Talk to Me by Allison DuBois Page B

created, and confirmed what Allison was feeling. Irelynn was a unique little girl. Her speech when she was two was at a four-year-old’s level. She was such a great communicator.
    â€˜Your little girl says she picked me for your reading,’ Allison said. ‘So you were meant to be here. I don’t know if it’s because I have three daughters of my own, but she picked me for you.’
    With me knowing so little about Allison and her gift, that explained why I had been drawn there.
    â€˜She says she really loves her birthday and birthday cake. She wants you to celebrate her birthday. She says it’s a happy day.’
    At that point, I started crying really hard. Irelynn did love birthdays, no matter whose it was, and she always wanted to have a birthday cake for them, a pink one. So we’d let her make the cake for that person’s birthday and blow out the candles. Of course, I also crumbled because she passed away on her birthday.
    Allison looked at me and said, ‘I’m so sorry.’
    I could hear the crowd crying along with me, feeling for me. I was thinking to myself, ‘If all these people could have met my amazing little girl, they would definitely cherish every moment they have with their own kids and take nothing for granted. We had such a strong love for one another.’
    I remembered reading in Allison’s second book, We Are Their Heaven , about the unconditional love she has for her husband and girls that is so hard to explain. Well, I knew exactly what she meant. That is how I felt about Irelynn; how my father felt about Irelynn and me.
    Allison then went on to say, ‘She is telling me something about her hands.’
    I explained that I touched her hands a lot when she was sick.
    â€˜No, it’s something you have of her hands, like a handprint or impression. She wants you to touch that because she is touching you back.’
    I knew what Irelynn was referring to. Downstairs in my house I have a framed picture of her handprints that she did when she was in the hospital for many months.
    Allison continued, ‘She wants you to know that there’s going to be a cure . . . sometime in your lifetime. She’s telling me something about her face. She says her face is better now.’
    At the time I was a little confused by what she meant, and all I could relate it to was that Irelynn’s face became really pale when she got sick. But when I got home, I realised that she’d had nine teeth pulled out from the chemotherapy damaging them, and of course that would have made her face hurt.
    Several times during the reading Allison seemed amused while talking to Irelynn and I could understand why: she was a really funny kid. She was also very kind-hearted and it was no surprise when Allison said, ‘She wants you to give her toys away. She likes them, but she wants other kids to play with them now. She has new ones.’ I sat there crying, absolutely speechless: I had her favourite soft toy with me. Allison added, ‘She says to tell you “Merry Christmas”. She loves the gifts you got her, but don’t worry, she was given a bunch there.’ I knew Irelynn was talking about the presents I bought her for Christmas, which I never got the chance to give her.
    Allison described so many precious things about my daughter which no one except my family would know. But the last message that was given to me touched me more than I can explain: ‘She wants me to tell you that she loves you more .’
    Ever since Irelynn was a newborn baby, I had told her, ‘Mummy loves you more, and I loved you first.’
    As she got older, she would reply, ‘No-o-o-o, Mummy, I love you more, and first!’ It became a special exchange between us, and Irelynn always had this cute look on her face every time she said it.
    Hearing those words, I completely broke down. Allison asked me if she could give me a hug . . . it was something I really needed