Alchemy with Nancy

Signs, Synchronicity & My Grandfather in Sicily

• Nancy Gutierrez • Episode 23

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✨Episode Summary

If you’ve been following along via my emails or Instagram stories, you’ve probably heard bits and pieces of this story. But today, I’m sharing it in full: the wild synchronicities and undeniable signs I received from my grandfather throughout my trip to Europe—especially in Sicily, where his family was from.

From lemons on my vision board months before I ever imagined going, to stumbling across a postcard my grandparents once sent from Taormina, to the emotional moment in Catania when I asked for a sign and got one that left me speechless—this episode is about connection, healing, and the ways our loved ones let us know they’re still with us.

🔑 Episode Highlights

  • The postcard I stumbled on from my grandparents, sent years ago from Taormina, one of the places I’d be visiting.
  • The wild synchronicities: meeting strangers named Joe and Nancy, stumbling across “I Love Joe,” and spotting a store named Nancy on a street named Via Giuseppe (my grandfather’s name) Garibaldi. 
  • The emotional moment in Catania when I asked for a sign—and what happened next.
  • Why being in the place my grandfather’s family came from made these signs land in a way I’ll never forget.

📚 Resources & Links Mentioned

✨ If this episode resonates with you, I’d love it if you’d share it with a friend—or leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help more people find the show.

