Well, here's another story, make of it what you will.
Over twenty years ago, my parents died at the hands of a drunk driver in Hawaii. They were cremated and the ashes sent home to me. My parents' wishes were that their ashes be dropped off the suspension footbridge at Preque Isle, in the UP of Michigan. This is a long cable suspension footbridge over a gorge where the Presque Isle River enters Lake Superior. First you have to hike a couple of miles, then you cross the bridge over this wild river that is the color of root beer due to the pine forests it runs through (tannin in the water, not pollution)
by now you have probably figured out that my parents were into nature and wild things. They were proffessional nature photographers, actually. Anyway, i had been to this locastion maybe fifty times in my life. There are bears there, and various fish, and deer.....never saw any other wildlife.
Stever and I and little Rachel stood on the bridge and dropped the ashes over the side. They didn't look the way I expected, they were white, and they sparkled in the sun. When they hit the clear brown water, they turned to gold. Then, a pair of otters surfaced in the river, right among the ashes as they drifted to the bottom. They stayed for a few minutes, together, swimming around, and then they were gone.
This was not a hallucination, they were seen by Steve and a bunch of random hikers. No one had ever seen otters there before. It was really very comforting. And my paernets would have liked to come back as otters, even if only to see me for a few minutes....