DEAR ABBY: My stepmother was in a fatal car accident. She was very dear to me. A few days after the funeral, Dad told me the best way to handle grief is to clean house -- so we began cleaning house like crazy, stopping to cry every now and then.
We ran out of towels, so I went to fetch more from the guest bathroom where they are kept. Seeing a penny on the sink, I grabbed it and threw it in the wastebasket. (I wondered where it had come from because I hadn't noticed it there earlier in the day.) Suddenly, I remembered the letters in your column from people saying if you find a penny after you have lost a loved one, it means they are sending you a message of love from heaven.
I quickly reached into the wastebasket to retrieve the penny, praying that it was newly minted -- and it was! I showed it to Dad, explaining the significance, and we both had a good cry. We keep it in my stepmother's china cabinet to remind us that love is eternal.
To us, that penny is priceless. Thank you for running those "pennies from heaven" stories. -- READER IN CONNECTICUT
DEAR READER: You're welcome. To me your experience is priceless.