Ep. 64 “Danny’s Day in Heaven” How to Have a Conversation with Your Child About Death and the Afterlife

My guest on this episode is author and award-winning artist, Marie Antoinette Kelley. Her recently published children’s book, “Danny’s Day in Heaven” with the afterword by Dannion Brinkley, author of "Saved by the Light", is the first children's book of its kind. It teaches parents how to start the conversation with their children about death and the afterlife and that it is not something to fear. But rather that our loved ones are never gone, as evidenced by both science and the messages and teachings of people who have experienced near death and share what the afterlife is like.

"Danny's Day in Heaven" is both written and illustrated by Marie Antoinette, who  has commissioned hundreds of portraits, as well as the art for the Angel Quest Oracle. She has appeared on multiple TV, radio, and podcast shows, and been published in magazines, including Edge and Authority.  In 2019, Marie Antoinette's bison portrait in the form of woven blankets began selling throughout Yellowstone National Park’s general stores.

Please join us in this compelling conversation that inspires all of us  to reconsider death, the afterlife and the ways in which we can connect more deeply to Spirit and our loved ones on the other side.

TIMESTAMP:
Grief, death, and the afterlife with author and artist Marie Antoinette Kelly. (0:00)
Death, near-death experiences, and the afterlife. (1:19)
Grief, death, and the afterlife. (7:36)
Life after death and spirituality. (10:38)
Mediumship, portraits, and grief healing. (16:38)
Near-death experiences and their validity. (21:48)
Near-death experiences and spirituality. (26:57)
Grief, death, and spirituality. (34:27)
Death, spirituality, and connecting with loved ones. (39:26)
Portraits, mediumship, and connecting with the dead. (46:05)
Grief, loss, and afterlife with a medium. (50:10)
Intuition, spirituality, and enlightenment for parents and children. (55:31)
Danny’s Day in Heaven children’s book about the afterlife. (1:00:39)

Connect with Marie Antoinette:
Website

Connect with Vonne:
Website

Mentions:
Dannion Brinkley "Saved by the Light"

P. M .H. Atwater (Authority on near-death states)

Dr. John Lerma (Books)
"Into the Light" and "Learning from the Light"

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Transcript

Vonne Solis  0:00  
Welcome to another episode of Grief Talk. Everything you want to know about grief and more. I'm your host, Vonne Solis. As an author, mentor and bereaved mom since 2005, through guest interviews and coaching, here's where you'll always get great content that is inspiring and practical to help you heal after loss. 

Vonne Solis  0:21  
Today's guest is Marie Antoinette Kelly. An author and award winning artist who has done hundreds of commissioned portraits, as well as the art for the angel quest Oracle. She has appeared on multiple TV, radio and podcast shows and been published in magazines. In 2019, Marie Antoinette bison portrait in the form of woven blankets began selling throughout Yellowstone National Parks general stores. As an author Marie Antoinette's recently published children's book, Danny's Day in Heaven, teaches parents how to start the conversation with their children about death. And that it is not something to fear, but rather our loved ones are never gone, as evidenced by the messages and teachings of people who have experienced near death and share what the afterlife is like. 

Vonne Solis  1:07  
Okay, so welcome to the show, Marie Antoinette. I am so grateful that you have agreed to come on my podcast and I've been really excited to talk with you today.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:19  
Thanks, Vonne. It's so exciting to meet you. I'm really happy to be here. 

Vonne Solis  1:23  
Yes. So for my audience, this is the first time Marie Antoinette and I are actually meeting. But the topics that we're going to be covering today are going to interest you if you are curious about the afterlife. Marie Antoinette, as an author is here on my podcast today, talking about her newly released book Danny's Day in Heaven. And I'm going to be getting to that right away with Marie Antoinette. So she can tell us what it's all about. We're going to talk a little bit about your art in a bit, because I did go to your website. All of your portraiture is absolutely gorgeous, but I especially love the ones that you express, soul and stuff through various ways and I saw it immediately in the eyes and stuff, but we're gonna get to that audience. I don't want to detract. 

Vonne Solis  2:12  
So today, we for the audience, just so you can stick around, we are going to be talking about the value of understanding death. That it is not the end of life. We're going to be talking about messages from people who have had near death experience and dare I say, to prove this. And we are going to be talking about how people can find inspiration to share with their children, which I believe all of that is encompassed in your book, Danny's Day in Heaven. 

Vonne Solis  2:46  
So I'm going to turn it over to you, Marie Antoinette, if you could give us a little synopsis of the book. First of all, it is a children's book. It is probably one of the first few on death, the afterlife for children. I'd love to know why you wrote it. And then and then a synopsis of the book in whichever order you want to start with. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  3:07  
Okay, yes, you're right Vonne. It is the first illustrated children's book on the topic because it is tackling what happens when we die head on. And the reason I got into that is because it's a long story from me. But in a short couple of short sentences. As a child, I was very worried about death and what it would do and what it would take and how I would be left in the black hole without the people that I loved. And that fear was strong for me until I was an adult when I found the stories of near death survivors. And you know, all those stories opened up such a world. The main one being the one of Dannion Brinkley, who is my friend. And he wrote a story called Saved by the Light that is based on his near death experience. He had one of the most complete on record. He was dead for 32 minutes and then was resuscitated. Well, actually came back into his body when they were wheeling him to the ward. And so that story is recorded in Saved by the Light. It even became a movie. A Hallmark movie starring Eric Roberts, the brother Julia. And, again, all these stories as comforting as they are about showing us that life goes on after death, they were all written for adults. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  4:16  
And then combining that with the information that I was a child who really would have benefited from the reassurance that not just in a faith based context of like, you know, the traditions of your family. We were raised Catholic, for example, but but actually the way it's coming out now and the science. Because you know, the medical science is so precise now that a lot of people actually recover from, you know, deadly circumstances and have these stories to come back. Their near death experiences when they come back. And so that information I felt was really important for children to know. 

Vonne Solis  4:52  
Mm hmm. So tell us a little bit about I don't want to give the book away but just a really, and I looked a little bit on Amazon about it and I did see the word bully. And I was like, okay. So, so this is going to be packed with lessons, I'm pretty sure. So can, yeah so just to sort of entice us a little bit. Who's Danny and what happens?

