The Father Who Stays

My story starts in West Virginia and traveled to Pennsylvania and back to West Virginia. In 1964 I was married and had a baby girl. It was in January of that year that one night I had a dream of my husband dying, the car he was killed in down to the casket he was buried in. I woke gene up and told him it was so real. His response at that time was that all things would pass.

He had a friend die and told me that he would be the next one. I asked him why, our daughter was only a few months old. He said he had done everything he wanted to do, been everywhere he wanted to go. And that he would always be with Gena. (Our daughter).

At Easter that year he won an Easter basket and came home with film and said that these were going to be the last pictures I would have. He said he would always be with Gena and not to move back to my home town and that I would never find happiness there and if I did he would come back until I left.

He was in a car accident in June (12 days before he was 30.) He did say he would never live to see 30. I moved back to my home town and within 2 days, one night I awoke and Gene was at the foot of my bed. He said he would come back until I left. He then walked over to the crib, picked up Gena held her and put her back and disappeared. My parent's bedroom was next to mine. The next morning I was having coffee with my father. He asked who I was talking to, there was a light shinning and I was not the one that picked up Gena. I told him I didn't notice anything. He came back night after night and told me the same thing.

I went to stay at a friend's house and he followed. My friend told me I had to leave because strange things were happening. She said she never saw anything but she knew that whatever it was it was not of this world.

I moved back to my town and remarried) and one night when Gena was 5 she woke up screaming. We asked her what was wrong. She said that a man keeps coming to see her and wants her to be happy and he would always be with her.

My 2nd husband said he would sleep in the room that night. The next morning he was sitting at the table and looked awful. I asked him if he did not sleep well. He admitted "No, he felt like someone was breathing down his neck all-night. The man that came, Gena described to Gene but had never seen a photo of him. She was 7 months old when Gene died. To this day I will not walk into any dark room if she is asleep there. I had a hard time keeping sitters because they heard noises, water would turn off and on, and foot falls when all the children were asleep. None would stay over.