My mom died in March of 2010. Around Christmas time that year, I was online gift shopping, but started feeling mopey thinking about how Christmas wouldn't be the same without her, and my heart wasn't in it. A few hours later I took the bins down the driveway for pickup the next day. As I was walking back up the driveway, I saw a Polaroid photograph face down, and picked it up. It was a photo I'd taken of my son on Christmas Day when he was about 14 (about 11 or 12 years prior to this), smiling and handing a present to someone.
I was completely baffled, because it wasn't a photo that I'd ever carried in my purse, which might have fallen out on the driveway. It just lived with all my other photos, either in albums or desk drawers. As I looked at it, a message came through clear as day. I don't mean that I heard a voice or anything like that. But it was like a sudden understanding that my mom was telling me, 'You know how you are sad about Christmas without me, your mom? Well, *you* are a mom too, and you're important to my grandson, and his Christmas memories are going to involve you, just like your memories about me do.' It really was as if a light bulb went on in my head, and in that moment, I broke out of that quasi-dread about Christmas, and got more into a festive mood.
Even though I love hearing about possible paranormal stories, when it comes to myself, I always try to find a rational explanation. Not because I absolutely want it to be logically explained, but because I want to avoid talking myself into something, based on wishful thinking or something like that. But I've never been able to find a reasonable explanation for why any photo, let alone a Christmas one, landed face down on my driveway. So thought I'd share this, because even though it isn't technically a ghost story, it might help people who may be grieving a loved one look for signs like that, and feel hope that their loved one is still looking out for them.
Thanks for reading this, and stay well, everybody, in these crazy times.