Had a dream where my mother was found out to be alive

[conuly]

Ooopsie!

And I could not get literally anybody at all to understand why I found this confusing and a bit concerning. I was going saying things like "Yes, but we have her ashes. Whose ashes are those?" and "If she's been alive this whole time, why didn't she call us? Or you? Surely somebody should have called?" and they were just "Lol, but she's fine, she's right here!"

Not even my sister was seeing the problem.

Real live Jenn has confirmed that yes, if this should happen, she would immediately understand the problem.

Comments

[cimorene]

This is the second post I've seen about this kind of dream in recent years!

I have had dreams like this about my grandparents for years. It's like my subconscious doesn't remember that they're dead or doesn't care and is just, idk, generating a video game for me, but I still am able to remember the death but not to realize that I'm dreaming, so I just spend the whole dream confused. Sometimes it develops a whole plot around that because of my insistence in investigating or proving to the other characters. Frequently we've decided on the dream that my grandmother "got better". But my favorites are the dreams where I'm sure that either my grandpa or grandma was supposed to be dead but can't remember which one (in reality, he died a few years later). In the dream nobody can ever figure out which one it was supposed to be.

[siderea]

It's like my subconscious doesn't remember that they're dead or doesn't care and is just, idk, generating a video game for me

I think of it like the subconscious is arguing with you about it, as if it were saying, "Now, look here, are you sure she's dead? Mightn't you be mistaken about that? Because, really, when you think about it, it's a quite preposterous idea, there not being Grandma any more. How could there not be Grandma? There's always been Grandma. Maybe you just need to look harder. Did you check behind the couch cushions?" It's like one's subconscious is skeptical about what one is told, because it's so unlikely to be true, as far as it knows.

[conuly]

To be fair, my mother would totally be hiding behind the couch if she thought she could get away with it.

(So would I.)

[oracne]

I have had similar disconcerting dreams.

[sabotabby]

Oh no, that's the worst kind of dream.

[conuly]

Oh, no.

The reverse dream is the one I get every time I've rehomed a kitten - one week later, like clockwork, I suddenly get a very strong dream where I haven't rehomed them, I just forgot to feed them. And now they're dead. I had that same dream about the niblings once when they were small and went on vacation with their mother. I woke up and wasn't quite sure if it was real or not.

[sabotabby]

I get the dream where the cat that died a long time ago didn't actually die, just got abandoned, and I haven't fed them, and now they're dead.

But I also get my stepdad not being dead but being very sick and now I have to live out that whole period of our lives again.

[conuly]

And that's the worst kind of dream!

[adafrog]

Very weird.

[brokenallbroken]

OTOH, your mom coming back from the dead and insisting she'd been alive the whole time sounds exactly like my impression of her. With a side of being huffy you could have ever thought she died in the first place.

[conuly]

You are not wholly wrong, but I didn't even have that conversation with dream!mommy. No, we had a pleasant chitchat about the news or something before I went out and tried to figure out wtf was going on.

[conuly]

Although, actually, I shouldn't be so mean. If she spent several months pretending to be dead without calling us, I don't think she'd announce her return by trying to gaslight us about it. That'd be a little over-the-top.

[archersangel]

i had dreams like that after my mother passed. in the dreams i was so confused as to why she was alive, how was such a mistake made? and i wondered how to tell everyone about the situation.

[malada]

I still have dreams about my deceased mother and father. I just accept that they're there in my dreams.