When Life Hands Us Lemons

My Time in Kittery and Freeport, Maine

I can’t believe how Spirit has turned me into Santa Claus.

Not only am I hosting large group events, but I’m doing so where I’m giving away gifts to a specific set of audience members. In April, I was in Maine for three events, and last week, I talked about my first one, which was in Gorham, Maine.

In this post, I’ll document my events in Kittery and Freeport, Maine, on April 25th and 26th, respectively.

I was able to give away many gifts, and Spirit touched many hearts as I did so.

Kittery, Maine - Friday, April 25th, 2025

The Star Theatre is a great, wide-open space, perfect for the event that I was planning. This event had a TON of different food items, so I spent a lot of time in the grocery stores on this trip. There were even items that I was supposed to get, that I wasn’t able to find…

The Opener

As it happens with these events, I’ll have an opener of sorts that comes forth while I’m getting ready. These are souls not connected to gifts, though everyone does get a four-leaf clover charm from me. The woman that I was to call on had recently lost her puppers to spirit, and her grandmother was there with her dog.

A woman came forth, whose grandmother loved animals, and upon hearing me talk about a porch swing and the soft velvet of her fur, she came down and enjoyed a reading, as I worked with her friends up in the audience.

The Babysitter

The first spirit connected to the gifts was a babysitter, who turned out to be an Aunt, who watched her nieces and nephews during the 80s. I knew this because I had to get a particular set of groceries. First, I had to get the ingredients for a classic bologna sandwich, including Miracle Whip and American cheese.

Cracker Jacks was the one item I couldn’t find, and I forgot to order online. The woman whose Aunt used to watch them was a big fan of Cracker Jacks, and it became a joke between us. Because I couldn’t get her Cracker Jacks, I got her Jiffy Pop popcorn and Animal Crackers - classic 80s treats.

She ended up letting us all know there was a food shelf there in the community center, and she was going to leave all her goodies there. She would, however, take the Etch-a-Sketch that her Aunt wanted her to have, a reminder of simpler, more joy-filled times.

The Mom who Loved Kahlua

The next spirit was strange, as was the first gift of this batch. As I was coming up with gifts, I kept hearing “sandpiper,” and not knowing how or why a sandpiper bird would be connected to anyone, I searched online for one. I came up with a sandpiper cat toy, and this gift was part of another two gifts: a bottle of Kahlua and a Tweety bird shirt.

When I mentioned the sandpiper toy, a woman raised her hand to tell me that her and her husband’s last name was “Piper.” How would this make sense with the other gifts? When I took out the bottle of Kahlua, her husband began crying, and he lost it when I held up the Tweety shirt. His mom loved Kahlua, and the sister he still had in life loved Tweety - and the shirt became a gift for her.

The Grouch

Next up, the Grouch. His gifts included an Oscar the Grouch stuffie, representing his grouchiness. He was there looking for his daughter, and the gifts included a pack of Jello, a funny set of chomping teeth, and a box of toy bricks that were a type of Lego.

The daughter who raised her hand came down from the audience after we put the pieces together. Her dad was a “grouch,” loved to mess with his dentures in a funny way, and all he wanted to eat at the end was Jello cups.

We laughed and laughed about their time together. The bricks symbolized him being a Mason, but not a brick-laying mason, but an actual Freemason. The bricks were very “click-clacky,” as the woman needed something tactile to play with as she sat at her desk on the phone at work.

The Weird Ingredient

The following gifts were all the ingredients for tomato sauce, a bottle of Dawn dish detergent, and a lilac candle. The strange part of this process is that I knew there would be a strange ingredient for the sauce, and I kept hearing in my mind “carob wax,” but that was it…so I got the only peculiar ingredient I knew to be added to spaghetti sauce: sugar.

A woman raised her hand, her family from Naples. The strange ingredient wasn’t sugar, nor was it “carob wax.” It was a CARROT! Her family made “gravy” and sweetened it by putting a whole carrot in the sauce.

Her deceased sister loved lilacs and often burned candles. She and her family had a house on a lake and would wash their dogs in the lake using Dawn dish detergent. She told me she knew it was suitable for animals and non-toxic to the water because of all the oil slicks that happened decades ago, and how people used to wash animals with it.

She also got a copy of our book, “Love Leftover: Recipes of Love from our Dearly Departed.”

The Cookie Business

The next set of gifts was all the ingredients for peanut butter cookies and a book on how to start a cookie business. The final gifts were of a stuffed Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, though it was the Ernie that was important. I couldn’t find an Ernie without getting a Bert.

I knew this woman would want to start a cookie business and would have her mom’s peanut butter cookie recipe. The woman who raised her hand and joined me from the audience had all of that, and her mom loved Ernie from Sesame Street.