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Welcome to Alchemy with Nancy, a podcast about self-awareness, synchronicity, and the mysterious ways life speaks to us. From psychic experiences in plant medicine to near-death stories, mediumship, past lives, and personality typology systems, we explore real-life experiences and themes that shift your perspective, spark self-awareness, and remind you there's more going on than meets the eye. I'm your host, Nancy, and I'm so glad you're I'll see you next time. bits and pieces of the story that I'm going to share today, which is just filled with unreal, synchronistic experiences and clear signs from my grandfather, from the time that I booked my European adventure all the way through the time I got home. But before I get into the story, I first wanted to say that A couple of years ago, there is no way I would have ever shared a story like this on a podcast, let alone a podcast that I had created. And I say that because I, a would have been too scared that people would have thought that I had completely gone off the deep end. But where I'm at now is that I know what I know and I know what I have experienced. And there's a lot of research and academia to back all of this up. So if it sounds crazy that I'm talking about synchronicity, which is Really just, you know, a meaningful coincidence that when you begin to notice these synchronicities, that they're comforting and they have implications that are like so healing and healing. again, comforting. And when I talk about things like signs and being able to, you know, connect with your loved ones that crossed, I am just hoping that with me sharing these stories that it might help the next person along, somebody who might be stuck in grief or feeling like, you know, sad or lonely or disconnected. And Again, knowing what I know, knowing what I've experienced, knowing how all of this has helped me. And again, having the research and academia to back me up has given me the confidence to be able to share stories like this beyond my inner circle of friends. So all that said, let's jump into it. So in January, I created a vision board. feelings in me, like a beautiful body of water or a photograph or, I don't know, the Louvre I had on there. Photographs or pictures of things that evoke feelings of creativity and peace and joy. And another picture that I put on there was a picture of a bag, like one of those mesh, like open weave bags filled with lemons sitting in the sand. And to me, that symbolized Sicily. And Sicily to me feels like peace and slow days. And it really makes me feel connected to my grandfather, whose family is from Sicily. And so I put that picture on my vision board and I had no intention of going to Sicily this year wasn't something that you know was really in the cards for me or so I thought mainly because I was in the middle of a major home renovation and also I had started a new job in October that you know I was still acclimating to and so you know I I just didn't envision myself going to Europe this year at all with everything that I had going on. But still, again, I put the picture of the lemons on my vision board. Fast forward to March, I get a text message from one of my girlfriends asking me to go to Greece with her this summer. And I'm immediately like, there's no way I can go to Greece. All of our money pretty much is wrapped up in this renovation. And I just started this job. And you know, I just, I can't do this right now. And so I was like, hey, I don't think I can make it work. I have all this going on and whatever, like home renovations, like anything can happen. Like, I don't think the timing's great. And she's like, well, if it would be helpful, like I have all of these airline miles that we're never gonna use. So just let me get your ticket. And I was still like, no, like, I don't think I can do this. And then I thought to myself, when in your lifetime does somebody offer you a ticket to go to Greece. And I'm like, okay, well, let me ask my boss and let me like figure this out. So I go, I talk to my boss. My boss is like, it's totally cool. And I'm like, no way. Like, so I like at this point I have like, I'm going to Greece. And she then says to me, well, you know that once we get over there, like it's really cheap to go other places. And I go, let's go to Sicily. So within three months, I've manifested this trip to Sicily, okay, and in Greece. And I'm just like, oh, I am so elated. And I am especially elated because, again, the connection to Sicily that I have because of my feelings for my grandfather. And I just knew that going there for me, I just knew that it was going to be deeply healing anyway. Okay. I got it back together. So even though things were falling into place, still like part of me was like, like, is the timing of this good? Like, should I really be going? Like, I have this job. I just, I don't know. So in the middle of feeling that way, I am going through a box of stuff that I've been lugging around with me since college. And I find in there a postcard from my grandparents from Sicily, from Taramina, which is a place that we had planned to go. We were going to be staying in Catania, which is a place I know that my grandparents have been, but I had no idea that they had been to Taramina. And to me, that was just like the sign, this affirmation that like, I am meant to go. I am supposed to be there. Wow, this is... hitting me in a way that I didn't think it was going to telling this story. Anyway, the show must go on. A few weeks after I find this postcard, a book, our apartment in Catania, and I decide that I'm going to take a little tour via Google Maps. And so I go down the street, I hang a left, and I spot this big green sign that says Nancy. And I'm like, no way. And then I notice the street. And the street that it's located on is via Giuseppe Garbaldi. I think I said Garbaldi right, yeah. And I'm floored because Giuseppe is my grandfather's name or Joe, okay? used interchangeably. Anyway, I think to myself, oh my God, if this is happening now, I can only imagine what's gonna happen when I finally get to Europe and then get to Catania. And so that said, fast forward to Athens. I go into this little shop called I Love Jay. It's a jewelry store and I buy this beautiful, I don't know what they call it exactly, but it's like the eye of protection necklace. And I just love the store. I love the necklace. Again, this store is called I Love Jay. My son, his name is Jason, but we call him Jay. So I was just like, I love Jay. That night, though, for some reason, I was looking at my credit card transactions and I noticed