Athena made one of her cards in a heart shape and wrote: “Dear Grandma, I love you! I miss you. One day can you let me see you because I want to see you again? Remember how I much I cried in the funeral for you? I love you so much.” In another card she wrote, “If you come to my dreams try to tell me what you are doing. PLEASE!!!!” One day stand beside me and see if I can see you, PLEASE!!! I love you so much... Happy Birthday. When we all blow out the candles. I’ll try to say, “Let’s wait till grandma makes a wish before we blow it out.”

I cried for an hour after I read those– a real deep cry. After I released my tears we took the kids to pet horses, and then treated ourselves to get our nails done and back massages… at the same place I took my mom when she was “recovering.”

After that, I baked lasagna and bought an ice cream cake. We decided we’d play her music, tell stories about her, set a place for her at the table with her picture, and hold a séance to try to contact her.

We used a Ouija board that my mom had had for over 20 years; we figured it had her energy in it. The Ouija board concept dates back to the late 1800’s when the height of the spiritualist movement was a parlor game. It’s also become known as the “talking board.”

Some people believe the Ouija board is just a harmless game, others believe it is a dangerous tool. My mom told me that the Ouija board was a portal for spirits. We weren’t taking any chances. We all had seen the Exorcist and the last thing we wanted was to walk away possessed – kind of a party killer.

So, to ensure that only positive spirits, namely my mom would come through, we did what they call a cleansing of the board. We gathered around the table. There were eight of us, the four Mauro’s and the four Capo’s. We lit several white candles, and even a Mother Mary candle. We turned down the lights, held hands and said the 91st psalm. The 91st psalm is the protection prayer that my mom taught us when we were kids; it’s also the prayer I used to break the Guinness world record with and the prayer that is listed on her mass card. It’s very potent for our family.

Now we were ready to begin. If you are not familiar with the way the board works let me explain. All of participants place their fingertips lightly on the edge of a white plastic planchette.

The board has the words: Yes, No and Goodbye on it. The letters of the alphabet are also there, as well as numbers.

You ask questions then slowly the planchette begins to move seemingly on it’s own to answer or spell out the answers to the questions you asked… the point is you are NOT supposed to be trying to move it yourself. Some people believe that the board is controlled by the user’s subconscious mind, some believe it’s controlled by spirits, others believe it’s under the influence of demons. We were hoping on choices a or b.

We hadn’t written down any questions so we all took turns. Mainly myself, Spencer and my sister asked the questions, with the others chiming in now and then.

I started: “Ma is this you?”

“No”

I continued, “Please tell us who this is?”

The planchette showed the initials, “ F.C.” That was the initials of my dad, Frank Capo, you know from “Almost a Wise Guy” fame. Dad died in 1999. I spoke to him once through John Edwards, so it was cool he decided to contact us directly. Plus it was a lot cheaper.

Spencer wanted to confirm. “Grandpa is this you?”

“Yes”

My sister freaked out and took her hands off the board for a second. She held her head. “This is too much. I didn’t really expect it to move.”

I convinced her to put her fingers back on. We continued.
Spencer continued.

“Can we talk to grandma?”

“No”

I asked, “Can she see us?”

“Yes.”

At this point Spencer and I alternated questions.

“Can she answer the questions?”

“No”

“Does it take a lot of energy to answer these questions?”

“Yes.”

“Is that why she can’t talk to us?”

“Yes.”

“Can we talk to her in a month?”
“No.”

“In six months?”

“Yes.”

We all looked at each other… six months… that will be at the time of Spencer’s birthday in October. I remember a healer once telling me it takes time for spirits to get enough energy to be able to communicate between the two worlds. (After the séance, someone told me 6 months was the allotted time.)

We continued. At that point we then concentrated on asking him questions. We each wanted to ask questions that everyone didn’t know the answer to, so we could make sure no one was controlling the board.

“Grandpa what year did you die?

“1999”

“Dad, do you gamble in heaven?”

“Yes.”

“Do you always win?”

“Yes”

(Wow that really is heaven for my dad, who was always working on the latest gambling system.)

“Dad, do you get in trouble?”

“Yes.”

We all laughed. Some things never change.

“Was Ma with us in the intensive care room after she died?”
“No.”

(Man cant’ believe she made a quick exit! I guess she was happy to be out of the painful body and started zooming around.)

“Where you with Ma on the other side when she crossed over.

“No.”

(Great, I bet he was gambling… I could picture him now. “Rosie, I’ll be right there I have a great hand… playing against Jesus and Buddha and I’m winning… I’ll be there in a minute… besides we have all of eternity together.”)

