December 19, 2007

Dad's Still Watching Over Us

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Marci, Randolph and Milton, Massachusetts, September, 1983

My father passed away very unexpectedly back in September of 1983. Around the time he died, members of my family experienced a series of strange occurrences prior to and after his death. I am the youngest of four, and have one older brother and two older sisters. At the time of my father's death, both of my sisters were married and on their own. My brother and I lived at home with our parents in Randolph, Massachusetts.

One week before my father's death, my parents were away for the weekend staying at a house we had recently purchased. We were doing some cosmetic work to the house before it was to be rented to a tenant, so there was no phone installed.

My brother and I were at home, and he was suddenly overcome by a feeling that something happened to one or both of our parents. My brother insisted that we take a ride to the new house (about an hour away) to make sure our parents were okay. We arrived there and our parent's car was parked safely in the driveway, and this calmed my brother's fears. We did not bother my parents and returned home to Randolph.

That same night after we got home, my brother went out to a local convenience store. When he returned, he came into the house in a panicky state claiming he saw a :white glowing column" on the roof standing near the chimney. I went outside and did not see anything (there was no smoke coming from the chimney as it was a very warm September night).

My father passed away the following Sunday. We were all obviously very upset by his death. Plans were made for his wake and funeral and several more strange things happened during this time. In retrospect, I believe that my father was communicating to us, his children, in ways that we would each understand.

It was the day after my father died. I was a teenager at the time and my then-boyfriend and I were sitting in his car in the Blue Hills Reservation (Milton). The car was facing the woods, and suddenly a white glowing ball appeared in the woods in front of the car and was flitting around. We both saw this and were very frightened! We left immediately and he dropped me off at home. (As a child, my father used to take me "ghost watching" in the Blue Hills, which is reputedly home to many ghosts. We never saw anything on these excursions, but I always liked stopping at Dairy Queen for an ice cream on the way home!)

I was upset when I got home. I spent a few minutes talking with my mother and older sister, who had returned home from California for the funeral. I did not mention my experience in the Blue Hills Reservation. I went to use the bathroom, and pulled down the window shade. About a minute after I pulled down the window shade, it violently retracted and snapped back up so that the window was fully exposed (this had never happened before). That was just about as much as I could take in one night! I was very upset, but managed to go to bed.

The next night was the night before the wake. My sister from California was in the bathroom across from my bedroom drying her hair. She called my name and I came out into the hallway. She asked me if I could hear what she was hearing. We could both hear a very distinctive bird call coming from outside (the windows were all open). The bird call sounded like one you would hear in a tropical climate, and was very loud. Also, it was night time and you do not usually hear birds at night. I had never heard such a bird call before. (My sister later told me that when she was a little girl, she would set up a tent and "camp" in the backyard with friends. My father liked to joke around, and would sneak up to the tent and make strange animal noises, including one like the bird call we heard that night.)

The next night was the night before the funeral and burial. We had a full house as all of us, including my two older sisters and their husbands, were staying over. My other older sister who lives locally slept in a bedroom that my father also used as his "studio" (he liked to paint and draw and was quite good). She woke in the middle of the night to hear a lilting voice saying over and over "Lisa" (her name). Her husband heard the voice as well. Lisa later told me that when she was little that our father would hide a "walkie-talkie" two-way radio and call her name. She would be looking for our father because she could hear his voice on the two-way, but could not find him -- Dad though this was amusing.

About a week or two after the funeral, a cat showed up at our backdoor and my mother let her in thinking she was our cat. It was actually a cat that looked almost identical to our cat "Popcorn," but she had double paws, which was how we realized she was not Popcorn. I named the new cat "Max," and she showed up at our house every night for about two weeks and slept on my bed. I found Max to be a big comfort, and sometimes had both Popcorn and Max with me (Popcorn was very accepting of Max). One night Max did not show up and I never saw her again.

Also, I think my father is still watching out for me. In the few years after his death I think he was "weeding out" the good boyfriends from the bad. We had an extra bedroom we always referred to as the "yellow room." I dated two long-term boyfriends before I met and married my husband. On occasion, the boyfriend would stay over (only with my mother's permission and always in a separate room). Both boyfriends woke up screaming that there was a white orb bouncing around the bedroom, and were very frightened (kind of like what I saw in the Blue Hills Reservation)! I eventually met the man I would marry, and he slept in the "yellow room" many times without seeing anything. In a way, I took this as my father's blessing and have been married for 16 years and have a wonderful husband and two great children.

I have not lived in Randolph for many years and now reside in Boston. A couple of times on the anniversary of my father's death, I have heard that same strange bird call outside of my house (always after dark and usually on very warm September nights). I think he is still out there watching over his children.