Ghost Story

Two years ago, at Christmas time, T made a grave blanket for Master's mother's grave.  She explained to us that this was an old German tradition, and she would just have none of anyone trying to talk her out of doing it.  She took it to the cemetary on a very cold and very snowy Saturday when Master and I were away at a meeting in the state capital.  She got it anchored into place, and took some photos to share with us and with "grandpa." 

If you look at the picture below, you may notice a small, bright, white spot in the lower right corner...

Here's an enlargement of this little bit...

We came to believe, over time, that what T had captured with her camera that day, was an orb.  According to Dave and Sharon Oester (from GhostWeb.com), this kind of orb represents the soul of a departed person. The soul being the essence of who they were in life, complete with their intelligence, their emotions and their personality...

In the nearly two years, since His mother's death, we've been "visited" a number of times by the spirit of Rebecca.  Mostly, she seems to show up on T's side of the household, banging on things, shuffling along the carpet, standing wisp-like in the corners, and generally scaring the willies out of poor old Prazer cat.  Our common response to these mom appearances was to reassure her that grandpa was fine, being taken care of -- "don't worry, Mom, all is well."

Theirs was a long and almost unbelievable story...  They were both orphans of a sort.  She'd grown up never knowing the man who fathered her, and her mother died in a fire when she was very young.  She was taken in by relatives; cared for; fed; given a place to sleep -- but, in her own mind, she was the Cinderella in the family.  She never fully got over missing what she missed in her childhood. 

Walter's parents divorced when he was 12 years old, and he found himself abandoned in the midst of The Great Depression.  Somehow, left all on his own, with nowhere to go, and completely without any support, he managed to graduate from high school at the age of 16.

Walter met Rebecca, and the two of them fell into a love as vast as the great gaping lack of love that characterized their youths.  They wanted to marry, but the world was ablaze with World War II, and he did not want to marry her, and leave her to go off to war -- perhaps to be widowed before their life had even begun.  They waited... and waited... and waited, and the draft notice that he anticipated did not come.  Finally, after years of delay, they decided it might not ever happen, and so they got married.  Six days later, the notice they'd been expecting for so long arrived, and he was called to the war in Europe. 

Rebecca waited -- for the first time (but not for the last), for her Walter to come home.  We've got a number of stunning "cheesecake" style photos that she had made for her soldier.  Eventually, he came home, and they did make a life together.  He worked as an insurance claims adjuster, traveling a good part of the time, and coming to be very well thought of in the industry.  Although he never pursued any formal schooling beyond high school, he was a man of great curiosity and intellect. 

Master was their only child, and the little family of three did everything together.  They wrapped themselves around one another, and through good times and sometimes enormous struggles, they made a family. 

In retirement, they enjoyed traveling, and it was not at all unusual for them to take off on a road trip, visiting places and friends that they'd made in one or another place where they'd lived and worked over the years.  They loved their two grandchildren, Master's son and daughter, and delighted in their successes and achievements.

In the days, since Walter died, the universe has seemed oddly calm and quiet.  We've had no Rebecca visits since Tuesday morning.  While we came to accept her ongoing presence in our lives after her death, there is no sense at all that he remains "hanging" around our lives and homes.  It seems that her life-long habit of waiting for him has, at last, come to an end.  We are left with the sense that they have been finally re-united and have gone on to whatever it is that encompasses the energies and personalities of our souls. 

Here, there is still sadness and a sense of surprise at the suddeness of it all, but there is also some sort of shimmering wonderment at the amazing love of these two remarkable people.

swan