This beautiful angel in the picture is my daughter Jodie Lee. She entered my life on the 7th of the month of July and six years later she exited on an 7th of the month of August.

Her departure was tragic. She was hit by a car driven by a drunken driver speeding through a residential area where children were at play.

The impact shattered every bone in her body and put her in a coma but the doctors keep her alive for five days before urging her father and I to consent to remove life support. “She will never regain conciousness” they counseled. It was the only option.

Today she would have been an adult, and maybe a mother herself.

It’s been a long time since she made her transition but every year when it nears her birthday she finds a way to communicate with me in a distinctive and undeniable way; sometimes through a dream or a song or through both.

A couple of years ago I awoke on her birthday with  a tune in my head and the words “will you know my name if I see you in heaven”. The tune sounded familiar but the words didn’t and they both stuck in my head through the morning.

Later that day I met a friend for lunch and I started telling her about the tune and words that had been playing in my head. She got this weird look on her face and then she tells me the tune and words are from a song written by Eric Clapton called ‘Tears in Heaven’ inspired by the pain Clapton felt following the death of his four-year-old son, Conor, who fell from a window of the 53rd-floor New York apartment… WHOA!

Another time on July 7th I was walking through the grocery store when I saw this beautiful little girl holding on to her mom’s hand. She reminded me so much of Jodie that I could not take my eyes off her.

Suddenly she saw me looking at her. She let go of her mom’s hand and walked up to me. She stood there for a moment and then reached out and gave me (a perfect stranger) a hug after which she nonchalantly walked back to her mom who just like me stood there in total amazement. But I knew what had just happened and it made my day.

Jodie was what some people call ‘an old soul’ her life mission however brief was to bring joy, laughter and love into the life of everyone she met.

Last July she communicated with me through an inspiration. She inspired this video.