Wendy Saffel's Validation with her son Hugh through Mitch Ott
Posted
-
- Oct
- 6
- 2026
by Elizabeth Boisson
Wendy Saffel's validation with her son Hugh, parents, and a special guest
through Mitch Ott
At the Helping Parents Heal conference in August 2026, my husband and I scheduled a private reading with HPH medium Mitch Ott. Our son Hugh passed six years ago in 2020. I’ve been fortunate to have had many beautiful, evidential, transformative readings, which have given me tremendous healing and shown me that Hugh is still right here, right now, and that our relationship continues.
But it had been a while since I’d had a reading, and I wanted a tune-up, a reminder of our enduring love even though I certainly didn’t need any more proof or assurance of that. I’ve just been missing him so much.
In mentally preparing for the reading with Mitch, I so hoped that not only Hugh would come through, but also my dear sweet mom who passed unexpectedly just two months ago, and also my husband’s parents. (My husband’s name is also Hugh and I’ll call him Hughdad here.) He’s never had a reading before and I knew how much it would mean to him to also hear from his parents, who passed decades ago. During a meditation beforehand, I asked them all to be there at the reading with Mitch.
As soon as we got started with Mitch, he said, “Okay, right away, there's at least two to three people trying to line up.” Hooray, I thought to myself!
“I keep seeing an image of Africa,” he said. “There's a heart connection to this. That's why I'm like, it feels meaningful. It feels like something tied to Africa, and this person is hugging it. Does that ring a bell for you at all?”
Wow, we knew exactly who that was, but it wasn’t who we were expecting. “Yes,” we responded. “That’s the child of close friends.” As it continued to unfold, Mitch knew it was a daughter on the Other Side, that she had long blonde hair, was in her 20s; he nailed her personality, and he described the exact cause of her passing—which was a highly specific, unusual one. “She says, ‘My family. Thank you’ and she's hugging Africa.”
Our friends’ daughter Zoe had been a preschool teacher in Africa and was deeply passionate about improving education in the small town. Our friends developed a foundation and are supporting education and infrastructure in that community, so it's a deep family connection and commitment.
Zoe had a message for her family and then Mitch said to Hughdad and I, “Just know that she's hugging you guys and she says you guys are so beautiful and thank you for helping my family.”
We were thrilled to hear from Zoe and to be able to give her parents a message. It was funny that she crashed our reading because Hugh crashed her parents first reading after Zoe passed! The kids were good friends in life. What beautiful evidence that our kids are very much still with us. Mitch could never have known these specific details about someone not even in our family, unless Zoe had been there.
Then, in came Hughdad’s father, then my mom. Just a few beautiful details about those:
- When Hughdad’s father came in, Mitch said, “I’ve gotta ask, is your name tied to dad? Because he's saluting me (he was in the Navy), and he just showed me, one, two, like, the mark, for the name. And then three. Is that tied to the name?” This is incredible because Hughdad’s father was Hugh Jr (Hugh II). My husband is Hugh III. Isn’t that just remarkable and evidential when those specific details come through? There were other things that came through that brought Hughdad to tears because his dad had never gotten to see him become a father, and he always wondered if his dad would be proud of him. Pride and love came through so loud and clear.
- With my mom, Mitch knew that she had dementia and a bit of a paper hoarding problem, which she certainly did. “Did you try to haul things away when your mom was in the other room?” Mitch asked me. Oh geez, I sure did, and now Mom knows everything! Mitch brought through a ton of specifics and the messages that Mom doesn’t have dementia anymore, that I was her greatest teacher in this lifetime, and that she wished she had done a few specific things differently, which were very relevant. It was remarkable.
Mitch said “They're all piling in, they're circling around you guys in my mind, a tight-knit family. Do you understand this? I'm just seeing everybody holding this up right now.” Interestingly, in the reading, they kept bouncing around and interrupting each other. It was fun.
Then our boy Hugh came forward. Mitch brought through many specifics such as Hugh’s piercing blue eyes, and “everything your son does has a spark.” I can’t tell you how many times we’ve described Hugh as a firecracker. Then Mitch said, “Are you in his room, because he's like showing it and he keeps saying she's in my room, she's in my room, and he says I just see you sitting there listening and then writing. Do you understand this?”
I sure do. I had to make his room into my office at the beginning of the pandemic when my job turned remote. I’m in there all day every day. Mitch even described the three trophies of Hugh’s in the room. Mitch continued, “He keeps saying, ‘Mom, I write through you.’ And he keeps saying, but it's more like he's showing me, channeling. He's telling me you have the ability to write from him and just know that he says I work through you. Okay?”
I published a book a year ago about my journey since Hugh passed and the writing had flowed easily. It was wonderful getting confirmation that, indeed, I had been hearing Hugh and that he was helping me write the story.
Hugh even showed Mitch that Hughdad turns wood bowls on a lathe in our garage!
I could go on and on. So much evidence. So much comfort. We walked out of there flying high, knowing that our loved ones see us, hear us, work through us, and are very much a part of our lives still.
~Wendy Saffel, HPH - Seattle Co-Affiliate Leader, and author of 'Never Really Left.'