My family has always been very tight, so when my father was diagnosed with cancer, it affected my entire family. It was not just my father battling the disease; it was all of us. After almost a year of battle, my family lost. However, just because someone passes on does not mean he or she is truly gone. At times, he or she is still there watching over you.

I watched my father fight death till the very end on his final day on Earth. I was there while my father lay in his bed in a coma. After five hours of lying beside him, I watched as he suddenly awoke. Using all the strength he had, he softly yelled "kids!" as he yanked his arms up in the air. This was a miracle in itself, for my father had barely been able to raise his arm to feed himself. He then began yelling "Get off, get out!" while swinging his arms in the air; he was yelling at death. Then, sharply, Dad pounded his chest and was gone.

My father's main concern had always been his family; he always made sure we were safe and taken care of. Knowing this about my father, we were not surprised when things started happening that indicated that that he is still watching over us.

The first sign of this was a week after my father had passed away. Something had urged my mother to double check the messages on the answering machine. After listening to them again, she heard something she had missed the first time. In the middle of two messages, a weak voice came on. She replayed the message about ten times until she finally made out what the voice was saying: "Who's there?" The more we played the message, the more it began to sound like Dad. At first we thought we were just nuts, but two factors helped us believe otherwise. Every time Dad would call and get the answering machine he would say "Who's there? Isn't anybody home?" Also, we took the answering machine tape to my dad's best friend. His first response after hearing it was "Shit, that's Ed!"; Ed is my father's name. My family believes this was my dad's way of letting us know he is watching over us.

My family thought that was the end of it until this past June, a month after my father passed away. It was the day when several tornadoes hit southeast Iowa. I was in our basement with our hired farm hand, Robert. The power went off in the house, as well as in the basement. After I was downstairs for a few minutes, the light suddenly came on. The funny thing about it was, the light wasn't like it usually was. Instead of an ordinary yellow glow, it was a bright orange. It stayed on for a while and then went off. It repeated this for approximately a half-hour, during the heat of the storm. Then, once the worst was over, the light went off for good. Robert and I both felt it was my father watching over me. We know for a fact that the power never came on while we were in the basement because the water pump never kicked on until the rest of the power did.

During the same storm, my six-year-old nephew was shopping with his mother. The following day, he made a comment to my mom that made us believe my dad was with him that day, also. He had said, "While that big storm was going on, I felt Grandpa put his arms around me and hug me. Then he was gone because I couldn't feel him hugging me anymore. But I wasn't scared because I knew Grandpa was there with me."

Those few incidents were just the beginning. Since then, others have happened. One night I was lying beside my mother in her bed. I was having trouble sleeping and heard the bedroom door squeak. I then heard someone whisper "Shhhh!", as if he or she were just checking up on us. I was too scared to turn around, for fear I would see Dad standing there.

Not only has my dad been watching over us, but he has been taking care of the farm, also. Robert had been working on a project when he couldn't find a tool. Out of nowhere, he heard a voice yell, "You stupid kid, turn around!" Sure enough, there it was. It is not possible that Robert could've made the story up, because my dad always called him "the stupid kid" to us, never to him.

A few weeks later, Robert had woke in the middle of the night to the water running in his bathroom. He woke up and shut it off, wondering how it came on. The same thing happened the next night. On the third day, Robert discovered that he had left the water running on the farm. Dad always had to remind him to shut the water off, and that was his way of doing it from above.

My family and I have told different friends about these incidents. Some have agreed with us that it was my dad, while others have just called us nuts; they say that we have problems letting go and are just reading into things. Either way, my family will always believe in our hearts that it was my dad. He may be gone, but his angel is watching over us.