When our eyes open....

Why is it that after someone significant for me passes away I see them so differently than when they were in the flesh right before me? It is as if my mind's eye, so to speak, I see them differently. I can recognize everything so clearly. I wonder why I never saw or so totally understood what was happening before? Was it because now I saw their spirit uncluttered by their physical image? Sometimes, it has been said, when someone is no longer here we experience them now that their shadow is gone. The idea that when we pass away (we pass away, our body dies) we see things clearly, this is mentioned in the Gospels. So the concept is nothing new. But why is it there? Is it to show what is to come?