“Mom said you contacted her four times while she was sick, squeezed her toes to let her know everything was going to be alright. Was that you?”

“Yes.”

“Grandpa are you with Grandma now?”

“Yes.”

“Does she know we are having a birthday party for her?”
“Yes.”

“Can we talk to her?”
“No.”
(Hey no harm in asking again.)

“Did she see Athena do her gymnastics competition?”

“Yes.”

Athena chimed in, “Are you happy in heaven?”
“Yes.”

Isabel asked, “Is it nice up there?”
“Yes.”

To break up the yes and no questions, my younger sister, Shahira asked:

“What is the initial of your youngest daughter?
He spelled out, “You.”

We all laughed, that fits right in with his sense of humor.
S
hahira was shocked…”Oh my God.”
I said, ‘No, right now its dad!”

She continued, “Daddy, What is the first letter of what you counterfeited?”

“M” (for Money)

Then she tried to sneak in, “Can mom talk to us?”

“No.”

(Well at least he is consistent.)

“Can she give us symbols?”

“Yes.”

I talked, “Has she visited everyone at this table in some form?”

“Yes.”

(Now some people told me they had seen my mom’s spirit already. I wanted to verify this?)

“Did Steve see mom when she passed?”

“Yes.”

“Did William see mom?”

“Yes.”

“Did Caesar see mom?”

“Yes.”

(Me, Shahira, Spencer and Athena have not seen my mom, and quite frankly we felt hurt that she hadn’t come to us yet. Some spiritual friends explained we were still grieving too much and have blocked the channels. Jeez there is a lot to doing this spiritual thing right! I need a plumber of spiritual pipes.)

“Do you and mom watch over us?”

“Yes.”

“Are you in angel form?”

“No.”

“Are you in spirit form?”

“Yes.”

Vanessa asked, “Are you and Rose happy how Spencer and Fran are living?”

“Yes.”

Then we asked some very personal questions. (Sorry guys I share a lot with you but some things are for family members only. I will say though that the answers were dead on, and very revealing.)

Then Spencer asked,

“How many minutes left do we have to talk to you?”

“2.”

“Can we speak to mom?”

“No.”

(Oh well, three strikes.)

Shahira wanted more initials.

“What was the name of your last girlfriend?”

He circled, “DE”. (Her name was DEE.)

William asked, “Have you seen Jesus?”
“Yes.”

Wanda said, “Is he hot?”

She whispered. “Sorry I just had to know.”

I asked, “Does the law of attraction work?
“Yes.”

Spencer said, “Thank you Grandpa we love you and grandma”

Then Dad started to spell out “G-O-D”

William said, ”He’s writing God Bless”

I said, “Well it’s either that or Goodbye. He never was a good speller.”

Spencer said, “Well Grandpa if you are trying to spell out goodbye the word is at the bottom of the board.”

With that the white planchette made a sharp U-turn, practically making all of us contort our fingers and dove straight to the bottom of the board to the word “Goodbye.”

We all looked at each other in amazement. There was silence.

Then we heard the water machine bubble and a slight knock by the refrigerator. I yelled out, “Mom is that you?” “Dad is that you?”

We all got a little freaked out… so we held hands and said the protection prayer again.

Six of us at the table, excluding my sister, and myself said they were light headed or had bad headaches. They say psychic energy does that. My sister however was detached, and I am used to concentrating on things like this a lot… so maybe we are affected differently.

With the lights still dim, we shared our feeling of the experience. We also wanted to make sure that no one was moving the board. We each swore we were touching it lightly.

My sister said she needed to calm down and wanted to go outside on my dark country porch and smoke a cigarette. She headed to the door and heard a slight knock. She put her face to the glass window to see if she could see anyone. A face stared back. She screamed LOUDLY and ran into the room. “AHHHHHHHH.”

“What? What?” We asked.

“Listen there’s a knock.” She said.

We were all quiet and heard a low steady knock. It was 11 o’clock at night. There was no reason for anyone to be up in our part of the woods at that hour… no one just drops by in our neighborhood.

Then the kids screamed. My sister screamed again. Spencer and William went to grab bats.

Then we heard a faint voice. “It’s me Agron! Stop screaming. I called, all your cell phones were off!”

We all laughed relieved.
“You scared the hell out of us!”

Then we thought about it,” Wonder if dad set that up. If so that would have been a very fitting ending, since he loved practical jokes.”

We all slept with the lights on that night.

Happy Birthday Mom.

Talk to you in six months!