ABSTRACT
It is often said that many African Americans believe strongly in the continuation of a person’s spirit beyond death (e.g., Barrett, 1998, 2003; Pleck, 2000). So it should come as little surprise that 19 of the 26 interviewees talked about having or anticipating continuing contact with the person who died. As with African American women studied by Smith (2002), and as in research where most or all the people who were studied probably were white (e.g., Bennett, 1999; Conant, 1996; Klass, 1988, pp. 18-19, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1999; Klass & Walter, 2001; Sormanti & August, 1997), the deceased person was not gone from interviewees’ lives. They might know they will meet with the person in heaven. They might experience a sense that the person is watching them from somewhere. They might hear the person talking to them, or see some signal that the person is present.
