You Got Albert

In summer 2010, a few months after Dave’s death, his sister Stephanie and his friend went to visit a psychic medium in some small hick town near Albany, NY.  When they met him, neither Steph nor Dave’s friend used their last name.  Steph’s name had been all over the news, as her brothers’ death\murder was the hot story from Buffalo to Albany.

 The psychic immediately commented to them that Dave had accompanied them on the trip, having sat in the backseat.  He then said that.

Dave’s chest was hurting (he was shot in the chest with shotgun).  He had no way of knowing this, as he didn’t know who Steph was.  The psychic then went into great detail about the night he died, about where he had been hanging out earlier, and details of his killer’s house.  Weird shit that not even Steph knew much of this, but it was all confirmed later.  None of us knew what happened in the half-hour or so before Dave died, as there was only two living witnesses- the killer and his wife.  This is another story entirely so I’ll tell u that later if u want.  He went on and on about Dave’s murder and the actions his loved ones have taken in his honor.  All correct! 

The last thing this psychic mentioned was the importance of a cardinal.  Neither Steph nor her companion knew anything about this.  They talked about his mysterious last comment the whole way back to Albany.  They were still unable to put any substance to this odd claim.  However, when they stopped in to see Dave’s widow in Albany, Deanna, everything changed. 

Deanna had spent the day cleaning out her basement.  She had no idea Steph had went to psychic.  Steph began telling Deanna the story about how accurate the medium was.  She explained how the reference to a cardinal was the only thing he missed.  Upon hearing about the cardinal Deanna dropped her drink and began balling harder than she had in her whole life, other than the day after Dave died.

After regaining composure, Deanna said that, earlier that day, while she was cleaning basement, a noise behind her startled her greatly.  She turned to see a cardinal, perched outside the basement window, staring at her.  It remained for several minutes before flying off.  It was the first time she had ever seen a cardinal in real life.

Dave's chosen medium for communicating.

Then, that Christmas, Deanna was given a homemade Christmas ornament by her boss at work.  The ornament was of a cardinal.  Her boss had no idea about the cardinal reference or the basement sighting.  It was just given to her without knowing its significance.

At around the same time, in Old Forge (Dave’s hometown), Steph was home for the holidays with her family.  She was helping her mother go through some of Dave’s old drawings and assignments from grade school.  During this venture, Steph came across a drawing Dave did in 7th grade.  The drawing was a picture of three different birds:  An owl, a falcon and a cardinal. Oddly, I had chosen owl and falcon as two of the birds I wanted displayed on my tattoo.  Only one I was wrong on was the cardinal (I initially wanted a Dove instead of cardinal).

Deanna went back and forth with the people hired to make Dave’s tombstone.    She instructed them that she wanted it to have an Adirondack Backdrop, with pine trees and “maybe a few birds”.  She never told them what kind of bird, just that she wanted birds.

When tombstone was delivered, its décor included a large tree in the background.  Perched on two of the branches of this tree were…cardinals.  This is an extremely random inclusion.  Cardinals are rare in NY (I’ve seen maybe 3, ever).  If anything, the tombstone makers should have included Robins on tablet, as they are the NY state bird.   On tombstone, the Robins sit, looking out at whoever visits the gravesite.

Lastly, and most freaky…Dave’s last words to me were “You got Albert”.  It was a text he sent me in reply to my message, in which I asked him who I got with my first pick in our fantasy baseball draft, which I had missed.  Dave’s response, referring to Albert Pujols, seemed insignificant and a letdown for last remarks made in such a long, memorable friendship.  When I heard Steph’s story, everything changed, and I started shaking.

Albert Pujols was on the Cardinals at the time.  Even more weird and spiritual is the name of his new team…The Angels!  Also, the Cardinals came out of nowhere to win World Series last year.

There are even more cardinal references that Slept either can’t remember or I forgot.  It’s far beyond amazing and coincidental flew out the window a long time ago.

I immediately called my tattoo artist and switched the dove for the cardinal.  It was a no-brainer.  It’s so perfect and fate at work that the name of the place I got my tattoo at was “Three Birds”.

The two Cardinals appear in branches of tree on left in bg

Dave's beautiful headstone.