Rosemary Altea connects the living with the dead, and she takes her work seriously.

But she's also able to laugh about her upcoming scheduled appearances in the Valley this weekend: Noon Friday at Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 S. McClintock Road, Tempe; 7 p.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the New Vision Spiritual Growth Center, 9659 N. Hayden Road, Scottsdale.

"Basically, it will be Rosemary talking to the dead," Altea said. "At Changing Hands, I'll speak and sign books but also take questions about the spirit world, and I'll do the same at New Vision."

Altea, a medium and a healer, has published six books - her most recent is A Matter of Life and Death - made six CDs and appeared on such television shows as Larry King Live and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Altea, 61, was born in England but now lives in the United States. She visits the Valley often and is renting a home for a short time in Paradise Valley.

Talking with the departed has been a part of her life since childhood, Altea says.

"I was considered strange since I was a little girl, saw these spirits and wondered why others didn't," she said. "They are with me all the time; people say, 'How can you live with that, doesn't it get crowded?' They don't know how I deal with life with (spirits), and I don't know how others deal with life without them."

Altea says her claims often are met with skepticism.

"But I always have specifics, and that stops people," she said. "A woman called in to the King show and said her father had planted a rosebush before he died. But her father said to me right away that he had planted two rosebushes, and I told the woman that, and I could hear her gasp."

She says that if people pay attention, most can make connections of their own with the spirit world.

"We all can have a sense that someone is around us, and if we were to give 10 minutes of every day to the spirit world, we'd all eventually make a connection with our loved ones," she said. "But we're all so busy watching TV or the computer; we have to give time each day when the phone doesn't ring, the computer and TV are off and we're being quiet and listening. Then we would begin to hear the voice of our soul."

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