Reviewed by Mitch Carmody —
If I were to recommend a movie to someone who is processing their loss, I would suggest “Rumors of Angels” with Vanessa Redgrave. This movie is based on the book, “Thy Son Liveth: Message From a Soldier to His Mother,” by Grace Duffie Boylan.
The story revolves around a young boy who two years prior had lost his mother in a car accident. He was with her in the car and she died in his arms at the scene. His father quickly remarried and they live in a small fishing village in New England. The father is gone a lot and the boy, who never accepted the stepmother, is angry with his father for getting married again.
The boy accidently breaks a fence belonging to neighbor, an old woman regarded as by the townsfolk as an eccentric. The two soon become friends. The old woman had lost her son in WW I. She shares the story of how her son and she used to communicate with flashing ship lights using Morse Code.
One night while her son was off in the North Pacific fighting the war, see saw some light signals coming from the rock where her son would flash light messages when he was home. She felt compelled to write them down and soon discovered it was message from her son. The message said: “The soul leaves the body like a school boy jumping out of the school room door with great joy and abandon.” A week later, she found out her son had been killed at the same time that she had received the message.
She shares with the boy a whole book of messages that she had received over the years from her son. When the boy’s father discovers the book, he forbids his son to see her again.
This further traumatizes this boy and breaks open the silence of unresolved grief that both father and son share.
Much healing then transpires with the boy and his father, leading to an inspirational ending. This is a powerful movie that validates that notion that the soul lives on beyond mortal death, that there is life after death on both sides of the veil.
Mitch Carmody lives in rural Minnesota with his wife of thirty years; he enjoys riding horses, gardening, writing, helping others, giving blood monthly and creating works of art. He is also a proud first-time grandfather to the daughter of their surviving daughter Meagan. To learn more about Mitch and his work, go to: www.HeartlightStudios.net.
Tags: grief, hope
