How My Grandmother’s Spirit Let Me Know She’s Near

Listening for your loved ones

I’m sitting at a coffee shop, writing this post about the signs I’ve received from my Nanny leading up to her birthday this past Saturday, March 1. Right beside me, two girls are playing Gin Rummy—a card game she loved. The signs are signing.

If this is your first time here, hey, I’m Melissa—a professional trance medium, spiritual healer and mentor. Saying I work with the Spirit World feels like an understatement. I live, breathe, and co-exist with it. Since my near-death experience in October 2021, my perspective on this work has radically shifted. It’s deeper, clearer—just like my life post-trauma.

When I was between worlds, I felt the peace, the love, the freedom our loved ones in Spirit experience. I hope this brings you even a little ease. Grief is a beast. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that they want us to know they are well. We are the ones worrying and trying to fill the space they left behind.

I grew up with an unconventional grandmother. Born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, my Nanny taught me to be tough, to stand up for myself, to laugh harder than I cry, and to cultivate friendships that feel like family. Margaret Forgiorne—her given name—lived a difficult life, riddled with trauma beyond her control. Abuse, abandonment, becoming a young mom, and not finishing high school would have hardened a lot of people. And rightly so. But my Nanny was equal parts hard and soft—the kind of woman who kept a hammer in her nightstand for intruders, teaching me to do the same, (it’s still there, don’t fuck with me) and told me I was the prettiest girl in the room every chance she got.

If you were lucky enough to meet her, you’d never know the pain she carried. My niece called her "Funny Nanny"—her Pisces spirit overflowed with laughter, love, and a deep devotion to family and friends who felt like family. Like all of us, she was a flawed human. She loved to gossip, the phone ringing off the hook with, "Did you hear what she did?!" I see now how this was a point of connection for her. She was at the top of everyone’s telephone tree, and she loved it. Gossip was candy—she savored the sweetness of secrets.

To paint a clearer picture: my Nanny loved Mob Wives, especially Big Ang. She grew up among a motley crew of characters, including her father, who, according to her, went to prison for being a thief. She told me stories of guns hidden in her dolls, my great-grandmother delivering an Irish mobster’s baby upstairs, and being sent to a convent upstate with her twin sister when there wasn’t enough food for all the mouths in their Hell’s Kitchen apartment. Life was not sunny for my Nanny, but somehow, she still shined.

I didn’t realize until much later that it wasn’t normal for grandmothers to routinely visit psychic mediums to connect with their deceased twin. I have vivid memories of her replaying recordings of readings, crying for her sister, my Great Aunt Rose. My Nanny taught me what signs were—hummingbirds, cardinals, dimes, and pennies meant our loved ones in Spirit were saying hi. Everyone gifted her angel statues, wind chimes, and spiritual symbols. I thought this was the norm until I became a professional medium and realized the reverence for the Spirit World she passed down to me was rare. In a recent reading with a mentor, he said my mediumship was hereditary, passed down through my lineage—in retrospect, this is crystal clear.

I lived with her in 2017. I moved back to Long Island from Washington, DC after a breakup with a guy I thought I would marry. She took me in, like she did so many others, and I rebuilt my life in her spare room—which had once been my mother’s childhood bedroom. She loved Reiki, always asking me for healings. She had her own blend of religion and spirituality, declaring, "I believe in the Lord and everything you do, Melissa." She taught me that we can hold many beliefs at once—something the world at large is still learning.

Back to the signs. Why do loved ones in Spirit come through more clearly around birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays? Because our love and awareness of them grow stronger, creating a bridge for them to draw closer. Loving awareness is all we need to connect with the Spirit World. Years of development help in receiving evidential messages, but their power and presence are always available to us all.

I started hearing my Nanny more clearly last week. During a session with one of my spiritual teachers, my Pop-Pop showed up singing Happy Birthday to his wife. My grandparents had beautiful singing voices. Every year, my Nanny would call and sing Happy Birthday to me. People say they passed their voices down to me—I’m no Adele, but I can carry a tune.

Then, the signs became undeniable. I kept seeing my own birthday, 5/1/84, everywhere. She was pointing to my birthday as hers approached. A 51.51% open rate on my newsletters (proud of that, by the way), my Instagram community at 5,184 followers. Every day leading up to her birthday, the numbers found me. Could they be coincidences? Sure. But it’s the feeling these moments evoke—the love, the presence, the power—that moves them from coincidence to sacred synchronicity.

Maybe you've experienced something similar. A favorite song playing at just the right moment. A feather appearing when you needed reassurance. A number pattern that won’t leave you alone. Our loved ones in Spirit are always around us, nudging us, reminding us they are near. The more we acknowledge these signs, the more they come. So, I invite you to pay attention this week. Open your heart, trust what you feel, and let the signs find you. They are closer than you think.

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If you’d like to go deeper in this work, upgrade to a paid subscription to join our twice-monthly xo Spirit School Circles, where we sync with the energy of the full and new moon.

Our next circle is a mediumship demonstration on Monday, March 10, 2025, from 7-8 PM ET (recording emailed the next day). I will bring forth messages from loved ones in Spirit. While not everyone is guaranteed a 1:1 reading, the Spirit World knows who is present, and the messages shared will carry collective healing. Paid subscribers will receive an email this Friday, March 7, 2025, about how to best prepare for the group mediumship demonstration. I can’t wait to see you there!

I also have limited 1:1 session remaining for March—if you feel called, now is the time. Book here.

Thank you for being here and reading about my Nanny. May she guide us all.

xo,

Melissa