like it was the first song I heard of the day I think a lot of us have that kind of circumstance happen to us.
Speaker 2:
Whether you want to call it a coincidence or what doesn't matter, it's happened to all of us, this definitely a message from Elliot.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I took mine as a message from God and I'm taking this one as a message Elliot, Elliot messed up with the algorithms.
Speaker 1:
This next story was submitted by Joey E. My dad was a car enthusiast. He loved fixing them up and I often helped him. Sadly, he passed away from a heart attack earlier this year, leaving both an unfinished car and a deep void in my life. We planned to sell the car, but strangely we couldn't find the keys anywhere. My stepmom and I searched the entire house to no avail. Eventually, we took it as a sign that it wasn't the right time to sell.
Speaker 1:
On my birthday, which I wasn't really in the mood to celebrate, I decided to clean out his garage instead. Dad had a little workstation where he spent countless hours as I was moving things around. I picked up a photo of him and me. To my surprise, it felt unusually heavy, curious. I checked the back and found the keys taped there. I had no idea why he would hide them in such a place, but in that moment it felt like a sign from him, a sign that I should keep the car. It felt like he was guiding me even now and, who knows, maybe I can pass the car down to my son when the time comes. What a birthday gift.
Speaker 2:
Well, obviously Dad really cherished the times that Joey worked with him on those cars. It meant a lot to him and to Dad. It just made sense to put the key next to a photo of the two of them or on the back of the photo and, yeah, dad led Joey to that photo and the keys. Sort of like other stories where people cleaning out found stuff.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, found something at the right, exact moment.
Speaker 2:
It was right, when he needed it, at the perfect moment.
Speaker 1:
And I. Actually there was a photo along with this story and it was a picture in the picture frame. It was him and his dad when they were younger and it was them in front of a car and then, you know, on the back the keys are taped. So obviously I cried a little, but I'm emotional, I can't help it.
Speaker 2:
This story was submitted by Will. Every birthday, our family gathered to celebrate, but ever since mom passed away, those gatherings had a tinge of sadness. Mom always cracked the same silly joke each year, asking what do you always get on your birthday? The punchline, another year older. This year, as we cut the cake, our youngest nephew, who had never met mom, blurted out what do you always get on your birthday Another year older? The room fell silent for a moment before erupting into heartfelt laughter. It felt as though mom was right there, chuckling along with us. Her spirit was alive and well in that laughter, reminding us all that she was still very much a part of our celebrations.
Speaker 1:
That's awesome. That's an awesome joke, though honestly, I mean that that's great. I'm going to use that this year.
Speaker 2:
I want to know how old the nephew was.
Speaker 1:
I don't know. That's a great question.
Speaker 2:
I could just picture like a seven-year-old.
Speaker 1:
I was just about to say, seven years old, has a joke book or something from the dollar store and just is looking through it, picks a joke. But you know, as we say, you get led to things sometimes. So maybe that was mom's way of saying I'm here still, I'm still celebrating, and guess what? You can't get away from this corny, cheesy joke. That's a good joke, though. I like it. Well, that's all that we have today. Thank you so much for listening and, as you all know and I've heard in the past, if you have received a message from heaven and would like to share it, email us at podcast at C-L-E-C-E-Morg, or send us a message on our social media and stay tuned, because we will be having a 100th episode celebration in the near future. I believe it's about two episodes away, so stay tuned for that.
