Family Traditions

This may not be so much a ghost story as it is a love story. But either way my family has to have the strangest tradition of any family in existance. The women of my family are strong and independent and have the blessing (or curse) of having the fortitude to stay in a relationship only if it is a life long love. Once that love is found the women of my family never have another romantic relationship ever. Here is where the strange family tradition comes in. The women in my family also know when they are going to die. They know this because their deceased lovers come back for them. Sounds crazy, I know. But I grew up with these stories going back generations and have myself witnessed two of them, which I will presently relay to you.

The first is my great-grandmother, she outlived her husband by almost six years and I was only about ten when she passed away herself. In the end she was living with my aunt and a week before she passed away she kept telling us that her husband was coming to take her away Saturday, that he visited her everyday at the same time. My aunt thought she was begining to lose her mind, which considering her age could have been possible, so someone was sitting with my great-grandmother every day. At 3 p.m. every afternoon my great-grandmother would have a conversation with her "husband." No one ever saw my great-grandfather but during that time my great-grandmother's hand was out in mid- air as in someone was holding it reassuring her that everything would be alright. This could still be the deluded mind of an aged lady, but the day before my great- grandmother passed away my aunt was sitting on her bed with her at the time my great-grandfather supposedly visited. At 3 p.m. my great-grandmother started talking to her husband, her hand raised as if someone was holding it and my aunt swears someone sat on the bed next to her! That day my great-grandmother told everyone that it was time tomorrow and said good bye to everyone. She passed away peacefully the next day early in the morning.

The second story I witnessed was my grandmother who was living with us when she passed away. I was 17 at the time. Her beloved husband died in the service of our country when my mother was four years old, my grandmother never remarried. She had outlived her true love by over 30 years. As the time of her death came nearer she tried to gather the family to say good bye (both my uncles lived out of state). One she spoke with over the phone to say good bye, the other she did not but only received a message that he would come visit next week. She kept telling us that she wouldn't be here and we kept telling her of course she would (she hadn't been as healthy as she was at that time for quite a while). At last she told my mother that no she wouldn't because she was dreaming of her departed husband every night and he was coming to take her home. My mom brushed it off as just dreams, but in less than a week the day after my grandmother hugged my brother and I and told us good bye and she would always love us she passed away peacefully in her sleep.

Many people may think I am crazy but I firmly believe that love brought the spirits of the people in my family back together. Natural death is nothing to fear....it is merely a reunion.