The Spirit Butterfly

One night,  two days after my father's funeral I saw a beautiful butterfly in our bedroom. I was amazed by the design on its wings, something with a rare sign. So, I quickly took a picture of it using my tab's camera.

See the captured pictures below and try to look fixedly (no edit was made). Take a leer on its enigmatical images, which I believed that conveys a special message from my late father- comforting our misery of his passing to leave our worries behind, for he's now at peace. If that's what really the message meant, I felt relieved.

Original/ unedited picture I took earlier.

I cropped the image to see it closely.

See the butterfly's mystical figure?

I used to encounter butterflies when someone close to us died, but I was still skeptical with spirit butterflies the time between until this happens. From then, I believed in "spirit butterflies."  Let me share with you the best happenings I encountered with these creature with my beloved papa.


Aug.8,2015, we took papa to the hospital. He was in coma due to Hypertensive Encephalopathy. As expected, he was confined in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Maria Reyna Hospital, CDO.

First day

Before he was transferred to the ICU room from the ER, we noticed a brown butterfly as big as a palm resting comfortably on the glass window overlooking the patient inside. But this butterfly has impaired wings. My siblings and I believed that it was my mama's spirit butterfly (like a folklore about 'sundo' by a deceased loved one if a person is struggling between life and death). We're all dreaded so we beg the butterfly not to take papa if that's the purpose.

Second day (Aug.9,2015)

My husband and I watched over papa overnight. At 11 PM the butterfly was there again rested in the same position as it  was on the same area of the glass window yesterday (but this time its impaired wings were healed). So in my great presentiment, I beg to whatever her intent just spare papa's life. At 2 PM before she flew away, she even landed on my husband's knee for a moment then took off. We're both flabbergasted.

Third day (Aug.10,2015)

Early in the morning, I attended the mass in the chapel's hospital premise. I prayed heartily to God to heal papa; to make a miracle despite his condition. After the mass I went back to the ICU and joined in the pray over. Thereafter, I went to the hospital's pharmacy to get the medicines prescribed by the doctor earlier. I got cold feet when I saw the total price costs 666 pesos. So I hurriedly ran back to the ICU room because I am feeling something isn't right and then found out that papa was being rescued by the doctor and nurses inside, until they give up. I was looking at papa's ECG monitor, his heart beat and oxygen level slowly dropping (a very painful moment to recollect). We were crying and trying to call out for him to fight back and a cousin asked him to give a sign if he still wants to live. We were all stunned seeing the heart beat rate in the reading of the ECG monitor back to 100 rate from 30s, but then slowly dropping again. It hurts, but we need to accept it; his right time has come, the Creator's judgment.

While papa's lifeless body was sent to the morgue, we arranged our house for the wake. At 8 PM before his remains arrive at 9 PM, another big butterfly was on the tent outside our house - this I believed it was papa's spirit butterfly this time. Not a single word can explain the upstream feeling seeing your most beloved father in the coffin.

At  first I thought it was the same butterfly I saw in the hospital because they have similar size and color, but the design of their wings differs in the stripe.

This is the butterfly during papa's wake on the palm of my eldest son.
*The one in the hospital has a stripe identical to the red  paint.

As the days of the wake passing by, some of our relatives shared their experiences about the butterfly and we figured out that from the first night of the wake it was there and throughout the days. It roams around to my aunts (his siblings) houses until the last night. While the church members were making service, the butterfly at last enters our house and then positioned on our living room ceiling.

That night with our relatives, one of my cousins told us a somehow relieving story of her  2-year-old child, in the ICU. The child just sneaked a quick look inside the ICU room on papa's second day because he was not allowed to enter. A day after (papa's third day in the ICU) she took the child to Jollibee and out of the blue, the child told her to take out foods for tatay without knowing he just passed away. He told the child about tatay's condition but he insisted because he said he saw Jesus beside tatay yesterday holding his hand but with bars between Jesus and tatay. His mother couldn't believe what her son is saying so she asked for support to describe the Jesus he's talking about. The child simply said that it is a very big man, shining in a white dress, that's all.

For a 2 years old child, I believed him. His mother said that the child used to see ghostly/mysterious beings in their house and anyplace. In my curiosity, I check on the said child's eyes to see whether there's a mole inside, and indeed I confirmed. Based on the belief about moles exactly on the eyes, these individuals are gifted with third eye.

*About the bars between Jesus and papa mentioned by the child, I interpret this as resistance of papa. Jesus wants to take papa to heaven with him, while papa is still fighting back for his life and for us.

Amazingly, up to the day of my papa's funeral the butterfly continued to share his sympathy with us to the cemetery. :)

The image below shows the bizarre nature of this butterfly? As I stared at it, it gives me goosebumps. Take a look closely on its both wings and notice men's faces, with eyes closed, white on the tip of their nose, and white beard.

His struggle was our struggle too. The days were a great pain but we have to accept the fact that our life is not ours. When HE decides us to depart life, HIS words are invincible. Let's just be thankful for the chance HE allows us to be with the person we once loved and became our family in the temporary world. The truth!