Among my circle of friends and family, July has got to be the month with the most birthdays (I am a July baby myself). Last July 21st something odd happened.
It was late morning and everyone was gone except my niece and I. My niece was upstairs, while I was downstairs making sure my nephew turned the television off in the living room before he left. Once everything was in order, I proceeded to the front room to do schoolwork. I was about ten minutes into my work when the television suddenly turned on. Initially, I thought that my niece came down to watch television, but I would've seen her come down since I was near the stairs. When I called out to her she was still upstairs. So I headed back to the living room to turn off the TV. I was sure that I turned the cable box and the TV off, so I shrugged it off thinking that is was some kind of electrical issue of some sort (and that TV's sometimes turn on by themselves?).
Later that day, I began making dinner before my family came home (I'm living with my sister and her family at the moment). I usually watch Netflix movies on my iPad while waiting for the food to cook. While letting the food simmer, I sat down at a table across from my niece who was on the computer. I was halfway through the movie when I had to continue cooking, leaving my iPad on the table. I've developed the habit of closing all running apps on my iPad before doing anything else, so I did just that and headed back to the kitchen. A few moments later, my niece called out "Your movie is playing!" I told her that I stopped the movie and exited out; that it was not possible for it to play again. I asked her to turn it off again and close the app. This time I made sure that the iPad was within my sight while cooking in case it was my niece playing tricks on me. Another moment later, she said that my movie was playing again, and it was. I finally decided to see for myself, and saw that a completely different movie was playing; one that I never watched before or even opened. This puzzled me, and know for a fact that my niece didn't do it, since I changed my password to prevent her from messing with my iPad.
That night my mom from the Philippines called. We chatted on the phone for a while, then she mentioned that it was her deceased brother's birthday, and that my dad's brother who was suffering from the late stages of prostate cancer has been in a coma for a while (he passed away the next morning).
Maybe it was all a coincidence, maybe not. Weird thing is, it happens every year. Like I mentioned in one of my other stories, I always experience weird things on deceased people's birthdays and death anniversaries, but I am usually unaware of these occasions until after I relay my experiences to my mom. I've gotten so used to it that it doesn't really unnerve me anymore.