Kathryn Bertolino believes that her cousin, Nicole, periodically makes her presence known after her passing.
"This is a picture of me three days after I gave birth to my son Royce Joseph. Royce was 3-1/2 weeks early. Because of the medication I had been on during my pregnancy, the potential for him getting very sick was strong. However, he did not get sick at all and was able to come home after only two days in the hospital. My husband and I call him our miracle baby. The day after we came home, I decided to take him for a walk to see a few friends at a local coffee shop. The picture was taken by a good friend of mine. In the picture you can see the handle of my son's stroller, which he is sitting in, sleeping at the time. Once I received the picture from the developer, I looked and thought, 'Oh, what a nice picture,' but that was it. I didn't really look at it. That is until about two monthsago. The picture is now about two years old. I scanned the picture into my computer and enlarged it so that I could look at it better. That's when I saw it. In the picture, you can clearlysee a white mist that has formed to the right of me. My jaw dropped, and I knew what it was. The mist is my 22 year old cousin Nicole, who was more of a sister to me than my older sister. She lost her life due to the drunken negligence of her boyfriend of the time. He was speeding down a very narrow and treacherous back road when he took a corner too sharp and hit a large tree. That is when my 5 foot tall, 9 8pound cousin was thrown through the windshield and broke her neck. Her passing was extremely sudden and way to soon. The entire family was heart broken. We still feel a huge hole in all of us. I know that Nicole was there with me that day because I was a new mother, and I was nervous that my son would show signs of the sickness the doctors had told me would keep him in the hospital for weeks or months. Nicole was watching over me and my son that day. I know that from time to time she checks in with us to see how we are doing. It has been many years since my cousin has passed, and the pain is still very strong. Having this picture to look at makes me see that she might not be with me physically, but she is still here."