The Key To A Better Day

I have had many unexplainable phenomena happen to and around me over the years. This particular extraordinary event occurred in November of 2007, Norfolk, VA, USA. My husband and I were living in a small 1950's home that we were in the process of renovating until the day we sold it and I was around 4 months pregnant with our son.

The back story on our house is that it was owned by the Gray's prior to my husband buying it in 1999. We do not know exact dates but we know that Mr. Gray passed first and that Mrs. Gray took her final breaths in that house in 1998. There was not much notable activity but occasionally you could feel a feminine presence. It was disapproving sometimes and would hover watching us when we got up to our early 20's antics of partying. On one occasion the dog door flap swung back and forth for a half an hour. Our dog Shadow was in the room with me and there was no wind strong enough to move a dog door flap big enough for a Rottweiler. It freaked me out but Shadow was calm and she was a coward so I told myself it was fine.

I owned a small business at the time and we were gearing up for the holiday season. My mother in law had unexpectedly passed a month prior and my husband was still numb. I was trying to carry the bills, a child, and a grieving husband through the retail rush. He was working construction and left earlier in the morning than I did most days.

In a hurry to get out of the house and open my store I locked my keys in the house. My husband was at work already and I needed to open my store on time or the mall would charge a fine. I was an emotional wreck with trying to work through the combination of loss and pregnancy. So, there I was standing next to my car looking up at the sky about to break down sobbing, it was all wrong. I shouldn't be shoving down my excitement about my pregnancy because my husband needed me. His mom shouldn't be dead. It shouldn't be on the brink of Black Friday. I wanted a BREAK. I just needed to get in the house and get my keys. The back door was probably unlocked but jumping a six foot fence while pregnant was a last case scenario. I started to walk back up the path to the front steps and stopped. Choking back a sob and blinking to fight my tears I looked down and there was a key at my feet. A house key. Not on a keychain. We did not have extra keys. I can't tell you if it was left there by Mrs. Gray or by Brian's mom but it was everything I needed right then. I picked it up and it was the key to my front door. The key felt like a literal symbol that there was hope and that I was not doing this alone.