In Spirit

After my great grandmother immigrated to Canada in 1929 with her new husband, her father decided to remain in England for the remainder of his years. Sadly, in the years they lived apart, they had very limited contact apart from periodically trading telegrams back and forth. Once they separated, she never saw her father's face nor heard his voice ever again.

It was a relatively quiet Saturday morning in 1952 and at the time, my great grandparents resided in a quaint suburban neighbourhood in Toronto with my grandmother and great aunt. My grandmother, then thirteen years old, decided to occupy her time by polishing her bedroom furniture. Once finished, she joined her older sister in the living room, where she passed the time by reading peacefully. They sat together quietly, before my great grandmother approached them in order to speak with them briefly. She appeared to be in both a perplexed and rather somber state. An uneasy expression was frozen on her face. Upon being asked what the matter was, my great grandmother glanced back at her daughters and said:

"You're going to think I'm crazy, but my father is right here with me".

Of course, they always claimed to be firm believers in the paranormal and neither of them believed she was crazy for saying that. They were however concerned about her well being and clearly noticed that something was wrong.

The following week, they received a telegram in the mail. It stated that her father had recently passed away. Sadly, the mail was always delayed and the time it took to arrive was always excessively longer. Once becoming informed of his passing, my great grandmother's superstitious episode became far more understandable. She then proceeded to elaborate by claiming that on that day, she felt that he began to communicate with her nonverbally. She said he felt a sense of pride in her for living in such a lovely home and raising two wonderful daughters. She was visibly upset by his passing, but over time, felt more at ease knowing that her father would always be with her in spirit. She soon began to live each day far more joyously knowing that her father would always be watching her from that moment forward.