G is for Ghostly Encounter

       Although I have never been visited by the bloody ghost of Christmas past, I have had ghostly encounters with my mother since her death and have lived to tell the tale.      Before my mom died, she would often say she intended to come back and haunt me.   She joked about how fun it would be.   We would share a good giggle and go on as people often do. Unfortunately, one day the unthinkable happened and she did die.   Shortly after the funeral, life proceeded and my Dad returned to his job as an over the road trucker and for the first time in my life, I was left utterly alone.  When he left, he turned the lights off in their bedroom and closed the door.  It had also been my mother’s room so I avoided the memories found within like the plague.  She died in the living room, but still that was her room!

      One morning I awoke and smelled the familiar scent of cigarette smoke.  Weird, considering I don’t smoke and I was the only one in the house.  I remember thinking that I was losing my mind.   Since I had to pee, I rolled out of bed and headed for the bathroom determined to investigate the cause of the smoke smell after I had relieved myself.  When I reached the hallway, I stopped dead in my tracks.  Not only was the door to my parent’s room standing wide open, the light was on, and the bucket my mother had often used to vomit in during her illness was in the center of the hallway.  A chill raced down my spine as I stared in astonishment at the eerie sight.

       How could this be?? A shiver raced down my spine and my stomach clenched.  I held my breath.  It was impossible, but somehow the light had been turned on.  Somehow, the bucket had found its way to the middle of the hallway.  The familiar fragrance of cigarette smoke lingered as it often had so many mornings in the past as my mom enjoyed her first cigarette of the day.  I nervously laughed, and said to my mother’s spirit “Holy $hit mom, you scared the living be Je$u$ out of me!!!!”  I am sure she was somewhere watching and laughing her a$$ off at me.

     Since then, I have occasionally woken to find her watching over me.   As soon as I acknowledge her presence she flees.  Those visits have dwindled over the years.  There have been times when I have been deathly ill or in extreme pain when I have woken out of a sound sleep to discover her watching over me.  Her presence has always been comforting.  Those appearances I always chalked up to the fact that I probably imagined them in my feverous state.    Still the physical proof of the puke pail in the hallway, the bedroom light being on, and the lingering smell of cigarette smoke are a little hard to claim to an over active imagination or bad pizza.   I was fully awake and the only one in the house.  After all the ghostly encounters, I do believe in spooks until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.