I encountered my first spiritual connection just before I turned 14. While walking home one evening from a part-time job, I saw a purple haze forming in front of me and my grandmother's face appeared. Her smile, no longer twisted from a stroke she suffered many years earlier, radiated a sense of calm and peace.
At that moment I knew she had passed away. Although I was aware of the spiritual world, this was my first contact with my own deceased loved one and validation that there is “life” afterlife.