Marie Antoinette Kelly  5:14  
Well the character is based, it is a character that's adapted from the story of Dannion Brinkley, but not exactly his story. It is based on the common elements that happened to him in his near death experience. As well as these people that have now a growing body of evidence of the overlapping elements that people experience when they die. So these things are, you know, the the life review, stepping into the light that is overwhelmingly unconditionally supportive and loving. Meeting a guide. Having a meeting with your loved ones, or pets that have already passed, and then you meeting them again in the spirit realm. So those elements are all in there. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  5:52  
One distinct ingredient that I borrowed from Dannion's story is that he himself was a self-pronounced bad guy. He really was very selfish before he had this near death experience. And he said, If he was raised in the Bible Belt, and he said, if anyone was deserving of going to hell it would have been him. And yet, he's still in his near death experience, discovered that he went into the light with that lesson of the power of love in his heart and the fact that he's a mighty spiritual being, having a human experience. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  6:23  
So I wanted to, of course, in child terms, I wanted to translate that. So the character 12-year old Danny is a bully, for that same reason. Knowing that it's touching on the topic, then you can, of course, have discussions with your children on afterwards that you don't have to be good to earn your way into heaven or into the light. You want to be good just because you want to share the beauty of your heart's love and it's what you can create with that. But that's an incentive for yourself rather than a system of rewards and punishments. And so that ingredient touches on that idea. That the supportive spirit is unconditional. And it's love that is the other side of our physical experience. But it is something that everybody gets a chance at. And then you grow through the life review, seeing how you participated in the miracle of your own life, and the power of your own creating and co-creating with God. With the Divine, you get to see what you've done with it. And then from then as your eyes are opened to what you're capable of. People that have a near death experience and touch that light, they want to do more. They want to love more and more deeply. And that's the message of the book.

Vonne Solis  7:36  
So here's what fascinates me about, about you. Is that already from a child, you were worried about death. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  7:44  
Yeah. I thought that was a normal thing. But having asked a lot of people now with this topic, there's a lot of people that never even think about death. So I realized it was a unique experience for me, death.

Vonne Solis  7:56  
Yeah, but I'm gonna throw in here. So a lot of bereaved parents, so for my audience who don't know me. I lost my 22 year old daughter to suicide in 2005. So I believed in abstract terms about the afterlife, and had a spiritual practice at that point for 23 years. Okay, so you have a spiritual practice. Obviously, looking at metaphysics, which is more than the physical. Where'd we come from? All that stuff. Not going to get into it here. But the the whole testing of the notion of the afterlife, as discussed and I think Raymond Moody's book, Life After Life. I knew about that stuff. And it was just kind of Oh, interesting. But when my daughter Janaya died, okay, so the afterlife just took on a completely different meaning for me, and I needed proof. And every parent I've ever met, basically, whether they admit it or not, they want proof that their child and even in the cases of spouses and so on, most of us want proof that our loved one is okay when they've left us. Hands down. Doesn't even have to be a child. But I will say it is possible that losing a child makes us more desperate for this proof. 

Vonne Solis  7:59  
So you'll find many bereaved parents going to mediums. Actually even getting messages from their children. Which does give them peace, contentment, and it does help us I am absolutely not going to say the word heal here, but it helps us accept that and be in our grief with just a tiny, teensy weensy bit more comfort that they're okay. And that they're not alone. And this is another big piece is we want to know that our loved one didn't cross alone, because almost all deaths, not all of them, but a lot of them the person is entirely physically alone when it happens. And that is true of suicide, by the way, folks. So no one commits suicide in front of a person. 

Vonne Solis  9:59  
So it's natural to be very, very upset that you don't know where your child is, and you don't know if they're alone. And, and there have been authors, even mediums, especially a lot of mediums actually are, come from a Catholic background and have been raised on heaven and hell. And some of them have espoused in books, and I'm not going to name anybody, but it was around the time my daughter died, and I was, you know, looking for all kinds of any book, I could get my hand on around the afterlife and stuff like that. And there was this notion that if you commit suicide, that's it. You're, you're in hell. And that really upset me. And this one particular person who espoused this later changed their messaging and understood it to be different. And that is to follow up on what you've just said. You don't have to earn your way into the light. Into goodness. It's lovely, if you can find it in the physical incarnation.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  11:01  
Yes.

Vonne Solis  11:02  
But if you can't, all will be forgiven upon the review. And wherever you go next in the afterlife.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  11:09  
That's one of the most beautiful lessons that I learned too, because you know, these as students of metaphysical and the language of God, we all kind of search for that validation, I think. The one I grew into understanding is these people that come back, including my own experiences on the other side is that forgiveness is really mostly required from yourself to yourself. Because the support of God, of the Divine of Spirit is so unconditional. And it's so overwhelmingly light and loving, that it is a healing, it's a healing matrix that you could step into to support yourself. And that when you understand the power from this perspective of seeing yourself supported by the other side, rather than having to earn access to the other side, 

Vonne Solis  11:54  
Yes.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  11:55  
you begin to unfold in a way that relaxes you about who you are and what you can do while you're living. While you have a life here. That's that's a secondary message of this book.

Vonne Solis  12:05  
Just thinking about empowering children from very young ages with this knowledge. I read that you're a parent.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  12:12  
 I have three kids. Yeah, two daughters and a son. And I have two grandkids now.

Vonne Solis  12:15  
Oh, okay. So lots of children. So was that one of your primary motivations for wanting to write this book and inspire parents to start the conversation? Why is that important for you? 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  12:31  
Yeah, absolutely. Because, well, it's funny, you asked that, because the story is actually been a long time coming. My friendship with Dannion started in the 90s. And at that point, my two girls, my son is 10 years younger than them. So he wasn't born yet. And my two girls were young, and that they were the initial motivation, because I was comparing what they were going through with what I went through at that age. And I really felt the natural inspiration of knowing that we have, we have this opportunity to live and create and share our lifetimes with each other. But there is a context. We do go on, after we die like energy. We're neither created nor destroyed. We transform into light, love and consciousness. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  13:13  
And so I raised my kids with that idea. And I thought that is initially what I came to write this children's book for but it's funny how at that time, because this is the late 90s that I started the initial project here. At that time, I was simply telling the story of others who have had a near death experience. You know, Dannion, and Betty Eadie, and you know, the people that have written good books about this, and, and created the picture of the continuum of life. But it was still outside of myself. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  13:13  
And so I realized that the path didn't actually open because the book is only now published. And so I kept having to learn something. I feel like I was being guided from within to learn the lessons of what I was conveying in this book myself. So that it wasn't a story that I was narrating for other people. But I had actually touched on the truth myself so that I could share with kids undeniable truth that life goes on rather than Oh, I heard it say and we must all believe. It's not a matter of believing at this point. Of course, you believe your own truth and your insights and your own context world, because that's a very subjective path. Your own spirituality. But the very foundation of life goes on after we die is true. And I know that knowing my being because my life took me on that journey.

