When The White Crane Calls - In the last year of my mother's life we brought her from Japan to come live with us in southern California. Each day she would get up have a small breakfast and go outside to take her daily walk.

She never ventured far, with hands folded behind her back, she slowly shuffle around the inside of the white coral fence of our yard.

She was elderly so she walked with a slight bent over posture from the back to the side yard.

I placed a concrete bench where she sat and smelled the orange blossoms. I often watched her from the upstairs bedroom window.

My mother's death left the family unsettled. My nephew claimed he had seen her one night, my felt a chill when I went in her room.

About a week after her passing I sat in my living room when my wife shouted for me to look outside.

There standing on the coral fence looking at us from outside into the living room window stood a large white crane. It hopped off the fence and began walking in the same direction that my mother took when she went on her walks. It went to the bench stopped and remained there for some time. It eventually took off and landed at the apex of my neighbor rooftop turned and faced my house. My wife and I stood watching the crane. It eventually turned facing away from us and flew west toward the ocean. It was a sign. Why because after the event there was a sense of peace. When my father passed away, within a week a white cane reappeared in the yard again. We have never seen a white crane before or after.

Some say white a white animal appears out of nowhere it is a bad omen. The white crane in Japanese culture represent long life, good luck and is said it comes to take souls to heaven.