When I was a young child I spent many a summers at my grandparent's house in Lasalle Ontario. They had an old redwood cedar and angel brick house with a large woodland behind them. I played and made forts in the woods. This was the late 70s early 80s and even then time had stood still for years in these woods. Old scrap antique car hulls where hidden among the vines, streams filled with pike fish wandered through the woods. Wild berries, grapes and milk pods were abundant. The forest seemed surreal and stretched on forever. (The forest actually crossed the Lasalle town limits from the Detroit river to the opposite side where it ended on the outskirts of Windsor.) It was about 3 miles deep and had a few scattered farm fields along the outer edges; Wonderful place to be as a young child.
Besides the forest the other thing that I remember about my grandparent's house was the grandfather clock that stood in the hallway. It had been made by my grandmother's cousin from a kit that was bought though Sears. (I think it was built in the 1930s) So being 40-50yrs old at the time my grandfather would constantly be fixing it. It had 5 or 7 different chimes and sometimes they worked sometimes not. Often granddad would be working on it and I would get to see the innards. They were so complex with little gears and shafts, weights, springs, hammers and chains. I can remember several times in my youth trying to make heads or tails of how the gears worked. They made no mechanical sense to me. The connections they made and the way they worked just did not seem to be functional so it was a "magic" clock to me. Something that was always mysterious and beautiful to look at.
Well the years passed and God collected my grandfather at a young age in his 50s. He had a very long run with a dreadful illness that had him bed ridden for many years. When he died the clock toned all of the chime selections at midnight for three nights in a row. Then it did not work anymore. (the clock did but not the chimes) We all thought this was crazy. But the event passed without further incidents. Many years later it came time for my grandmother to move out of the house that my grandfather had built. (it was a very sad day) but she found a condo in Amherstburg close to us and was quite happy. The clock was moved to the condo and no longer worked. It became a statue or piece of furniture to look at.
Now a funny thing happened. The person who moved into grandpa's old house got to know the neighbor, who we were friends with. It got back to us that the new owners would wake in the night and hear a clock ticking. On a few occasions they would even hear the hand movement cycle to move the hands. They traced the sound to the hallway where the grandfather clock had once stood. This went on for about a year and then eventually stopped after the new owners did a massive remodel of the house.
To make this story weirder... A few years ago we lost my Grandmother. After the funeral we returned to her condo and in the middle of talking about the good ole times the grandfather clock chimed. It chimed all of the chime selections one after another. We all looked at each other wide eyed as the clock was not working at the time. (no ticks... No tocks... Nothing and it had been many years since the clock was even wound.) Regardless we all had a kind of freak-out moment.
The clock now rests at my Mother and Father's home. I spent many hours working with it to get the innards cleaned up and working again. We even had a clock guy come over and work with it to fine tune it and replace the hammers. So now it works perfect. My Mother uses it from time to time. Sometimes she will stop the clock to get a rest from the sounds, as it is a noisy clock when it is working. Every now and then it will start up by itself and give us all a wow moment. This clock has come to be dear to me. I often wonder if our family has a spirit connection to it, or if it is linked to the afterlife. Is it controlled by the ghosts of its former owners? I wonder a lot about that clock. Will it chime when my parents pass? Will it chime when I come to pass?
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