Vonne Solis  14:35  
Is there anything you want to share about that journey? 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  14:38  
Well, you know, several things. The two sides actually, they're both big stories. So I'll pick the first one that's in my artwork. I became at that point, I was still a mom. I had been a science student. I'd gone deep into science. I'd won some national awards, and I felt guilty until that time that I didn't actually take my talent in science to, in that direction because I dropped out of school after I got those national awards to just be a mom. And I was still confused about what I should do with my life until my neighbour moved. And my neighbor gave me a video cassette that said, Yes, You Can Draw. And she said, Here, would you like to teach that to your kids? I said, sure thing. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  15:15  
And I looked at that line, and I didn't ever show it to my kids and never watched it myself. That, that line Yes, You Could Draw reminded me that I used to draw a lot as a teenager. And it made me pick up a pencil. And that's in essence, how it how this will pop artist path opened up for me. I discovered that I was good at portraits. And, and I started creating them. But doing the portraits because it just filtered out of me rather than came from a place of training, it touched the language of my soul very much. And it, in that I also, since it's a right brain activity, the pain people, I started to discover long story short, that as I draw people, especially people that are passed away, I connect with them. And their information comes in. And the stories kept getting more profound to the point that, you know, as a science student, I was very much struggling with the idea that I couldn't rationalize it and I needed proof. And how was I not letting this bubble up from my subconscious or what was my imagination. And the stories just kept getting stronger to the point that I couldn't explain. And with my imagination, or my subconscious and that proof was there. So that calmed me down. And I realized that was my own training to realize, without having to die for it that I for sure have the proof that life goes on because people were communicating to their loved ones through me that through the artwork that I never met. I knew nothing about them. And so that was very cool.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  15:15  
Oh, that's, that's mediumship through art. So you actually do portraits of spirit loved ones. Somebody could contact you and say, Please, could you paint this portrait of my loved one gone?

Marie Antoinette Kelly  16:50  
Yes, that's right. And I found out that was actually super beneficial, because I was starting to understand that if you look at your loved one from a photograph and there's good photographs, now, the unfortunate reality is that these are always connected to the past because that photo was taken at some physical moment, at some point in time that you remember them. So it's directly connected to your grief, because in remembering them your immediate, the other side of that coin is you lost them and they're not with you. So you're constantly reminded that they were once with you, but they're not with you now. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  17:22  
And the beauty of doing a portrait is that I lift them out of that circumstance and I paint them on the canvas. And I always make sure that I have the gift of creating that ubiquitous gaze where they look at from any angle in the room. Although they aren't now with you in the present in a moment in time that is undiscovered by you. So you connect to their heart, their spirit without having a story of how you were once together and how you lost them. And that has found really healing for people because now they have a bridge to the heart or the soul of their loved one that is in the now. And from that they can have conversations. They can have discoveries, and they can get confirmations of their own. From their own heart without needing someone else to be in between it. And that's been a really healing aspect of the, of the portrait work that I do. 

Vonne Solis  18:08  
That's very interesting because we'll, we'll sum that up when we talk at the end a little bit about your resources and offerings for people. But people listening to this right now you can commission portraits and then send them to people around the world can you?

Marie Antoinette Kelly  18:23  
I can.

Vonne Solis  18:23  
Oh, my gosh. What a gift. Like what a gift and you're so right about the, the last photos we have. And I'm glad you said it in those words because every time you look at it, and everyone has a last photo. It does become a problem when that photo never changes. Here's what happens though. So my daughter, she'd be 40 now. And my son is 31. He just turned 31. So I you know, every year or two, I have just a small five by seven frame and I took a picture of him into it next to her last, it was one of her last photos that I love. And you're right. So every time you look at it, and then and then he gets way older. Like he's now nine years older than she was when when she passed at 22. And so you're left with the pain of what happened. What happened.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  19:16  
But then imagine if I lifted her out of that photo. Because you know in spirit they stay younger. So now if I paint her as her spiritual self she is young and it's natural. 

Vonne Solis  19:25  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  19:26  
Now she's with you right now. 

Vonne Solis  19:27  
Yes, I know.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  19:28  
Expect her to age but she's at the same time very much her and you can communicate with her. Her heart is there available for you.

Vonne Solis  19:36  
Yeah. Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  19:36  
As it is for all of them.

Vonne Solis  19:36  
Exactly. So so what so that will be very helpful for the grieving, especially losing children. But the other piece of that is and you said it yourself, there's a gap. And what happens is I actually lost time. It's actually kind of good for me because it sort of affects me aging. I understand that 18 years have passed. But it's almost unbelievable that 18 years have passed. Well, maybe it'll keep me young looking, okay? I don't know. But right now we're sort of focusing on that piece, it never changes. So it does something weird and wonky with time. But I love the idea of the portraiture. And I'll note that for future, if I would like to look into that with you.

Vonne Solis  19:37  
It's important with this children's book, and in your case, that losing your daughter, if we understand. You said yourself that when when it hits home, when you lose your own loved one, it's no longer an abstract metaphysical concept. It's something you dramatically need to feel for as a truth for yourself. 

Vonne Solis  20:41  
Yes.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  20:41  
If we understand right from the start that this has, you know, it's a verified experience. By this point thousands.Thousands of people around the world, then we can begin to trust the foundation and then put in your case, put your daughter in that foundation and create a relationship. And while it, your pain is real, because the pain is your physical processing and your physical self of her physical absence, you find a new spot for her spirit that is almost like, Oh, she went to summer camp, and it's an extended vacation. But she's not gone. She's on an extended vacation, and I will reunite with her. And the conversation takes on a softer tone because it's not this dramatic clawing for survival that she's really. Is she gone? Is she not gone? You know she's not.

Vonne Solis  21:30  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  21:30  
And you begin to rest and relax into it. And that heals the grief in a different way.

Vonne Solis  21:35  
Oh, I love that. Oh, I love that. Yeah. So one thing I just want to add here really quickly, and then we're gonna move on to NDE is, in saying that so I've been blessed. My daughter did start visiting me audience. It was in hours of her passing. How did I know it was real? Because she gave me facts about her passing that police had kept from me. And I was able to verify. And so the visits were very frequent and signs and just wonderful, wonderful things. I was working with the angels at the time and ultimately became an Angel Healing Practitioner. So I was living in that world for the first 10 years. And so visits though, while they weren't expected, they were always appreciated. She did show herself in the exact way you described. And we're going to go into NDE so people can explain it. I have seen that light myself from a past life regression. Not a near death. And you cannot explain it unless you experience it. And I was shocked that I'd had this past life regression basically, at the feet of Source. It was quite powerful. And it was when she was two years old. But that experience prepared me for her death 20 years later because I knew instinctively. Experientially, where she was. And then her visits, she radiated everything you just said. The love. The joy. 

