Paranormal Cont...

I remembered something that happened while I was in my twenties and living up Bingamon. My father-in-law had just passed away in Dec of '92. I was driving to class in the spring of '93 and he appeared in my passenger seat. He didn't say or do anything, and I acknowledged that he was there. It felt strange, but I talked out loud to him. I could see the passenger door thru him and he had his customary coat and cowboy hat on. I actually had the coat hanging in the closet at home. It was about a month later that my husband told me he was leaving. I don't know if that had any connection to the apparition, but I always felt like my father-in-law and I were kindred spirits.
In the spring of 2000, my Daddy began coughing. It wasn't out of the ordinary for him to have a bout of a chest cold a couple of times a year, so we just treated the cough as we usually would. After a few weeks, he went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. They didn't seem to help and this started a string of doctor visits and different antibiotics. Finally in Oct, he was int he hospital. He had a bad infection that wasn't getting better. They were treating him and planning on him making a full recovery and coming home. One day in the middle of Oct, I was vacuuming my living room. I was living in the trailer that sat on this same lot I live on now. There was nothing out of the ordinary, except that later in the day I was going to go to the hospital and visit my Daddy. When I got to the couch in the living room, it felt like something hit me in the stomach-HARD! It doubled me over, but I was alone in the house. I had to sit down on the couch. With the "punch" came flashes in my mind of my Mom crying, the family in an uproar, everyone torn up emotionally, chaos. I saw different family members and their emotions. I thought it was because my niece was having a lot of problems and the family was worried about her. I thought in my mind that maybe she had done something stupid and that the family was upset about that. This lasted about 5 minutes; not being able to breathe and these changing images flashing in my mind. The one thing I realized later that my Daddy wasn't in any of these images. A month later he passed away in the hospital in the middle of the night. The family was devastated! After his death things around here really picked up in the paranormal sense.
I would be sitting on the couch and look up and out the window and he would be walking thru the yard. He had his blue plaid lined flannel shirt on and his hands clasped behind his back, classic Daddy. He would be in the house, on the property, at my job, in the car. When my boyfriend and I broke up, my Mom was down at my house the night I threw him out. We were in my room and were boxing up my boyfriends junk and there in the corner of the room was a full body apparition of my Daddy. He was just standing there, watching over his girls. The love that was radiating from him was so strong and comforting. He was with me for 7 1/2 years. It was so comforting and strengthening to know he was always around. I even had a picture of an orb in my kitchen that I know was him. The strange thing is that when I quit feeling/seeing him here, the picture also changed. In the original photo, there was only one orb. Now in the picture there is a line of orbs. You wouldn't believe it if you hadn't seen it for yourself, and now the evidence itself has changed.
The most wonderful part of this is when/why I stopped seeing my Daddy. I had met my fiance in Jan of 2001. We were in no hurry to get married, and were both perfectly happy just living together and having our lives. After we had been together about 6 years, we did start talking about getting married, but he wasn't ready yet, and I understood. In the fall of 2007, we started looking at rings and talking again, but didn't do anything. I was still seeing my Daddy on a regular basis. In February of 2008, I found a ring I loved at Gordon's and I told Chris about it. In March, I stopped seeing my Daddy and I haven't seen or felt his presence since. Life went on for Chris and I and we went on vacation in Aug/Sept of 2008 to the beach. On Sept 4, at sunrise, on the beach, Chris proposed. And I accepted! Later that day we were talking about the ring and how he had gotten it. That was when he told me he had actually bought it in March of '08 and had just been waiting on the right moment to pop the question...That tells me that my Daddy knows I am loved and safe now and that he can rest because both of his girls are in good hands. Chris loves and takes wonderful care of both me and my Mommy. This just makes me want to cry. I have tried to contact my Daddy since, but he never responds, and since I was his baby girl, I had him wrapped around my finger and he would definately show up if I was the one asking. So I know he is finally resting on the other side and that he can be at peace now, and that I don't have to worry because he has put his stamp of approval on Chris!

What a klutz!

When I was growing up, we would go and visit my Aunt, Uncle and Grandmother who lived in OH. My aunt had the most gorgeous 1930's lamp with two round globes, one on the top and one of the bottom of the lamp. They were milky white with violets on both of them. A real heirloom. I remember always seeing that lamp setting in a place of obvious favor on a round table in front of the front window. It sat there for years. I was always allowed to look, but knew never to touch it. I adored that lamp. It made it through the years of my childhood and all of my cousins that came to visit and play. No one ever bumped that table where the lamp sat.

Years later my Aunt and Uncle moved to a new house in a new town just up the road. We visited there a time or two and then my Uncle passed away. I got married and my new husband and I went to go to a couple of amusement parks in the area and stayed with my Aunt. We were having a wonderful visit, catching up and just enjoying each other's company. I have always been a rather clumbsy person, and nothing still has changed. I like the facebook group that said I could trip over flat surfaces. I think I have actually tripped over my own shadow before... Well, my Aunt had this beautiful collection of Home Interior's porcelain animals on a side table by her door. Across the walkway was her chair and a side table with the much adored lamp on it. My new husband and I were getting ready to go out for dinner with my Aunt. I was looking at all the porcelain animals she had and talking to her about them while she got her jacket on. I made a motion with my arm and pushed my elbow back and caught the top of the lamp and knocked it out into the middle of the hardwood floor...I was mortified! My Aunt just laughed and brushed it off, cleaned up the glass and refused to take any money for a replacement. And she also gave me a nickname that has stuck to this day...she calls me "Klutz" and everytime she does, everyone knows why and gets a good laugh out of it. What a gracious lady she is, in so many more ways than just this. It taught me that things aren't what is important in life, people are. I knew it anyway, but it was such a wonderful way for her to show it to me in more than just theory!

Happiness...

I am having a grand ol' time. I can't remember being this happy since the summer before kindergarten. It is a total contentment. And a great deal of it is thanks to Chris. He is incredible. I know that God brought us together because I could never have found someone so perfect for me on my own. I just hope that I am as perfect for him as he is for me.

There is a bittersweet awareness in this happiness that I am keenly aware of. It is almost an exquisite pain and practically tangible. I know it won't last forever. This time is almost like being in suspended animation. And I am almost afraid of the incredible sadness that I know can and may follow. The kind that swallows you up and if you aren't careful will suck you into a deep depression.

So I am thoroughly enjoying and savoring every single second of this precious happiness and thanking God that He has blessed me with this time. It will be a great bolster against any negativity that may follow. Something to feed my soul through whatever may follow.

Of course, I want to think that this time is my "reward" for being through the sometimes incredible tough times I have already been through in the past. This may or may not be the case and that is okay. If the wonderful times don't last, neither can the awful ones. And with the wonderful support system I have, and the love of a Father that is beyond understanding and incomprehensible to me a mere mortal, I know I will be fine whatever may come.

In the meantime, I am going to just wallow in the sheer joy, contentment, and happiness I am finding with every new day. And give thanks to God for his mercy, grace, love and forgiveness! May all of my friends and followers enjoy a time like this at the exact time they need it.