Woman Left in Tears After Receiving Sign from ‘Heaven’ Following Grandfather’s Death: ‘I Couldn’t Believe My Eyes’

When Analyse Capodiferro finished her freshman year of college, she was getting ready to move to New York City for a dream internship. But just as she was starting this new chapter, life took what she calls a “bittersweet” turn.

On May 2, 2019, shortly before her move, her grandfather — Jon Allen Roachell, the man who helped raise her — died unexpectedly at 79.

“I wanted to be there to help clean out the house and support my grandma, but I knew he would want me to go,” she recalls. “One of the last things I remember him telling me was how proud he was of me. That’s something I’ve always held onto.”

Even though she left for New York before she could help sort through her grandparents’ belongings, Capodiferro says their attic and garage were like a “giant treasure trove.”

Growing up, she and her sister spent much of their childhood with their grandparents in Memphis, Tenn. Her grandfather had lived there since 1974, after moving from Tucson, Ariz., where he’d been raised.

Her grandparents loved wandering through yard sales, and their home slowly filled with quirky finds and keepsakes.

“You could dig for hours and not even scratch the surface of their collections,” she says.

Some of her favorite childhood memories are of tagging along to yard sales and then exploring whatever odd little gems turned up back at the house.

One find in particular stuck with her: a box of more than 20 vintage National Geographic magazines tucked away in the attic.

“They were in great condition aside from a bit of dust,” she remembers. “Not enough to deter me, though.”

A nature lover, she was instantly captivated. She deliberately left the magazines at her grandparents’ house so she’d always have something to flip through after school.

“The magazines were special because my papaw and I spent time admiring the world through them,” she says. “We didn’t travel much growing up. Those magazines were our way to travel together, to places beyond our wildest dreams.”

After her grandfather died, though, the home had to be cleared out. During that process, her mother donated the magazines to a local donation center in Memphis — not realizing how sentimental they were.

“I was pretty upset, but I knew it was a tough time and everyone was doing the best they could,” Capodiferro explains. “I also felt more guilt for not being there to help more than anything else. But it felt like a big memory with my papaw was gone.”

By late 2020, more than a year and a half later, she was still grieving. That Christmas, she decided to try to track down a similar set of magazines.

There was one problem: she couldn’t remember the exact dates. She only knew some issues went back to the ’60s and ’80s, which made the search feel nearly hopeless.

“Statistically, it was impossible,” she admits. “I’d grazed through local thrift stores to see if they had shown up anywhere. I’d find a few vintage National Geographic magazines scattered around, but nothing that matched his collections.”

Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she needed to keep looking. While browsing online, she eventually landed on Goodwill’s website and typed in “vintage National Geographic magazines.”

To her surprise, she found a listing for two boxed sets and placed a bid on impulse. A few days later, she learned she’d won — and that the magazines were being shipped from Tucson, Ariz.

“It felt as though he had shipped them straight from Heaven,” she says. “They truly could have come from anywhere in the U.S., but they didn’t. They came from his hometown. It was such a special moment.”

She doesn’t believe the magazines are the exact ones her grandfather owned, but to her, they’re even more meaningful.

“They were in perfect condition. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she says. “I remember sitting on the floor in my room, carefully scanning each page and just sobbing. For a moment, it felt like he was right there with me, flipping through the pages.”

As she paged through her new collection that night, one issue stood out: a 2019 special edition titled Women: A Century of Change.

At the time, Capodiferro was studying acting and had begun focusing on comedy, with a particular interest in women’s stories and experiences in the field. She spent much of her time reading work by influential women like Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, Virginia Woolf, and contemporary writers such as Sarah Ruhl and Samantha Irby.

Finding that specific edition tucked into the box felt like more than coincidence.

“The experience felt like pure magic. A miracle, if you will,” she says. “To have loved someone so deeply and lost them so suddenly was devastating in ways I couldn’t even process. Receiving a gift from him in Heaven was one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.”