Vonne Solis  23:13  
And what's very interesting, although they're much less frequent in the last two, we've physically been able to touch in that dimension. And I don't know. Probably that is my evolution. But I have found it very, very comforting to have been able to touch because up to this point, it was all telepathic. So just a fun fact. I'd never read about that. Never heard about it with anybody connecting with their loved one gone about a physical touching, but I'm, I'm imagining other people have experienced this too. And it's it's a little bit of, you know, a two, double-edged sword. It's just amazing. But then it's so brief and you know it, it was our, kind of, kind of, but I've learned how to manage that.

Vonne Solis  24:11  
Let's talk about NDE Marie Antoinette because I personally know a fair bit about it, but not to the extent you probably do. But why don't you share with the audience first of all, what would qualify as an NDE from all that you have researched and experienced and you know, scientifically. So we're looking for the proof here, folks of the afterlife, and then the messages and teachings that those you've come across, even read about, share, stand out for you that influenced your writing even in Danny's Day in Heaven.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  24:50  
Well, it's Raymond Moody, who you mentioned earlier that I coined the term Near Death Experience and even though we call it a near death experience, it's actually a death experience. And these are people that have these experiences have actually been recorded as dead. You know, they flatlined. There's no brain activity. Their bodies are declared dead. 

Vonne Solis  25:09  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  25:10  
And then at some point after the declaration of them being actually dead, recorded dead, their body animates again. And they come back to life. And at that point, you know, the processing starts. And many of these people come back with a story of what their soul was doing in the time that the body was declared dead. And there's many books about that. And overlapping elements. And everybody has a unique background. Which really shows you that the subjectivity of the spiritual realm, because I believe the yin and the yang. I believe Spirit is to matter as Yin is to Yang. They're equal and opposites. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  25:45  
And so in the matter, world, you know we have the objective experience validated by science and we can find, so replicatable experiments, the truth of our existence here. And I believe in spiritual realm, you know, there's the equal and opposite. The subjective element. That doesn't mean that there isn't a foundation of truth that we can all fit into. And that foundation is what I recorded in this children's book which I mentioned earlier. The life review. The unconditional love. These elements that have come through the stories. But researchers are validating these stories, and they are, you know, verifying that there is activity. It isn't just brain, you know, science has been putting a wedge in our experiences of our spiritual nature very much, because, you know, we started to rely on it like a crutch. Like, if science doesn't prove it is it still true? We've had a spiritual nature forever because it's the other side of who we are. 

Vonne Solis  26:35  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  26:35  
And the stories have obviously, you know, come through the ages, but there now once again, validating that it isn't just our brain activity. When we, when our brain stops, and the brain is completely dead, there is still activity. There's stories of people, you know, the spiritual nature and where they've been, and what they've experienced, that it's fascinating.

Vonne Solis  26:56  
I have read about people from different religious backgrounds, for example. So they may see and have a near death experience, this is just what I've read, okay. I've talked to people about it. But you know, that is in an understanding and, you know, in a, in the context of that religion. So they may see a god, that's their God, and I'm not going to start naming it and stuff like that. You're saying some of the fundamental experiences are the life review. The feeling of the unconditional love. The light. Going into the light. Seeing a light, and some people experience a tunnel, but not everybody. And loved ones being present. So

Marie Antoinette Kelly  27:37  
Spirit guide, and

Vonne Solis  27:38  
always a spirit guide meeting them, right?

Marie Antoinette Kelly  27:41  
Well, yes. And that is also conditioned by the understanding or belief system that you were part of in your physical embodiment. And as you mentioned, and I left the book, you know, the book is your, is it as an open representation. It doesn't qualify the story through any particular religion. Because as I said, that's a subjective element. 

Vonne Solis  28:03  
Yes.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  28:03  
People that have been close to Jesus in their life, they will meet Jesus on the other side. But people that have been Buddhic or connected to Krishna through their, you know, Eastern cultures, they will see that in the afterlife. And for me, that is actually a validation of the truth of the unconditional nature of spirit. Because it is allowing it's, the light to come to you through the understanding of your own consciousness. 

Vonne Solis  28:27  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  28:27  
And it means you know, it says In My Father's house are many mansions. It's it's the appropriate mansion for you. As you go there so that you can understand the next step of what God is showing you. 

Vonne Solis  28:37  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  28:38  
What the Divine is revealing. And that's the beautiful quality of Spirit.

Vonne Solis  28:41  
So further to what you're just saying, so in my earlier grief, very early grief. There is a doctor. He was based in Houston, Dr. John Lerma. L E R M A. His two books, he's a palliative, doctor and he wrote these two books, basically gathering evidence of his, his dying patients. From any age. Children, to the aged. These were people actually approaching death. And so his two books cover the messages and what they're experiencing and seeing the closer they come to dying. Well passing over. Crossing over. 

Vonne Solis  29:23  
And I want to just quickly say here, because I'd love to get your thought on this Marie Antoinette. So some people I've met, and even I sometimes struggle with this. You know, especially when we have a spiritual practice and we know that you know, life is ongoing, just in a different form. And I believe everything you said energy, color, consciousness, all that. So, we don't, some people are uncomfortable with it. Well then we shouldn't be saying our loved one died or the word dead, or even the word death. But then, but you see, I do say that. I in turn mingles. Sometimes I say spirit loved ones, sometimes I'll say deceased loved ones, because it's a physical death. And we can't ignore that. So I just wanted to get your take on that yourself and if you intermingle words or what you think. But in Lerma's case, the body was physically dying, so he allowed and recorded at what his patients were experiencing, feeling and seeing. 

Vonne Solis  30:26  
But what's really significant and what twigged me to this was when you said, you know, some people, you know, have a great faith in Jesus. Well, a lot of them who were like that did see Jesus at the end of their bed. And angels, and a lot of the children saw angels. And without a doubt, already loved ones who had crossed over. So there's always someone to meet us. Not too many of them talked about spirit guides so much.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  30:55  
But they could be Jesus or your loved one. It's just someone is there to meet you is the idea. And so I've had to put that into a neutral term so that you can add your experience and quantify or qualify it.

Vonne Solis  31:08  
Yes.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  31:09  
But I agree with you. I think your point is really well taken that it from my point of view, it is appropriate to still say dead, or death, because there's a physical ending. And I think that's why a lot of the confusion comes in this realm. That people begin to mix the two realms. But I think they're distinctly different in equinox equalities. In our physical reality that's why we grieve. We lost a physical presence of a physical loved one. 

Vonne Solis  31:33  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  31:33  
We have to relearn the language and then turn on the spiritual dimension so that you can get the spiritual conversation going

Vonne Solis  31:40  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  31:41  
with the continuity there. 

