Why would a social scientist write a book about mediums?
Because she can.
Because she is curious.
When I first went for a reading with medium Kevin V. Coan, it was for a lark. One of my sisters had heard about him at work from a fellow admin in the police station. I had been to a few fortune tellers in the past and although some of them came up with some pretty intriguing insights….it was just fun and nonsense - explained away by coincidence and luck.
My first reading with Kevin Coan was in 2008. I was a very busy single mom raising three kids, working two jobs, as a professor by day and an ER nurse on the weekends. Taking the time to drive an hour for this 30-minute reading was a bit stressful in itself but I was curious. He asked me what city I worked in and I told him Lowell (the main job) . He told me he could see a hospital and a school so he could not tell what I did for a living. I told him yes, I was indeed a teacher and a nurse.
He “ brought in” many people who had passed in the next 30 minutes, including my mother, my father’s second wife Melva, my Uncle Dan, Aunt Mary, my brother-in-law Roger and my best friend’s mother Patricia. He didn’t always tell me who was speaking about the things he was saying but he did mention that someone with a funny sense of humor kept interrupting initially saying “Go BC, Go BC!” holding a Boston College flag in his hand. Yup, that was Roger for sure.
When I told Kevin what I did for a living, he said he was being told I should be a Director. He said he wasn’t sure of what - was I thinking of moving out of academia to be a Director of Nursing in a Hospital? he asked. Absolutely not, I answered. Just remember I said that, he replied.
He also brought in comments from the netherland about my current boyfriend. We had been dating for almost 4 years. We were wildly mismatched in terms of education and outlook on life but nonetheless it was easy for the most part, he was a fabulous skier and we had some fun together. But neither of us talked about a future together which was just fine for me. I was raising three teenagers, working two, sometimes three jobs, and was not even considering adding a new man to their lives. They had already been through a lot. Enough said about that.
But Kevin persisted…on one hand my mother thought this boyfriend was good for me - better than past relationships but that bar was pretty low. On the other hand, Kevin could see our interests were very different. My mother also mentioned that I seemed blocked from past trauma to be able to move on. The suggestion was - I needed therapy to figure out what I want. Not to worry, everything will be ok though I was told.
Kevin also described the differences between my mother and my father’s second wife to a tee. After nearly 54 years of marriage and several years living on his own, after my mother died my father eventually found a second love of his life at a high school reunion meeting. They married at age 82 and had three fantastic years together before she died unexpectedly. Kevin nailed their personality traits that they were sharing with him. Turns out they were both now looking out for me and I seemed to be keeping them quite busy with my chaotic life.
A few odd specific things that were true came up - I needed to fix the porch light that was broken, at my work there was someone blocking new initiatives and ideas and that I was often embroiled in controversy there, I felt stuck at work but I was free to go and must remember that.
The next day it dawned on me - I’d been Interim Director of the PhD program at my university for a year. I hadn’t applied for the actual position as I really didn’t want added responsibility to complicate my already complicated life. But I was doing the job anyways…why not get the credit? So that was what my mother meant! Ha! She was always right on with her advice in my hindsight. But fiercely independent me, I never listened to her when she was alive. So I applied and got the job.
