Personally, I’m not a fan of the
scary part of Halloween. I don’t like haunted
houses, ghosts, demons, horror movies or the dark. Unlike Linus, I do NOT want to see the Great
Pumpkin. But here are a few ghost
stories from my own family that I thought some of you would enjoy.
Ironically, the first story
involves me when I was a baby. When Mama found out she was pregnant with me, my
Great Grandfather Cameron was one of the most excited family members. He was waiting on my arrival with great
anticipation. However, in October 1972,
he died of a massive heart attack. I was
born just a few months later in December.
A few days after they brought me home, Mama got up to check on me during
the night and make sure I was ok. When
she walked into the room, she saw my Great Grandfather and another women just
standing there peacefully looking at me.
Well, she went back to bed and wondered if she was dreaming or possibly
crazy. The next day, she was telling
about what had happened. Of course,
everyone thought it was funny and it turned into a big joke. However, when she told Mema Brafford about
what she saw, Mema asked her what the lady she saw had on. Mama described her outfit in great
detail. Several years before Mama and
Deddy ever dated, his Grandma Brafford passed away. She was a tough woman in her life but she
loved her family and especially her grandchildren. When Mama described what the lady had on,
Mema Brafford immediately realized that it was the outfit that Grandma Brafford
was buried in. You see, before they both
passed away, Grandma Brafford had been very good friends with my Grandfather
Cameron. All the sudden, the story was
no longer just a joke.
Another story occurred when my Mema
Brafford was staying with her brother many years ago as he was in his final
days. He had acquired cancer and it was
only a matter of time before he passed away.
She was sleeping on his couch and she woke up to the room being lit as
if someone had turned on a bright light.
Her father and one of her sisters walked through the room into Herman’s
room. A few minutes later, her mother
and another sister walked into the same room.
She said that the room looked like it had the brightest lights she had
ever seen coming out of it. She did not
move because she did not know what in the world to do. The next morning, she did not mention it to
Herman. However, he did. He told her about the family coming to see
him the night before. They told him they
would be back very soon to take him home and to not be afraid, everything would
be alright. He said they would return in the form of a white dove to take him
home. Herman died within just a few
days. In my family, if you tell
something like that, you are probably going to get laughed at and Uncle Boyd is
going to make about 50 jokes about it.
So, she only told Mama and Deddy.
After the funeral, everyone was gathered at Mema Brafford’s house and
just talking about Herman and that everything had been handled very
respectfully. Someone started talking
and said that the strangest thing had happened that day. When the hearse pulled out of the parking lot
at the funeral home, a white dove got behind it and flew back and forth all the
way out to the church. When the hearse
pulled into the parking lot, the dove flew off.
In case you’re keeping score, that would be when Herman went home.
The year that Deddy was sick,
several strange things happened that we just could not explain. I remember a few months after he come
home. He said that after he had his
surgery in Chapel Hill and it was not successful, for the next 3 days, he felt
the presence of true evil in the room with him.
He felt like the presence was making every effort to make him bitter and
angry. But after 3 days, he made his
mind up that although he was disappointed, he was going to make the most of
whatever time he had left. In the last
few months he was here, we witnessed a number of unusual things. One time he was laying in the bed and looking
up and smiling. Mama asked him what he
was looking at and he waved and pointed as if he was pointing to the top of a
mountain and said, “See all of those
people, they are waiting on me to come up there.” A few weeks later, he would be waving at
people that were much closer. The last
week, they were in the room. He did not
make an issue about it. He seemed to
think that we could see the same thing that he was seeing. Just a few days before he died, I was helping
him up by pulling on his right arm. He
reached straight out with his left arm and said, “Help me up Harold!” and he
kind of laughed as if “what is Harold thinking just sitting there doing
nothing!” The irony is that Harold was
his Uncle, who had died a few months earlier.
At the end of Mema Brafford’s life, I called Mama and Travis and told
them that they needed to come up to the Assisted Living facility that she was
in. When Mama got there she was really
happy that Mama had come and said, “Hey Brenda, so good to see you.” Mama responded that it was good to see her
too. Mema said “Bob’s here too!”, which
caused Mama to get a little upset and she said, “Well that is good Mema, but I
can’t see him.” That somewhat
aggravated Mema who responded, “Yes you can! He’s standing right there!” and
she pointed.
My brother Travis has two children,
Colton and Brooklyn. They are both great
kids and they know that Uncle Robbie is #1!
Well, Brooklyn hit Colton one night and did not hurt him, but Travis was
trying to teach her a lesson. So, he
punished her with the dreaded, “Timeout.”
Travis said she was screaming as if he was beating her with a cane from
the Philippines. All of the sudden, the
phone rang and "499-9750" came up on caller ID.
Travis answered it, no noise at all.
He called it back, “this number is no longer in service.” Ironically, for probably 30 years, Deddy’s
office number had been 499-9750. Guess
what? Timeout was over.
Happy Halloween to all of you and I
hope all the children stay safe and get plenty of candy to eat!!!!