Vonne Solis  31:43  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  31:43  
I remember all my life, you know, I told you since I was a child, I was very preoccupied with death. And I used to, when I found out about the near death experience, I used to kind of glorify that at first. Because it was an answer to my pain and my grief and and the homesickness and the longing and the memories I had from the other side. And so I learned the hard way, though. Because, in the first, you know, three decades of my life, I dismissed the physical. The power of our physical reality, you know. I saw it through like, you know, the way people party and, you know, live in mundane selfish ways, and it was an issue for me. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  32:20  
And so I remember learning the lesson when my son was born. He had a trauma birth. And so he, I had a chance to die at that time. And I remember having spent so much time studying near death experiences and almost like glorifying them. 

Vonne Solis  32:35  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  32:36  
But it was the funniest thing. I woke up to the possibility of dying at that point, for real. Like you're saying, when you lost your daughter, it hits you differently. And it's no longer a romantic notion. And I remember I had determined 60 seconds to live. I remember clenching my fists and going. Because I felt the tunnel forming. You know the whole thing because I had been studying this. And I saw it coming, you know. The tunnel, the peace within it. The chaos outside of it. And instead of saying, Oh, here we go, exciting adventure. I clenched my fists and I said, Hell no. And I love that that came from deep inside of me because I wanted to be here for my children. And that means, of course, I'm here. And so they were able to save me. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  33:17  
My boy was dead for two minutes, but then they were able to resuscitate him. And so I was out for eight hours. And so but came back as well. And I know, that cured me. Because I know how quick and how effortless it is to pass to the other side, once it's your time. But

Vonne Solis  33:34  
yes

Marie Antoinette Kelly  33:34  
I also learned from that moment, the preciousness of being alive and having the opportunity to create here and to be here and to share here before we go back to the other side. It's a give and take. It's a figure eight. We don't have to crave one over the other because if we're here, there's a reason for that. And we can participate with that. But we don't have to be separate. We can have a figure eight. A continuum. And that's the message of that book. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  33:59  
Oh, by the way, PMH Atwater, she found in her research that independent of background, 60% of the people she studied, and she studied over 3000 of them, recognize Jesus. Even if they weren't Christian or had never studied. And all these, these Spiritual experiences that we all have, they actually form a big body of knowledge if we learn to see outside of the little boxes that we are raised in. And it's really profound. It's a fascinating world.

Vonne Solis  34:27  
Yeah. I actually referenced stuff, some of her work in my first book, Divine Healing. And also, so I'll just say here. I don't always plug my stuff, but I will because we're talking about it. So my very first book I wrote over five years, and published in 2011, is called Divine Healing, Transforming Pain Into Personal Power. And while it documents what I struggled with and what I was advocating change for and I'm advocating the same changes today because the same problems exist sad to say. But the whole part two of it, the healing practice. It's a self-care healing practice which my coaching is based on, came from my daughter and the angels.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  35:06  
Wow.

Vonne Solis  35:07  
Basically.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  35:08  
Well, you are working in partnership. You are describing that partnership. I think that's very brave of you. Because that can physically set aside the grief in order to trust. To trust the language that's coming in through your heart. And that's where the courage comes in. Because courage is the language of the heart as well.

Vonne Solis  35:23  
But do you know what made me trust is, I'd already been working a little bit with the angels before my daughter died. So I wanted to briefly just say to you. As a child, and being worried about death, and so on. You see, I would offer to you that that is your absolute consciousness at its greatest expansion, putting you in touch with your purpose at that, at that moment. And I do believe that. That we get glimpses of what we're here to do, as children. And I was always a very curious child. I was a bit of a frustrated child. I was a super free spirit, and all this kind of stuff. But I had a lot of experience with suicide attempts in my family. And so that somewhat prepared me, somewhat, for actually losing my child to suicide. 

Vonne Solis  36:18  
But here's what I wanted to say also, is that whole thing you talked about is, you know, like understanding when when you were faced with your traumatic birth of your son. And hell no. I'm, I'm going to stay here. I just want to say on that point, that I believe that we actually choose our death. But we're not going to talk about that today. And many spiritual teachers talk about different portals that we have to exit, and we ultimately choose the one. But I also believe that we can say we've had enough and don't want to be here anymore, and create a situation that will help us exit earlier. 

Vonne Solis  37:04  
And when I struggled with wanting to be on the planet after my daughter's suicide, one night, and it was probably within the first two, three months. And it was probably the angels. Anyway, it was it was around midnight, one o'clock. And I felt this, there's a moment I was asleep. But but there was this, you know, moment when you become you're, you know, you're extremely aware. And so you're in that state where you're aware that you're sleeping, but you're still aware and getting information. And this presence came to me, and basically asked me, Do you want to be here or not? 

Vonne Solis  37:48  
And I knew intuitively, if I said, No, I was gonna go. I just didn't know when. And it was seconds. It was milliseconds. And I said, Yes. So like you I made a choice. A conscious choice, when an opportunity was given to me to decide. And maybe something else would have happened, you know? Maybe I would have developed an illness. Adisease, but I'm happy to say I'm basically extremely healthy. And so chose to be on this planet. And

Marie Antoinette Kelly  38:22  
Again, I said, you are brave. Thank you for doing that. I feel the courage in you.

Vonne Solis  38:26  
Thank you. Thank you.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  38:28  
It's a lot to be up against.

Vonne Solis  38:30  
Well, my, you know, work is all about helping others feel inspired. But at the same time, I appreciate and I recognize those people who don't want to be here on the planet. And for the people that don't want to be on on the planet, and in Canada, we're looking at this very seriously. And although we're not going to dive down this. It's just acknowledging in Canada, possibly by next year, we will be the most recognized country for offering euthanasia for mental health reasons. Don't want to be here, and I'm just waiting for that to happen. Because then I'm going to be doing an awful lot of work on well, then we better change the conversation we're having around suicide. 

Vonne Solis  39:15  
But the point I am making and we want to stick to today, is that losing a loved one. Facing death ourself in fear. Listen, do you think most of us are afraid to die Marie Antoinette? And then we sort of instill that or don't instill that in our children? Like,

Marie Antoinette Kelly  39:33  
I've thought about it my whole life. And I think there's two sides that I've seen. This is obviously the instincts of our body are afraid to die. Because the physical language of our body knows self-preservation. And that's, I think most of the people who are afraid to die, are simply invested in their physical selves. They have not yet found new opening to spirit. Because their language of their body is the strongest language. I don't want to die. That's the self-preservation. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  39:57  
And again, also when you just briefly mentioned that conversation about suicide and end of life actions of euthanasia, I think it's a dangerous road for that very reason. Because most people that I know this who are living in existential dread, or really have no purpose, it's because the faucet as I like to call it, of life from Spirit is shut off. They have not found because they are still reacting to the dogma or the pathways that have been handed down through our lineage or, you know, through generations and of like, say, Christian religion that's confining. Or they haven't found you know, the world getting smaller, our traditions, they're kind of blending. And people, they haven't found their own language of connecting with Spirit. And I feel like you're saying, we have to change the conversation. Mental health is a lot bleaker when you don't have access to Spirit. Which brings perfection. Which brings love. Which brings light. This brings your life back to you.

