Rate this encounter:
Kerry - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Halloween 2004
It was Halloween night 2004. My mother was having her usual Halloween
dinner. She really gets into her holidays and had her house decorated to the
hilt. My two nephews both brought a jack-o-lantern that they each proudly
carved to add to my mother's outside décor. After dinner my mother, sister,
brother-in-law, two nephews, and I headed out for a round of
trick-or-treating. My dad stayed home to hand out candy. As we left, my
mother asked my dad to please light the boys' jack-o-lanterns. We made our
rounds around the neighborhood and upon returning to the house we all
commented on how neat my mom's house looked and how beautiful and extra
bright the jack-o-lanterns looked all lit up (making my nephews very proud).
We got in and my sister and her family said their goodbyes and left. I
stayed behind to help my parents take down their décor (my mother is very
particular about not leaving decorations up when the holiday is over). While
taking down the decorations my mother made her way over to the
jack-o-lanterns. When she went to take the candles out… there weren't any!
She asked who took the candles out so she would know where they were. I said
that I didn't take them out and my dad said, "What candles? I didn't light
them because I couldn't find any candles to do so." At this time my mother
and I looked at each other with boggled looks on our faces. We both said at
the same time, "You are kidding right?" He said nope, that he was busy
handing out the candy and tried finding some candles but they weren't
anywhere to be found so he didn't do it. My mother and I knew we saw those
jack-o-lanterns lit up very brightly upon returning home. Trying to figure
out what was going on, we looked back inside the pumpkins and to our
amazement the pumpkins looked fresh… no soot, and no cooked/burned pumpkin
areas. There was no evidence that anything had burned in them. Just to
confirm that my mother and I weren't going loony, we got on the phone and
called my sister and asked, "You did see the jack-o-lanterns burning
brightly when we were returning home, right?" And her, my brother-in-law,
and nephews said, "Yes… that we all even commented on it." This was one of
the coolest things that I have ever experienced. We believe in our hearts
that it was my grandfather who lit the pumpkins. He passed away December 10,
2003. He loved the holidays like my mother does and I know he wouldn't want
my nephews disappointed by not seeing their jack-o-lanterns that they worked
so hard on, not lit up. I think he also wanted us to know he was still with
us celebrating each and every holiday.
