The Music Box

Two years ago on January 31, my mother passed away unexpectedly. She went to bed and when my father came in he realized that she was not breathing. We called an ambulance and spent two days in the hospital with her on life support before her body stopped working. There was no warning that anything was wrong and to this day the doctors are still baffled as to what caused her death, the only thing they could figure was her heart just stopped. For my family, and myself the hardest part was we were never able to say goodbye to her.

My older sister ended up taking a music box that was a coconut that had been cut in half and fitted with the workings of a music box. This belonged to my mother and she had it since she was a little girl. However, the music box had not played in over twenty years and part of the pieces that made it work had either fallen out or were so rusted they could not move.

About a year later, on January 30, I was at my sisters house by myself getting ready to go out with some friends. My sister lived closer than I did so I decided to get ready there. As I was getting ready to walk past the dresser where the music box sat, it began to play. Now, we had tried winding the box, and even taking it to get it fixed. Parts were missing and it was very rusted so it should not have played.

I sat down on my sisters bed and listened to the music for several minutes. As I listened, I realized the tune was "You Are My Sunshine", which is what my mother always used to sing to me. After my sister came home, I told her what had happened and she said it had been playing on and off since early that morning. It never played for her but it played for my nephew who was twelve at the time, and who was also my mother's favorite.

The music box played through January 31, and never played again. We still have it and we truly believe that a year later my mother came to say good bye.

I have several other stories about some of the experiences that I have had and will post them at a later date. Thank you for reading this and your input is appreciated.