My step-dad of 27 years died on Wednesday, the 8th of Sep.  He was almost 89. His health had been declining the last month and for some reason his platelets fell and his body just kept destroying new ones.

He is now in the spirit world. But, where is the spirit world?

Some people believe that the spirit world is far away — Some other place than this world.

Somewhere in heaven.

But I believe the spirit world is right here, in another plane of existence, made up of spiritual matter that we cannot see with our physical eyes. But it is right here and sometimes God lets us see through that veil.

Brigham Young taught that the spirit world is right here. That when we die we pass through the veil, much as you would walk from one room to another, or out the front door.  You would be much the same person in thought and deed — cranky or kind, good or evil.

“Is the spirit world here? It is not beyond the sun, but is on this earth that was organized for the people that have lived and that do and will live upon it.” JD 3: 372

It must be like waiting for your baby to be born, anxiously awaiting for the day of delivery of that sweet baby.

James Langenheim

It must be like that on the spiritual side of the veil when some loved one has died here in the physical world and there are those that are anxiously awaiting the return of the spirit; the ancestors excited, the many friends and family waiting for this other kind of birth.Perhaps we had family that were a little bit sad when we left the spirit world to be born. Maybe similar to how we feel when our loved ones leave this mortal life.
“When the breath leaves the body, your life has not become extinct; your life is still in existence. And when you are in the spirit world, everything there will appear as natural as things now do. Spirits will be familiar with spirits in the spirit world—will converse, behold, and exercise every variety of communication with one another as familiarly and naturally as while here in tabernacles.” JD 7:239
There is a parting at both times — the birth and the death — which brings joy and sadness…and experience.  But we are not that far from each other.  And I believe they watch over us, perhaps serving as our guardian angels.