Deon the Love Ghost

This story takes place in North West Indiana.

In the seventies my wife and I took in teens who close to getting in trouble with the law. We were a Christian family and would try to help them. We had four boys all in their teens that lived with us almost constantly. One evening they brought a friend with them. That evening we met Deon.

He was a sad looking lad that thought the world was against him. I guess he wondered why we were such a happy group. He didn't say much the first few times that he visited but slowly he opened up to us. We had noticed that his hair was very scant. We had an idea what his problem was. He finally opened up and our worse fears were finally confirmed, Deon had Cancer.

He stayed with all of his seventeenth year. Our love for him deepened until he was like our son. We were planning a driving vacation and of course he would be going with us. He had his drivers licence so he would be helping drive. He never was able to make that trip for a couple of days, later he was put in the hospital, never to come out.

He had never known the love of a family so we were happy to be able to give it to him. Deon died but he never left us. We could feel his presence all around us. When mother was fixing something he especially liked she would feel him tapping her on her shoulder. He would do this and then when she would turn around he would reach around the other side and snitch a piece of half red meat out of the skillet. Other times in the middle of the night we would hear him dealing pichnocle cards on the kitchen table. He always wore a heavy class ring and that is what we heard clacking on the table. He Has also been seen. Once by our son in law and also by a group of friends when we were talking late at night. He was not scary at all for there was no doubt Deon was a Love Ghost.