I believe your loved ones are still around you when you need them. I know I will sound like a lunatic and I'm not. I don't believe in ghosts and things. But my grandmoter whom I was very close to died a couple of years before my D8 was born. When my D8 was an infant I sat in her nursery and said to myself how much I wish my grandma had met her and asked if she would watch over her. I swear to you one of her musical hanging on her crib toys that you have to pull down to play music started playing. Freaked me out. I think it was grandma's way of letting me know she was around.
Okay, you can think I'm crazy. Every word of it is true.