“Joan of Arc is alive and medium well.” My brother read this sentence out of a joke book. I was seven or eight years old. I stared at him blankly. “Funny, right?”
“I don’t get it.”
Exasperated: “Joan of Arc was a medium. They burned her at the stake. Get it? Cooked? Medium well?”
“What’s a medium?”
“Someone who communicates with the other world. The dead, stuff like that. Joan of Arc spoke with God.”
That Joan of Arc sentence has rattled around in my brain for the past fifty-five years. It popped out again immediately after Susan told me she was going to see a medium today with a group of friends. “Joan of Arc is alive…”
“WHAT?”
I asked, “What’s the difference between a psychic and a medium?”
She looked it up. “A medium channels the dead. Ooh, maybe I can speak with Abraham Lincoln.”
Me, putting on my best ghostly Abe Lincoln voice: “Susan, tell the good people of Gettysburg to stop obsessing over me. I didn’t even like the town when I visited there to make that speech.”
“Oh wait, it needs to be a loved one. I don’t think I want to talk with a dead relative.” She envisioned her mom coming to the fore: “Susan, tell your father I said to stop discussing the election with neighbors.”
She continued, “or maybe it will be your dad.”
“Ooh, ask him about ‘the mistake’!”
My father died seven weeks ago. For about thirty minutes just one day before he passed, my father enjoyed a bout of coherence. Susan, my father and I discussed a lot of topics during that half hour. I think it was great closure for all three of us. Suddenly, my father blurted out in an ominous tone “I made a mistake.”
Susan laughed. “Jerry, you don’t make mistakes.”
“I made a big mistake with the kids. Jeffrey…” and he trailed off.
“Dad, wait! What mistake?” He didn’t answer, and he never regained coherence again.
Does this sound like something from a movie? An interrupted death-bed confession, a subsequent visit to a medium? What will she learn? A hidden pot of gold coins? A secret adoption? A torrid affair? Someone switched at birth? Susan is with the medium now. I don’t honestly believe she will hear a revelation or speak with my father, but watch the comments section below for breaking news… just in case.
Photo by Gantas Vaičiulėnas
The Other Stuff 
If my father had said that to me before he died, I’d have been digging for dirt over the past 40 years!
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LOL. There’s no one to ask. It’s going to be a mystery. It couldn’t have been too bad a mistake. My brothers and I are all doing fine.
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The joke reminds me of the I Love Lucy episode where the have the seance. Fred says something like “Well done, Medium Rare”.
It’s bizarre the things that stick in the memory 😂
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I think my medium well sentence stuck because it was like a magic incantation. The words made no sense to me until my brother explained them. I haven’t really watched much I Love Lucy. Maybe I should give that a try.
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It reminds me of the joke:
What meat only comes in 2, 3, 5, or 7 ounce portions?
Prime rib… 😛
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I’m a fan of the 13 oz. portion.
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🤣🤣🤣 there’s always 17, too 😁
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I love this! I’m standing by for breaking news. This reminds me of many, many conversations in my mom’s family when I was a kid. Mediums, psychics. prophecies, past life readings, channeling gurus—the world I grew up in.
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Susan said the medium was extremely knowledgeable about all of the people (spirits) purported to come forward. My dad showed up. He didn’t address the mistake, but she found out that he seemingly reconciled with his sister, from whom he’s been estranged for 80 years.
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Wow! Gosh, you gotta find out what the mistake was. You should know for your own benefit, of course. But this whole scenario sounds like the foundation for a great book!
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Huh. That does sound like a good book. Are you going to write it or am I?
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You write it. I’ll provide feedback, support, and encouragement.
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I’m wary of mediums, even the rare ones
(boom boom)
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I’m really sorry, but I’m aghast that people believe hocus pocus. Religion or fortune telling, goodness me what century are we in?
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… the year
… maybe it’s only yesterday
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LOL! C’mon Bruce, don’t be such a buzz-kill. 😂 Actually, the ‘medium model’ does not work with my own personal afterlife belief system (which akin to the Buddhist/Hindu reincarnation). Still, Susan, not one given to such flights of fancy (and an actual Buddhist), said the whole thing seemed quite real. Of the four people there, three were convinced. The fourth didn’t seem to have any success at all. My business-minded take on it is if this is just a big scam, the medium could likely do something more lucrative with her hyper-perceptive abilities than wow a bunch of middle-aged ladies for an afternoon. Regardless, she had a really interesting afternoon with her friends, so it’s a win.
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I did enjoy the metaphysical teaser of your father’s incomplete utterance.
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I have been to some mediums/psychics over the years. A few were obviously not “well-connected” on the other side–so to speak. But a couple hit on things they could not have known. It is a belief system. It is the same with religion–some believe in God and/or angels, and others do not. People are free to believe or not believe whatever they wish. So, if a medium/psychic provides comfort to someone, I am not going to judge. BTW, great post!
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Thank you. I’m glad you liked it. After hearing Susan’s experience which was completely positive and a little astonishing, I’d like to go see the medium myself. She has a recording of the session. I’m itching to listen to it.
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yeah. that would drive me nuts.
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I had a reading from a spiritualist in my 20s when I was an atheist dope fiend. He told me I was Harriet Beecher Stowe in a former life.
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Oh, good for you! Is that when you became interested in writing?
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My thinking at the time was more like “of course. Because some day I’m going to be a published author too. “ took a while.
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