I Kissed a Ghost (and I Liked It)

by Concetta Bertoldi

  Then her mother said, “Tell her I know, that I heard what she said about the refrigerator.” I had no idea what that meant, but the woman and her daughters cracked up. She told me, “We were all saying, ‘What are we going to do now, without Grandma’s sauce?’ ” She meant her spaghetti sauce, or “red gravy” as we call it in New Jersey. She said, “We were all saying, ‘What are we gonna do? Nobody ever made it like Grandma!’ ” But then, happily enough, in her mother’s refrigerator freezer compartment she’d found a container of her mother’s red gravy.

  As I mentioned, the three of them loved hearing from their mother and grandmother, laughing along with the fun memories. But when it came to the sauce, they all started to cry—no doubt thinking about how much they were going to miss this funny lady and the great gravy she used to make.

  At another show, I was reading for a woman whose mother had passed away. During the reading I said, “You have something in your kitchen that your mother is asking me to mention. It’s not dishes—it seems like some kind of appliance, something you do something with.” I told her that her mother was saying something about this thing being “back.” The woman laughed and told me this story…

  When her mother passed, her father decided to downsize and move to Florida to live near one of his other children. He wanted to have a big garage sale to get rid of extra stuff. This woman, the daughter who lived near him, helped him with the sale, but wasn’t paying a lot of attention to what he put up for sale. So it wasn’t until afterward that she realized that among the sold items was—are you ready for this?—a spaghetti strainer. Apparently this strainer was her grandmother’s before it was her mother’s. It was, if you will, an “heirloom spaghetti strainer,” so it actually held meaning for her. She was really upset. She didn’t know who had bought it; it was just gone. Of course, this is one of life’s small tragedies that we just have to take a deep breath and let go of, but it still stung.

  Some little while later, the woman was invited to the home of a friend of a friend for some kind of gathering. In the course of the evening, she was in the hostess’s kitchen and her eye fell on a spaghetti strainer. She said, “Oh my God, that looks like my mother’s strainer!” The strainer had a particular dent in the pedestal. She was familiar with it—she’d handled it many, many times. She said she actually started to cry. She said to the hostess, “Where did you get this strainer?” And the woman told her she had bought it at a garage sale.

  The hostess was so taken by her grief, she said, “By all means, you must take the strainer. It means nothing to me.” And she was happy to give the woman this object that meant so much to her.

  Obviously, it’s not just us Italians who feel strongly about our food. I was chatting with a client before we got into her reading and she told me that her mother’s sisters all cooked, but now her aunts had all passed, and she had no recipes from anybody. The one thing she desperately wanted was a recipe for pierogies—those delicious filled dumplings from Poland. Her family had had a particular recipe that she’d always loved, but with her mother and aunts all gone, she had no way of finding out how they made them.

  During the reading, I told her that she was going to get something from Florida. She didn’t have any idea what it could be, so she just let it go and didn’t think much about it.

  Not four months later, I got a call from her, and she was all excited. She had gone to visit a relative in Florida, who told her, “You have some other relatives here, who knew your mother, but whom you’ve never met, and they want to meet you.”

  She was thrilled and said, “Oh, I’d love to meet them.”

  When they met, the relative said to her, “You know, years ago, your mother gave me a recipe for pierogies that I still make to this day.”

  She said, “What? Can you give me the recipe?” She got the recipe and it came from Florida, just as we’d learned during the reading. She said, “Concetta, to me, getting that recipe was like getting a million dollars.”

  Acknowledgments

  Stephany Evans, my dear friend and literary agent. I could not have done this book or many other things without YOU! Your talent and dedication are whole-heartedly appreciated. Thank you, my dear friend, I truly love you with all my heart.

  Ginger Grancagnolo. You have single-handedly brought me back to my faith, for which I will eternally thank you! You have enriched my life in so many ways; you are a teacher in immeasurable ways! I love you, dearest Tink!

  Elena Oswald. My sweet Elena Baby! It seems we have been at this for a very long time! Your contribution to my work and my life is teaching me that family never leaves you! I am so grateful you have hung in there with me! From the day I met you, I knew we would be together forever! I love you, my darling girl!

  Leanna Russo. Thank you Lee-lee for taking the job! Thank you for finding solutions we so desperately needed! You have come to mean very much to me! I wish you all the happiness in the world always!

  Jessica Bertoldi. We sure have come a long way! You’re the daughter from another mother I always wanted! Thank you for always being available to travel with me, to talk with, to laugh and cry! Your confidence in me has always brought me comfort and joy! I love you, daughter, forever!

  Debra Malanga. You’re the girlfriend everyone wants! A loyal and trusted friend! Thank you for your input in this book and for always being such a beautiful friend to me! I love you, girlfriend!

  Cornelia DiNunzio. A.k.a. Mushy! While you now reside in Florida, I still can count on you for help in so many ways, and you never let me down! I love you, baby!

  Madeline Krawse. Every time I need a print-out or help, you come to the rescue. I thank you so much! I love you!

  Debra Casha. Thank you for being so supportive to me, in my work and in my life. I love you!

  Joanne Candito. Thank you for always listening to and caring for me! You’re a great friend, and I love you!

  Antonio Barone. Thank you for so much! Doing the driveway when it is snow-covered, going way out of your way for both John and me: thank you for so many things. You have showed John and me so much love. We love you like a son!

  Leticia Peralta. My Darling friend, I will never forget the first time I met you. I knew we would be friends forever. You say I saved you, and I say we saved each other. Thank you for opening your beautiful home to me! I love you forever.

  Ila Blumrosen. My friend and manager. I adore you and will forever thank you for believing in me and taking me to my beloved Mexico. I love you!

  Talina Fernandez. My dear friend. You have always been very kind and generous to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you!

  My beloved Mendez family—Barbara, Louis, and family. I will forever carry you all in my heart. All of your generous acts of love will Never Be Forgotten. I love each and every one of you!

  The PPPs. You know who you are! My life is so LOVE-filled because of our times spent together! I cannot say enough how much I love each and every one of you.

  MY DEAR CLIENTS! I could talk forever about you—my heart is so filled with love for the many people I have met along my way of work. For the great difference you have all made in my life and the amazing love I have been shown by so many folks, I thank you all so very much!!!! I truly love and appreciate you all!

  My family and friends. I would like to mention by name each and every one of you, however that would be twenty pages, so let me say this: life would be empty without you all! I feel extremely lucky to have the people in my life that I have! I pray God allows me to continue doing what I do, with all of you by my side. I love you deeply forever.

  And last, but never least, thank you to Brenda Knight, my Mango editor, for believing in my new book. And thank you to Chris McKenney and ALL the Mango team for making this baby a reality!

  About the Author

  Psychic medium and New York Times bestselling author Concetta Bertoldi has been able to see the other side sinc
e childhood. Her first book Do Dead People Watch You Shower? And Other Questions You’ve Been All But Dying to Ask a Medium hit the New York Times bestseller list in 2008. She followed that success with a sequel Do Dead People Walk Their Dogs? Questions You’d Ask a Medium if You Had the Chance and Inside the Other Side: Soul Contracts, Life Lessons and How Dead People Help Us Between Here and Heaven. Her books have sold over 150,000 copies. She has a very long waiting list for private readings, and her clients range from members of Britain’s royal family to Hollywood celebrities, politicians, and everyone in between.

  Featured in such media as Time magazine and on The Early Show on CBS, she travels throughout the United States and Mexico doing live events that include psychic readings for standing-room-only crowds.

  She lives in New Jersey with her skeptical husband John.