Our Dearly Departed

I'm not sensitive to ghosts and I'm not easily spooked, but last night I just about jumped off my sofa.  I was sitting on my couch, watching television like a giant slug.  I heard the dogs barking and looked up at the cat walk.   Both my dogs were chasing what looked like a person walking across the catwalk.  I went crazy.   I was alone in the house very late night with my children and seeing a strange person wandering down the hall being pursued by my frantically barking corgis was enough to set me off.   I went to grab a weapon and pursued the intruder up the stairs.  I was armed and dangerous.   Both my children were upstairs and I didn't want anything touching them.  Suddenly the dogs stopped barking and wandered down stairs.  I did a thorough search and found nothing up stairs.  Both my children were sound asleep and cocooned under a nest of covers.  The house was still and all was quiet.  The dogs slept.

This left me with a bit of a mystery.  There was clearly someone upstairs.  My dogs saw it.  I saw it.  It was an adult person.   I sat down to ponder whether or not both the dogs and I had accidentally ingested LSD when my husband came home.  He reminded me that his mother had died two years ago last night.  He was sad.   I had completely forgotten about the day because I forget all birthdays and anniversaries by default, but now I had to wonder if my unexplained event and the date were related.  I've heard stories of ghosts that only return on the anniversary f their death.  Perhaps this is what I saw.   I saw my mother-in-law going upstairs to check on the grandchildren she loved so much.   I hope so.  There is actually comfort in that thought.  There is comfort that somehow those who have left us can still come back and check on us and make sure we are alright, that they can love us from afar even if we can't always see them.  It is certainly more comforting than my accidental ingestion of LSD theory.  Either way, I'll light a candle for my mother-in-law today.  She and I had our differences, but I miss her now that she is gone.