Not only that, but she also had an Uncle Bert. This woman also donated all her food stuff to the community pantry!

Brace Yourself

The next gifts were a strange combination of items. A Smurfette figurine, a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, a sunflower dress, and a pin that said “BRACE YOURSELF.”

When I said “Brace Yourself,” a woman guffawed with laughter. This, come to find out, represented her son so well, the one she lost to death, and for whom people would have to brace themselves when he entered a room. Smurfette was his favorite, and sunflowers were hers.

However, another woman almost got this reading because of a sunflower connection and her love for cinnamon raisin bread. They had a lot of similarities, but this last reading was for the mom who lost her son. I gave the other woman the loaf of bread, and I love the strange synchronicities that pop up like that!

All in all, SO MUCH food, and so much love!

Freeport, Maine - Saturday, April 26th, 2025

The next venue wasn’t a theater, but a home that this lovely couple converted into an event space and musical venue. The Ground Floor in Freeport, Maine, was an excellent place for an intimate evening of gift-giving!

The space was small, so it was easily sold out. I had a great time getting ready upstairs in the green room, and I can’t wait to return!

The Opener

Of course, as I was getting ready in the green room, the “opening” spirit came to me. A sister who knew her decisions left her family angry. As I was upstairs, the sister kept playing the song from Beaches, the 1980s movie, in my head. Bette Midler's “The Wind Beneath My Wings” is a somber ballad of loss and cancer. The sister had lost her life to cancer, after beating it twice, and had made many decisions during her life that would leave her sister here angry.

The sister in spirit was grateful to her sister for overcoming her anger, as that brought her peace in the world of Spirit. Her sister, still alive, confirmed that her mother played that song from Beaches during her funeral.

She Owned a Dalmation

The next woman - the first gift recipient - had a bevy of spirits come through, including a dalmatian!

She also had several father figures in spirit - one who loved gingersnaps, and another who loved guitars and music. From the messages coming forth, about her starting over and “knocking it out of the park,” it was easy to decipher that she was recently divorced and starting over in life.

“I’m Right Here”

A woman had taken care of her twin brother for their entire life, and she described him as “special needs.” He loved music, and I was supposed to get a rock concert t-shirt she could use for pajamas.

Little did I know she recently wore his rock concert t-shirts as pajamas. The E.T. doll had special meaning for her, as she would always take his hand and hold it to her chest, to remind him that she was “always right here,” just like Elliott did with E.T. in the iconic movie from the 1980s.

The Rubik's Cube was a message she couldn’t put together, yet she was sitting next to a woman she became fast friends with, someone who was also from the 80s and loved to fidget. As far as I know, those two women should be having dinner and coffee with one another, and the Rubik’s Cube became a gift for her.

When Life Hands You Lemons

The next set of gifts - a lemon zester, a lemon, and a set of lollipop molds - were for a woman who was known for her baking and was being encouraged to start up a little business.

This became a tough reading for the crowd, as the woman told us she and her husband had to “pull the plug” on their 46-year-old son. Later, her husband would take his own life. She was being encouraged to live as much as possible, and to bring her love to the world through her baking and candy. She had so much love to give, even when she’d experienced the worst events a human being could endure.

She was especially known for her lemon bars, and we quickly determined that if life hands us lemons….

We should make lemon bars.

The Easter Mommy

Next, a woman in Spirit who loved Easter Peeps, the marshmallow candies. She also loved Reese's Peanut Butter eggs, and needed me to bring a blanket.

This woman came through so powerfully for her two daughters, sitting in the front row. She was glad they were getting along again and wanted me to give her cold daughter that special fleece blanket. We talked about health and taking care of ourselves for our loved ones here. They left with much to think about, most especially about taking care of themselves as they moved through life. Their peace was the peace of everyone they loved, both living and in spirit.

The Native’s Wife

The last set of items was a unique combo.

I had to get Canoe Indians of Downeast Maine and a hiking guide. This would be coming from a husband who also carried a Swiss Army Knife, but he didn’t want me to get that, but a different tool.

The woman who raised her hand let me know that her husband was a Native from Maine, and he had many books on building his canoes. They hiked a great deal together, but this woman was on a cane. Why would he want her to have a hiking guide?

So she could at least enjoy the mountains via the book she had never had a chance to hike on. They spent many years camping and hiking together, but their time wasn’t over.

The multi-tool he had me get for her was one that encouraged her to go camping again, as much as she could. He knew it would be one of the best ways to help her live a long, happy life.

He’d always be with her, no matter where she went.

What an incredible event with so many wonderful stories and heartfelt connections! No matter what, our loved ones in Spirit are always with us, watching over and guiding us as best they can. They know we’ll be handed lemons from time to time.

And they want us to make lemon squares out of them, however we can.