Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Psychic and rebel explored perceptions

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published July 25, 2007

BELLEAIR BEACH - Her family waited for a sign. Jackie Cernak had just died. They wanted to know that she had moved on.

The skies opened. For five minutes, rain poured against a backdrop of sunshine. Then, a brilliant rainbow.

Typical Jackie.

Her life was full of signs. To Jackie, happy coincidences meant life was on track.

She was a rebel from the start. Raised by her Italian immigrant grandparents in New York, she started smoking at 10 years old, and wore berets to school when others wore ponytails.

As a teen, she fell in love with an artistic guy named John Cernak. She got pregnant, and they eloped to Michigan. She eventually divorced, remarried, then divorced Cernak again years later, but the two stayed friends.

In Florida, she was an antiques dealer and owned several shops. Before going to garage sales, Jackie would meditate and ask for guidance.

She had psychic abilities, her family said. "When we were kids and our friends were over, she'd have you sit across from her at the kitchen table," said Lisa Close, eldest of Jackie's four daughters. "Some people gathered in the kitchen to cook. My mom gathered to read your tarot cards or your palm."

Jackie raised her kids Lutheran, but she began questioning the faith and exploring Buddhism, meditation and yoga. In the late 1980s, she traveled to India, where she stayed for 10 months.

She followed the teachings of spiritual leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. She attended classes on "a Course in Miracles," a self-study spiritual system. There, she met Dan Smith, her boyfriend of 20 years.

They never married. Jackie craved independence and relished living alone in her 500-square-foot Belleair Bluffs cottage. Plus, she was sensitive.

That heightened perception helped her see into people, her family said. She could tell if someone had a medical problem, or where a person planned to move, Smith said. In the hospital with lung cancer, she would grab strangers' hands, look into their eyes and tell them they were kind. "She could touch your hand and know everything about you," Close said.

Jackie felt a connection to the moon, and stayed close to home on full-moon days.

She lived in places called Half Moon Park and Crescent Moon Drive. Her family says she died the day a new moon phase began.

A happy coincidence.

Stephanie Hayes can be reached at shayes@sptimes.com or 727 893-8857.

Biography

Jackie Cernak

Born: May 31, 1929.

Died: July 14, 2007.

Survivors: Companion, Dan Smith; daughters, Lisa Close, Kim (Neil) Barry, MarLa Day and Janna (Matt) Zankich; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; sister, Vickie Lloyd; brother, Daniel Cameron. Predeceased by her parents and aunt Gena Bronzene.

[Last modified July 24, 2007, 23:58:52]