This is a true story about a first hand experience with my daughter.
Soon after my mother had passed away, I went to my parents house so I could do a couple loads of laundry. At that time, my first daughter Ashley was only 3 years old and she was there with me. My father was still working at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) in St. Louis, MO. The house I was in was the first house my father and mother had purchased after being married and they were the only ones to ever live there for it was a new built home back in the 50′s.
The house was quiet for all my siblings are much older than me so the house was empty for they all lived elsewhere. I wasn’t planning on staying there while the laundry was going but since I had to go in the basement to do it, I told my daughter to sit in the recliner and I would turn on Sesame Street for her. She was a very good child and so she sat and watched T.V. while I ran downstairs.
The living room was barely lit up, for the picture window curtains were perfectly straight with blinds closed so you couldn’t see in or out. My father was always big on closing up the house when no one would be home. It was daytime yet the light just barely filtered in the living room. The blue recliner was several feet away from the picture window. The couch was directly under the picture window and the love seat and couch was in an L shape with only an end table separating them. The love seat is where my mother spent most of her time. She was sick quite often with kidney and heart disease so she would normally lay down on the love seat which faced the T. V.
I started my load of laundry and then was ready to come back up the steps which leads into the kitchen then into the living room. I had lots of errands to run that day so I would be back later to start another load. I must of been in the basement no more than 5 minutes. I was kinda in a hurry so I wasn’t really paying close attention to my daughter while I was grabbing my keys and purse and telling her, “let’s go, we have got running to do”. As I walked towards the door, I turned to look at Ashley who was still sitting in that blue recliner. She wasn’t looking at me or paying me any bit of attention at that point. Instead, she was smiling and waving real cute like 3 year old children do, to the far end of the couch. I said, “Ashley, what are you doing”? I didn’t have a clue why my 3 year old would do such a thing when there wasn’t anyone there…or was there?
She finally replied to me and said in the sweetest voice, “I’m waving goodbye to Memo”. Long e and long o. This is what we call grandmother’s in our family. At this point, I don’t know what to do or say but after hearing what she just said to me, I find myself looking in the direction she is waving and really studying that area hard like I’m going to see something if I stare long enough. Like I would see my deceased mother.
Totally spooked out now, I snapped out of it and told my daughter, “let’s go NOW”. I didn’t know what to think, how to feel and what to do except get out of there and quick.
This wasn’t the end of that though. I locked the door behind us and we started to walk down the front steps, onto the sidewalk and towards my car. I get halfway to my car and you know how you get that feeling that someone is watching you and you know you shouldn’t look back but you do anyways? Yes well I decided to look back at the house and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
During the time my mother was alive, she was really weird about answering the door when she wasn’t expecting anyone. If she heard a car door or someone out side she could hear talking, etc. she would very gently and slowly pull the curtain open at the edge of the picture window, just enough to peek outside to look. So when I looked back because my gut told me to do so, I seen that the edge of the curtains were pulled aside as though someone (my mom) was looking or peeking out the window.
I didn’t see the curtains move, and I most certainly did not see my mother’s ghost but I believe that my daughter seen her that day. That’s good enough for me to believe that she was there in some fashion.
Soon after my mother had passed away, I went to my parents house so I could do a couple loads of laundry. At that time, my first daughter Ashley was only 3 years old and she was there with me. My father was still working at McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) in St. Louis, MO. The house I was in was the first house my father and mother had purchased after being married and they were the only ones to ever live there for it was a new built home back in the 50′s.
The house was quiet for all my siblings are much older than me so the house was empty for they all lived elsewhere. I wasn’t planning on staying there while the laundry was going but since I had to go in the basement to do it, I told my daughter to sit in the recliner and I would turn on Sesame Street for her. She was a very good child and so she sat and watched T.V. while I ran downstairs.
The living room was barely lit up, for the picture window curtains were perfectly straight with blinds closed so you couldn’t see in or out. My father was always big on closing up the house when no one would be home. It was daytime yet the light just barely filtered in the living room. The blue recliner was several feet away from the picture window. The couch was directly under the picture window and the love seat and couch was in an L shape with only an end table separating them. The love seat is where my mother spent most of her time. She was sick quite often with kidney and heart disease so she would normally lay down on the love seat which faced the T. V.
I started my load of laundry and then was ready to come back up the steps which leads into the kitchen then into the living room. I had lots of errands to run that day so I would be back later to start another load. I must of been in the basement no more than 5 minutes. I was kinda in a hurry so I wasn’t really paying close attention to my daughter while I was grabbing my keys and purse and telling her, “let’s go, we have got running to do”. As I walked towards the door, I turned to look at Ashley who was still sitting in that blue recliner. She wasn’t looking at me or paying me any bit of attention at that point. Instead, she was smiling and waving real cute like 3 year old children do, to the far end of the couch. I said, “Ashley, what are you doing”? I didn’t have a clue why my 3 year old would do such a thing when there wasn’t anyone there…or was there?
She finally replied to me and said in the sweetest voice, “I’m waving goodbye to Memo”. Long e and long o. This is what we call grandmother’s in our family. At this point, I don’t know what to do or say but after hearing what she just said to me, I find myself looking in the direction she is waving and really studying that area hard like I’m going to see something if I stare long enough. Like I would see my deceased mother.
Totally spooked out now, I snapped out of it and told my daughter, “let’s go NOW”. I didn’t know what to think, how to feel and what to do except get out of there and quick.
This wasn’t the end of that though. I locked the door behind us and we started to walk down the front steps, onto the sidewalk and towards my car. I get halfway to my car and you know how you get that feeling that someone is watching you and you know you shouldn’t look back but you do anyways? Yes well I decided to look back at the house and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
During the time my mother was alive, she was really weird about answering the door when she wasn’t expecting anyone. If she heard a car door or someone out side she could hear talking, etc. she would very gently and slowly pull the curtain open at the edge of the picture window, just enough to peek outside to look. So when I looked back because my gut told me to do so, I seen that the edge of the curtains were pulled aside as though someone (my mom) was looking or peeking out the window.
I didn’t see the curtains move, and I most certainly did not see my mother’s ghost but I believe that my daughter seen her that day. That’s good enough for me to believe that she was there in some fashion.
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