Vonne Solis  40:53  
I was just, yeah. I was just gonna say that. I was just gonna say it's just sort of the circular thing. So the more that we embrace what we're inevitably going to face.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  41:03  
The language and they think they have to die in order to get access. 

Vonne Solis  41:07  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  41:08  
But you don't. That's the beauty of it. You don't have to die. And that's what I'm hoping to communicate. If children know from the start that the spiritual realm is real, and life does not end, you don't have to die to get there. You can actually make sense out of your experiences. You don't have to shut it off. You don't only believe in the rational side of science. But you have context for all of yourself. And then life keeps regenerating, and hopefully never even takes you to the doorstep of that dread of death.

Vonne Solis  41:36  
You know what I'm thinking of while you're speaking and I think we're saying basically the same thing when I say this, the inevitability of facing our death. Which, you know, terrifies a lot of people, by facing it and embracing all of these concepts and truths. Really, they're truths. They're not even concepts. They're, they're spiritual truths. Afterlife, and everything we've talked about to this point, actually helps you live the life you can dream about. Because that's what opens you up to manifesting and greater consciousness expansion. And just this awareness.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  42:11  
It turns the heart on to a place where you can love and freely share. 

Vonne Solis  42:14  
Exactly. And the minute you have that faucet turned on

Marie Antoinette Kelly  42:18  
Yes.

Vonne Solis  42:19  
Stuff just keeps flowing. You can't help but live a life of goodness, would you agree? Right? 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  42:24  
Absolutely 100%. Yes.

Vonne Solis  42:26  
Put in simplest terms.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  42:28  
And of course, you know, you can't make anything too simple, like euthanasia. But that is why I myself, feel so passionate about if people understood the price listeners, of having a life that you can create with, even if at the moment, you're burdened by grief and despair, there are answers. There's insights. And this is why I believe in prayer so much.  Because it's a way to talk to the other side, and like pick up the telephone and get him to send something back to help you through. Because it is true. It's hard here. It's heavy here because this world is based on separation and increasing entropy, which makes chaos and pain you know. And so the other side is the equal and opposite. It decreases entropy. It brings love. So, pick up the telephone to the other side. Say your prayers.

Vonne Solis  43:13  
Pick up the phone! They're waiting for you to call. It's interesting. It's actually interesting you say that because on I think it's on Vancouver Island here, but it could be somewhere else. But anyway, there's there's this idea of people have placed a telephone. I don't mean a cell phone, folks, a telephone in the forest, or these specific areas that the grieving actually literally can go and do what you just said. Pick up the physical telephone, probably from the 80s or something, and or 90s. But you know, maybe the 80s. Anyway, and pretend they're you know, envision calling their loved one. Isn't that cool? It is actually something that's happening.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  43:51  
The other thing I hope to accomplish with this book is to simplify the connection. That it's very in the small things of our life. It's not a dramatic. Because everything with death is dramatic obviously, because it's it's such a solid end. 

Vonne Solis  44:03  
Yeah. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  44:04  
And therefore but it's the little, the little deaths. The little moments of connecting. Because, one, one story comes to my mind now when I was creating a portrait. And this is in the beginning stages of when I was discovering that I was picking up on the other side. And I'm painting this man. t was a commission through the internet. I never met him. I didn't know his wife either, even though she had requested the portrait. And I was, I was fond of John Denver's music, but it was just on an off. And I was having this compulsion to play John Denver's music, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I gotta paint to John Denver's music. So I'm playing his songs. And all these songs or phrases, the same phrases keep stepping out. I love my lady. You know how we sing that? 

Vonne Solis  44:42  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  44:42  
I love my lady and I miss her but I love her. And so I started to get, I'm not musical so I can't sing it.

Vonne Solis  44:48  
Yeah.]

Marie Antoinette Kelly  44:48  
Anyway, I started to get that this was a communication. This was a message. So I wrote the lady. I said, I hope you don't mind. But I'm feeling that your your husband is communicating to me how much he loves you. How much he's with you. And that you really shouldn't miss it because he is more in love with you now than ever. And so she wrote me back crying. And she said, Every morning at 10am, she walked their dogs playing John Denver's music and crying her heart out because she was missing him so much. I said, Well, if you kindly would stop missing him quite that much, I don't have to constantly listen to John Denver anymore because the message has gotten delivered.

Vonne Solis  45:25  
Yeah, yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  45:26  
So we had a joke out of it. But this is what I'm trying to say is that Spirit is subtle. It comes through simple things like songs. And it usually comes with a feeling. With a pressure, I think. And if people recognize these simple pressures and simple inspiration to simple thoughts or music, they begin to see how Spirit is part of their life now, and they don't have to wait till they're dead. Even though they can be reassured that when they die, this is the process. And you will come back to all of yourself, even though you're only a part of yourself now.

Vonne Solis  46:00  
So beautifully said. The other thing as we get to the top of the hour here. And we could go on and on and on and we can't. But you know, but the the other thing, and you've covered an awful lot. And I want to, I want to end on on on one question. But before I ask you it, I was getting the distinct feeling and I know from having done medium work for others. And what loved one doesn't want a message from their person in the afterlife? Like everybody does. But it is this consciousness we're tapping into. 

Vonne Solis  46:36  
So I will say from having experience and done, and when when I used to do Angel readings for people I channelled. I didn't do cards and stuff. I channelled. And often people would say Oh, do you have a message from so and so or you know, whatever. And you can't control who comes through, I'll tell you that. But in almost all cases, you feel. You know them. Just like you painted. You understood. You heard the music. They're able, when they're vibrating at the point they need to come down and meet us and they can get through to us, they will contact us and give us messages for other people. Their loved ones that their loved ones will understand. But we also as the messenger, you know, have to be able to interpret what they're trying to say. And like you said with the John Denver like, what? Where's that coming from? 