that the store is not named I Love Jay. It is named I Love Joe. And I'm like, no way. That's so funny. I love Joe, my grandfather. So a few days later, we're in Paros and we are having lunch at this cute little restaurant at the beach. And my girlfriends and I noticed that the guy at the table next to us looks like Jude Law. And then we noticed that he has an American accent. And so we start talking to him and we find out that his name is Joe. And I'm like, no way, another Joe. And, you you know, Joe, really. The next day, we are shopping around the island. And we wind up in the cutest little boutique. And we're being helped by the cutest, sweetest girl. And when we're checking out, I asked her what her name was. And she says, Nancy. And My friend and I almost fall over because this girl is clearly Greek. I mean, she told us that she, you know, was born in Greece. She lives in Athens, you know, most of the year and or part of the year, I should say. And then, you know, spends the summers in Paros and she's a tattoo artist, just the coolest girl. And we're like, well, how did you wind up with the name Nancy? And she says, well, that's not my real name, my real name. And I wish I could remember what it was. She wrote it down for me and I lost the piece of paper and hoping that it will turn up. But she tells us what her Greek name is, and apparently there's a derivative of her Greek name and the American equivalent that she goes by is Nancy. And then she goes on to tell me that the name means that you will live forever, which is in total alignment with what I know, and that is Our consciousness survives our bodily death. And so again, just another like wild synchronicity, right? Like what are the odds, right? That I'm just meeting people named Joe and Nancy and seeing signs along the way, right? Anyway, fast forward to Catania, which we almost did not get to because we got trapped on the island of Paros because of weather. And you know, I was just like open. I was like, you know, even if we were only there for a day, like I, it will be so incredibly meaningful to me to be there. And so we arrive finally by the skin of our teeth to Catania and we were there literally a day. And the morning that we were leaving, I got up extra early and And I made it outside the piazza right in front of our apartment. It's 6 a.m. and there was not a soul in sight. It was me and the pigeons, right? And I'm just sitting there and I'm just taking it all in. And I get on my Instagram stories. And I start sharing some of these things that I shared in today's episode. And then I stop my story and I just sit there and I cry. And I'm just like, I'm just like, please just send me a sign. Like, let me know that you're here with me. And a minute or so later, this guy comes through the piazza on his bike and he's singing. really loudly and he just obviously caught my attention. I have my phone in my hand and I start recording him and he sees me and he starts laughing and I am mortified because what type of person just starts recording somebody without their permit? So I'm like, I'm beside myself and I approach him to apologize and And as I'm getting closer to him, he starts speaking to me in Italian and I say to him in Italian, I don't speak Italian. And he said, that's okay. I speak English. And so we start chatting and he tells me that he is, he comes there every single morning and that he used to be a pilot and an engineer. You know, he had lived in Paris and in Milan and he was, you know, telling me that, He loves Catania and that his dad had passed away a couple of years ago. After his dad passed away, that he started pursuing what he really wanted to pursue in life, which was the arts. And he now sings. and paints. And we just had this like really cool conversation on this bench. And then I ask him his name and it's Giuseppe. So I start telling him all of the story that I've shared with you. And he was like, he was like, I believe in all of that. And I believe in angels. And it was just the most incredible experience. And then I ran upstairs and I told my friends. I was like, oh my God, you're never going to believe what just happened. Anyway, after I got home and got settled, I recorded an anniversary episode because it's been a year now that I've had this podcast. And at the end of that episode, I talked about... this episode and how I was going to be sharing this story. And right after I finished recording, I walked into my son's room and on his dresser was a pack of vintage matches from the Aladdin Hotel and Casino. They're on my desk. I'm actually holding them in my hand right now. They're from the Aladdin Hotel and Casino and they were sitting on my son's dresser. And I said, Where did you get those? And he said, oh, I opened up a closet and they fell out. And I said, do you know where they're, whose matches those are? I was like, those are your great grandfather's matches. I took them from my grandparents' house right after my grandfather died, along with a bunch of other matches that he had because he collected matches and I collected matches too. And just the fact that they were sitting on my son's dresser Again, it's just like, to me, confirmation that he is always with me and always guiding me and loves when I share stories like this. And so for those of you who are listening to this and thinking, gosh, you know, I would love to have that sort of connection with my loved ones who have passed and feel that comforted and guided by them. There's a couple of books that I would love to recommend to you. And that I love so much. One of them is The Light Between Us by psychic medium, Laura Lynn Jackson. And in this book, she talks about like how she discovered her gifts. She talks about some of the research that's being done at top universities like University of Virginia. And then her second book, which I cannot even tell you how many copies I have given to people Over the years, it is called Signs, the Secret Language of the Universe. And in this book, Larlyn shares stories of people who have received their own signs and revelations and crazy synchronicities. And she teaches you how to ask for and learn to recognize your own signs. And I'll link both of the books in the show notes. Thank you so much for listening and stay tuned in a couple of weeks for another episode with psychic medium Renee Adele. We are going to be talking this time about the work she does in plant medicine. So stay tuned for that and also an episode with Judith Dreyer on the deeper meaning of our dreams.

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Thanks again for being here. Catch you next time.