Awakening (Lily Dale #1)(61)
Calla throws the frame onto the bed and moves toward the little jewelry box, her hands pressed over her ears as the music grows almost deafening.
Leaning over the box, she realizes that the watch she placed there earlier isn’t readily visible, as it should be. Instead, lying on top of the other jewelry in the box is a familiar object.
An emerald bracelet, caked in dried mud.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The spiritualist community of Lily Dale, New York, is a real place. Of course, I’ve fictionalized all of the characters in my book, as well as some community elements—for instance, there is no Lily Dale High School—and I’ve taken some creative liberties with other details. But the town itself is pretty much as I have described it: a quaint, isolated, gated Victorian community of ramshackle nineteenth-century homes clustered along the grassy shore of a picturesque country lake. Its residents are primarily spiritualists, some of whom are registered mediums and/or healers who advertise their calling on painted shingles hung above their doors.
I grew up a stone’s throw away in Dunkirk, the small city on Lake Erie visisted by Calla and Blue in this book. As teenagers, my friends and I frequently made the ten-minute drive during the summer “season” to Lily Dale, eager to consult with the psychic mediums who lived within its old-world iron gates. Unlike many visitors, we weren’t necessarily trying to get in touch with the dearly departed. No, back then, we were mainly concerned about our futures—and our love lives.
That said, I was definitely spooked whenever a spirit would pop up with a message for me—especially when the eerie messages made sense. How, I wondered, could a stranger possibly have known about any of that? I’d scribble notes during some sessions and run the identifying details by my parents and grandparents later. They often recognized the ghostly relatives who came through, even when I didn’t. Of course, they did their best to remain skeptical—especially my dad, whose motto in life is “I don’t believe it unless I see it.” Even he eventually got some spine-tingling evidence that there might just be something to the Lily Dale experience.
Very little has changed in “the Dale” over the past twenty-odd years since my first visit. The Victorian cottages are still ramshackle, the suggested “donation” per reading hasn’t inflated much, and the official season remains restricted to July and August, though some mediums are in residence year-round. Now that I’m an adult living the “future” I was once so curious about, I still find myself drawn to Lily Dale.
If you are too, you can check out the community’s official Web site at www.lilydaleassembly.com.
A PSYCHIC CHAT
WENDY CORSI STAUB was thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with Dr. Lauren Thibodeau, a registered medium in Lily Dale, New York. Dr. Thibodeau has been a registered medium with the Lily Dale Assembly since 1996.
WCS: Dr. Lauren, at what age, and how, did you first realize you were . . . is “gifted” the right word?
LT: I first showed signs of strong psychic ability as soon as I was able to speak, so about age two or so. My grandmother helped me by explaining that not everyone could see or hear what I could, but that I could always come to her with questions. Lucky Calla, though she might not feel that way all the time. I know it helped me to have an older person’s support and help, though.
WCS: It’s interesting that it was your grandmother who guided you, just as Calla’s grandmother helps her in the Lily Dale book series. I just finished reading When Ghosts Speak by Mary Ann Winkowski, and her grandmother did the same. Is this ability frequently handed down through older females in a family?
LT: I believe it’s like any other talent that runs in families. Musical talent, artistic talent, athletic talent, mechanical talent—lots of talents have a genetic component. This one is no different in that sense. And like any talent, developing it takes devotion and time.
WCS: My Sicilian grandma “sees” people who have passed, more frequently now that she’s approaching ninety, and now I and other females in my family have begun to sense we may be similarly gifted. I’ll also share that Grandma is a devout Catholic and doesn’t particularly like to discuss this “talent.”
LT: I have heard that kind of story often. And surprisingly, quite a number of modern Spiritualists have Catholic backgrounds. In fact, we have three former nuns and a couple of former priests living in Lily Dale. It tends to be a “female thing” much of the time. There is research suggesting that strong intuition is related to brain structure— that the two hemispheres, right and left, have more connecting nerve fibers in women. That means we are able to move between the creative right brain and the logical left brain more easily.
WCS: Does that explain, in part, why there are more female than male registered mediums in Lily Dale? I’ve always wondered about that!
LT: I think women are also more tuned in to relationships, generally speaking. We often hear it called “women’s intuition” and, although it may come more naturally to women, men certainly have it too.
WCS: Do male mediums work differently, then? Focus on different types of readings, perhaps, or in different areas of psychic work?
LT: It tends to follow your interest patterns and your life experience. If you are a man interested in cars, much of the information the spirit world sends would follow that. You might find you “get cars” a lot. As in, “I have a man here, he shows me a 1967 Buick . . .” to start off the identification process.