Madam Grace

Madam Grace

Clairvoyance is the ability to see what is unclear. Clairvoyance means clear seeing, according to many dictionaries. Skeptics don’t believe people can truly see what will happen or has already occurred unless there is proof.

Lydia Grace lives at the end of Sycamore in the big two-story house in the cul-de-sac. She is a well-known psychic in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, in the ’80s. She would screen her calls and limit visitors. Meals on Wheels delivers lunches to her and my grandma five days a week. Grandma has known Madam Grace for most of her life, but I can’t say they are friends.

Grandma said some people have a problem with secrets; they don’t know when to shut their mouths. I don’t know if she meant Madam Grace or everyone who gossiped. She would say that psychics knew how to pull the answers from their victims. If people are foolish enough to give her their hard-earned money to hear that a spouse was cheating on them, they are crazy. If you think it is happening, it probably is.

Madam Grace once told me she was from a long lineage of psychics. She said her great-great-great-grandmother Camille was an astronomer and spiritualist. Her husband’s family is Romanian, and I think Lydia is too. Madam Grace only speaks of the old country when talking about home. She has a different type of problem anyways; she has a golden tongue, and whatever she predicts comes true.

Most people who consider seeking the truth through Lydia are told to complete a clarifying ritual over three days. The first day is all about what you consume…

Breakfast at 8 AM: 1 Poached Egg, wheatgrass tea, and a plum (no bread). Prayers until lunch.

Lunch at 2 PM: 3oz. of tuna, six saltines, ½ grapefruit, and wheatgrass tea. Write down four names. Prayers until dinner.

Dinner at 8 PM: 4oz of boiled protein (2 eggs), 8oz veggies (large salad), wheatgrass tea (no bread, croutons, or bacon bits). Only the dressing provided by Lydia.

Day two is about what you think … you follow the diet to the letter from day one, and after each meal is consumed, prayers and journal for an hour.

On day three, breakfast at 8 AM, the same meal as on days 1 and 2, and no more solid food for 24 hours. You can have wheatgrass tea as often as desired or water. Prayers every three hours until bedtime.

If you met with Lydia at 9 AM during your initial meeting, you should return at the same time on day five (the day after the rituals), just before you keel over from starvation. Prayers every hour until your meeting.

I know this because I visited Madam Grace once, and I think she was the real deal. SHE HAD WRITTEN everything I wrote during my journaling sessions on a pink sheet of paper, just like I had handed my letter to her.

She started how do you feel? Hungrier than ever, even ravenous. Next, she asked if I still thought I needed a reading. One is still necessary.

Next, she tells me that I was lucky numbers swirl around me and that the number three would dictate the stages of my life. I was 20 when she did my reading. She told me that doctors were crazy and would not know how to help me and would misdiagnose me five times. She predicted my children would all be the same sex…girls.

Before going deeper, she would take a moment and ask the leading type of questions. So, I stood up, called her a fraud, refused to pay for the session, and said, “Grandma was right about you.” What she said next nearly floored me:

“Your Grandma did exactly what you’re doing right now, underestimating my power. She encouraged your mother to follow her heart. When that tramp was wasting away, she convinced my sister’s husband to donate his sperm, and you are here in my face. A constant reminder that my sister killed him and went to prison. Your grandma tested me and was bold enough to say they all made their own choices. She was busy establishing alibis with the gossiping crowd and promising rewards for their testimony. When the judge sentenced my sister, he commuted it to life with special consideration for premeditation; because people claimed she talked about how she was going to kill the slut who wears Dessert Rose perfume. She died in jail, fearing the transfer to prison; she hung herself. So, your grandma had to pay. Do you believe her going deaf and losing her voice were accidents?”

Grandma had a stroke, we thought, about five months ago, or did she? Did Lydia Grace put a spell on her or the house? When we’re out together on our lunch dates, Grandma is her usual bubbly self until we walk back across the threshold, and then she stumbles over her words. I had felt helpless until now. According to Lydia, I now know the curses were for lying and gossiping.

My next steps have got to be specific and done by a practicing herbalist and a spiritual leader. Other than Lydia, I don’t know anyone else who practices voodoo. I go to the midday prayer service at Holy Comforter. They worship snakes and chickens; both terrify me. I’ve only been to this church once but need my grandma’s curses lifted. I spot a nurse I work with who has invited me to attend a service plenty of times. I waited until after the services ended before joining Cory near the altar.

Much nervous energy flows through my body as I tell Cory and the high priestess Monica about my Grandmother’s troubles. They agreed to help unbind Grandma’s tongue and to cleanse the house.

I won’t try to describe the process in specific detail for your protection and mine. After 72 touch-and-go grueling hours of praying and burning sage, my Grandma Rainey emerged with a grateful heart and vowed no more hiding the truth or gossiping.