Vonne Solis  47:23  
And you know, you and I both know, the afterlife exists. We know our loved ones are there. I chose personally not to pursue that line of work because working with the angels is my thing. There are enough people out there that, that do that work. But I have never met anyone, Marie Antoinette, that does it through portraiture. So here's what I wanted to say about that. So for anyone that has a portrait, and is longing for this connection. Not just believing in it, but longing to experience it. I also believe that having the portrait would help them open this channel that they could literally start physically experiencing it. And I think that'd be so cool. And I just was feeling that as you were talking. Because imagining looking at that portrait. Hanging it somewhere in your home. And it's always there. And it's always present. And I would argue always changing. I just feel that. The energy of it. I just feel that. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  48:32  
Yeah.

Vonne Solis  48:33  
When you said you paint it, you said you paint it in a way so that their eye always follows you.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  48:39  
Yeah, that's the thing. Because I've been asking all these questions all the time, like God, why did you give me this gift when I was starting as a scientist? Now, all I'm painting and all I can paint is faces. And then that's when I started to research and I realized that it's a rare gift. Like one in I don't know, I forget the number. But it's a rare ability for portrait artists to be able to paint eyes that have what are called ubiquitous gaze. Like the Mona Lisa has ubiquitious gaze. She looks at you from any angle in the room. 

Vonne Solis  49:08  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  49:08  
And so that was the gift that just naturally came out of my hands. And I was like, why can I do this? And I realized now because the answer that came is because eyes are the window to the soul. We know that. And it's not just a cliche. It's really the way to connect to the soul. And so having eyes that are alive in the portrait, allow you to connect with the soul of that person. And then you get the feeling like you're saying, Well, it's a portrait and it's not actually going to change. There's a certain life to it that follows you and it doesn't have a thought or a feeling and so that the inspiration can land. And oftentimes, as I've also learned through the experiences, that like why did this man not get through to his wife? She didn't realize that she was prompted to play John Denver not to grieve him but to feel his closeness. But it was her grief and her own doubt that turned it in that direction. And so having a portrait allows them a little bit of stability so that the grief and the doubt can be set aside and they can connect with something that has no grief or doubt attached to it. And 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  50:10  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  50:11  
it opens the doorway. Like you said, it opens the channel.

Vonne Solis  50:14  
Yeah. I would just offer for anybody and I have met people who believe that death, physical death is just it, it's blackness. There's nothing. No more. Don't, don't, don't even think about it. They're gone. And so I respect what people believe. But for anybody watching or listening to this episode today, I would invite you to just think about that, the more we can embrace the fact that there is ongoing consciousness that science is researching and have been for years. But I think they're improving the research in quantum physics and things like that, that tie us to consciousness. And, you know, what keeps us alive as as this energy form. I think that, I know. I don't think. I know that just like you're saying, Marie Antoinette, it is a comfort. It is something to lean on in our grief. And it does make the passing of time allow us to invest a little bit more in ourselves instead of just our pain and suffering with the years that we have left. 

Vonne Solis  51:21  
And one of the reasons and you know, when you say, Oh, I think you're courageous Vonne and stuff, yeah, okay. Because I'm always saying to other people, it takes courage to want to heal. It takes courage to want to be more than we are, you know, yesterday. And I get it. I get it. And I certainly get it in earliest grief, and certainly traumatic grief and things like that. But I'm just saying that my work and my commitment to be the best I can be in this life, despite losing my child. I have a son, and I never ever have wanted him to feel less for being on the planet, because his sister has gone. But I will say that you have to understand and accept that child loss is devastating. And we need to just call it. It's devastating. And we love our surviving children but we're still devastated.

Vonne Solis  52:18  
But when I thought about what she wanted for me knowing she was visiting me, and there doing her part. They do go on to go and do other stuff, by the way in the afterlife. So you'll find a lot of your spirit loved ones aren't going to be coming and hanging around with you like for years and years and years and years. And you have to let them go at some point. So in my case, she'll pop in when I ask her to pop in. And that might be the reason for the physical touch now. The sensation of the physical touch in these visits. Because they're a little bit more powerful, but not as frequent. 

Vonne Solis  52:53  
But at any rate, I wanted to be more for her. I wanted to be more for my family. And I ultimately am starting to understand I want to be more for me. And I want people just to think about that if you are again, watching or listening to this and struggling. Because wanting to be more for yourself is, is really one of the hardest things to do. But it's critical that you reach that point, if you really want to truly heal. We cannot heal for another person. And trusting we'll be together again. Trusting you'll be with your child or your spouse that was you know, like the biggest part of your life or any other loved one that has gone on. That's what they want for us too. I guarantee you. I guarantee you. And that's why their messages are always the same. And people will doubt mediums and stuff. Well, they just want me to be happy. They love me. And you know, some of them are like, I'm sorry, I left. You know, I had messages and other people who have lost children to suicide have had messages. I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was going to cause as much pain. 

Vonne Solis  54:03  
All of these messages are valid and real people and it's just up to us that we understand what they are and I'll say this before I get to my very last question and then your resources. Is if you have lost someone, particularly recently and anything weird has happened. Weird thoughts. Weird scents. Weird electrical stuff. Weird anything and you kind of go what? Take it as a sign. Take it as a sign. You know, don't don't spend years wondering. Take it as a sign. 

Vonne Solis  54:37  
Now I want to ask you actually Marie Antoinette one last thing. We've talked a lot. We've packed a lot in. I may have mentioned this earlier, but I just want to round out with it because it is about Danny's book in heaven. It is about a book for parents to start the conversation. It is about educating children. We've talked about a lot of the in between about stuff that adults might come to think about in their life. Children, not so much. So why is it important for you, that children, and at what age does Danny's book in in heaven sort of the target the starting age group? But why do you think it's important that we start this. Parents start this conversation with their children now when it's even so difficult for them to think about it for themselves?

Marie Antoinette Kelly  55:30  
Well, that's a great question. Let me see if I can answer that accurately. For me it is because the rational mind is something that develops in your teenage years. And that is the source of where the doubt is because you need all the proof. You need the linear, you know, acknowledgement of everything you've been through that come from science. But children, they have a very pure intuitive personalities or nature when they are children. And many children have connection with the other side. 

