Dana believed in spirits and in previous lives. When she was a toddler, just learning to talk well, she told her aunt that she had a friend no one else could see, and he was her protector. This happened at a time long before she knew about her family tree, and years before she had ever heard of the fictional character called "Lone Ranger." Her imaginary friend she called 'Tonto.' He was an American Indian, although at the time she didn't understand what an Indian was.

As a young girl, she learned about her Native American branch of the family tree, and immediately identified with it. She felt out of place as a white girl, and felt a deep affinity with the original Americans. For a while, as an adult, she lived on an Indian reservation in South Dakota, which she described as one of the happiest times of her life. She told me that the Chief recognized her as a spirit of light, and a part of the American Indian culture.

A few years before she passed away, she told me more about her past-life memories, which involved a male warrior who was her mate, who went away with other men to fight the enemy. With tears in her eyes, she talked about how people came to the camp and hurt the women. The men wanted to know where her mate was, because he was a powerful leader they wanted to kill. They were cruel men who tortured her to the death, but she refused to give up her lover. "I died for him," she said. 

And when Dana temporarily "died" in the ER a few years ago, she experienced what she called "heaven," a quiet and beautiful place along a stream, with woodlands nearby. She was an Indian maiden, standing by the stream, watching it flow, listening to the rushing water and the bird songs. "When I die, I want to go back there," she said.

She found her paradise, I'm sure, and her place in the past, and the future to come. She found her 'Tonto' waiting for her there, and she'll live again—a happier, healthier life, I hope, filled with beauty, harmony, love and joy.

That smile. During one of our visits in Tennessee :)