Vonne Solis  56:00  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  56:00  
And it's natural for them. So first of all, it will be wonderful then, for them to have the support in the context, when they are in that intuitive nature, to let that develop at its own rate. To let that be supported so they don't have to learn to shut it down. And then as they grow into teenagers, and the rational mind takes over, that it has a healthy, healthy foundation so that they have the two halves of themselves. The right and the left brain. And they are whole beings rather than just lopsided, you know, cynical skeptical. And, like so many adults are becoming so existentialist because their cynicism is just too strong.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  56:34  
And, and you mentioned, you know, for those who think that life is just gonna end in a black hole and that's all we have. I really believe that those who will hold on to that in the face of this evidence and a lineage of 1000s of years of experiences, that they have a pain of their own. They have a, they've lost their trust. Because there is a foundation of trust to have the subtlety of Spirit come into and accepting it. But they've lost that trust. And that's a pain and it's a physical obstacle for them. And it's something they can, if they would pay attention begin to heal. Because you're so much better off when you have both sides of yourself functioning. And that's what I hope to give to children. In a natural way they can stay open.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  57:17  
You don't have to, like I was extreme. Having a fear and then having a complete, you know, desire to learn the other side. Not appreciating this life and wanting to be on the other side, as I was mentioning. I glorified my near death experience. And they were both extremes. Again, I realized that if we just naturally allow our intuitive nature to have a place and our rational side, given you know my science background, the ego can be compatible very nicely. And you have a very complete understanding of how to navigate life and children need that nowadays. Life is so messy, it's so difficult. I'd like to give them an edge. I hope it gives them a benefit. 

Vonne Solis  57:54  
Yeah. I love that you have the science background. Just as a reminder, you did train six years to become a medical doctor and, and switched that and said I'm, I'm here to be an artist. I absolutely love whenever I talk to anybody that's coming from a science background because I agree with what you're saying in terms of we all want proof of something. And it's very hard to convince ourselves to do anything to make ourselves believe. And even with my background, I negated signs and messages, because I just couldn't believe they would be happening. So

Marie Antoinette Kelly  58:33  
I was just discovering because I was raised Catholic and Catholics don't actually read the Bible. But I was reading some of the beautiful truths in there. You know how it says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And I realized the language of faith, which has been polluted for a lot of people because of the half truths and the dogmatic view of it and so faith is such a profound way of allowing your heart to soften and to begin to trust the signs that are coming.

Vonne Solis  59:02  
Yeah. And and I think this world is changing, Marie Antoinette. And you know, we, those of us that are in you know, either thought leadership, practitioners, spiritualist, coaches. You know, but doing, the artists. All of us and there's a growing number of us that are already, you know, walking the Enlightened path because we chose it at some point in our life or it it found us. And you can't turn it off once you find your enlightenment. You can't turn it off. You can only keep expanding and growing within that space. 

Vonne Solis  59:35  
But the other thing I just wanted to say is Danny's Day in Heaven as a children's book is also, the message is coming to me to share for the parents that I encourage you absolutely to get this book and we'll have a link for it in the descriptions below to both video and audio in this podcast episode as well as a link to your website Marie Antoinette, let yourself be a child again with your children as you're reading it, if you're brand new to it. And let your own mind take you where it needs to take you in terms of not convincing yourself, but enlightening yourself to the degree you can today. Because I 100% respect and I'm so grateful you mentioned that children are so pure. Already are connecting with these entities. And case in point would be the children that are coming in and remembering previous incarnation, for example. And some of those parents, if not all, parents are kind of like, Hush now. Hush now. And you know, they don't understand it. And kids learn. Kids, you probably agree, kids are taught unless we rear them differently, to shut up pretty darn quickly. So I think it's so beneficial to have this book. I personally am so grateful you wrote it in anticipation of one day having grandchildren.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:01:04  
Yeah. One thing that I'd like to point out because I remember in some of the training that I internal in my heart about writing this book accurately for children, you know, you want to be extra authentic. And really make it for children that they can feel. And I realized, I remember at one time asking myself the question, Who am I to interpret heaven for them? To say, this is what it's going to look like. And I struggled with that, because I didn't want to say I know. Because that's from the head. And I realized it was my heart. And the answer that came was that what I put into the paintings and illustrations is very much the feeling of what I feel the other side feels like so that you can approach it with your heart. And you can recognize some of that feeling. And then let your let your thoughts and your own imagination take you into that feeling so that you can get the experience of spirit you know, experientially yourself. Without having to say, well, she knows. Because it's not about what we know. It's about what we feel and how we participate in it.

Vonne Solis  1:02:03  
Yeah, feel free. Actually Maria Antoinette, feel free to show us a few pages if you want, or you can leave it a surprise for people to purchase. I'd love to see Oh, my goodness. Look through some of them. Yeah. Oh, my, yeah. There's Danny.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:02:19  
On the beach. And then he ends up getting caught in a storm. And the storm slams him on the water where he sees the light coming and he thinks it's the coast guard but it's actually a very different light. So it's the Light of Spirit inviting him in. He drops into it. And he ends up on the other side where he has, you know, he meets his personal guide. And he has his life review. 

Vonne Solis  1:02:42  
Yeah.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:02:42  
And he has a little after discovery. He meets his second grade teacher who was already passed with his own little doggie. And then he gets sent back. He gets sent back. So the story has a happy ending that allows children to feel you know, it's not quite as intense as really having the finality of death as we learn it from our physical end. But he comes back with the message that life goes on and he has a loving heart that he can, he can let out.

Vonne Solis  1:03:12  
Your colours are magnificent I want to say.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:03:15  
Thank you.

Vonne Solis  1:03:15  
They're magnificent. It's beautiful. I truly believe that in our energy in the afterlife, because I saw loved ones as colour, so colour is very important, but it's not colour necessarily that we see on Earth. Beautiful! And oh parents, I hope and grandparents, aunts, uncles, anybody that has children in their life or you know, you just want to be comforted by a great kids book.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:03:41  
And also who are facing you know, what, at the other end of the spectrum are facing their own death. Because they're, you know, in hospice. The simplicity, the colours the feel of it. It's also reassuring either side. Either side of the spectrum.

Vonne Solis  1:03:56  
Beautiful. And so I'll be putting a link to that. Your book. It's on Amazon and could people find out from your website also where they can purchase this book?

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:04:07  
It's on my website. My website is makfineart.

Vonne Solis  1:04:12  
makfineart.com. That is also if someone does want to contact you or commission a portrait at makfineart.com.

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:04:22  
 Yes.

Vonne Solis  1:04:22  
Okay. This has been amazing. I feel really energized. And I thank you once again, for the work that you are doing. The incredible portraiture you offer to people of living or spirit loved ones. And well, maybe you'll be writing an adult book and illustrating that. 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:04:42  
Yeah.

Vonne Solis  1:04:44  
I don't know. But yeah, anyway, so thanks again, Marie Antoinette. I just want to ask, did you have any last messages or did we cover everything you wanted to talk about? 

Marie Antoinette Kelly  1:04:54  
Yeah, it's been a delight talking to you. I also feel like we can continue our conversation because you with your experience have so much to share. So thank you for opening up and letting me on your show.

Vonne Solis  1:05:04  
Oh, absolutely. It's been a pleasure. Thanks again.