DAD'S PAGE

Later she realized she was getting a draft from under her front door. She went to make a temporary draft stopper with a towel & rubber bands. She saw that Dad had the rubber bands in a container on the top shelf of the cupboard. While she was worrying about how to get to them, she suddenly had a thought to look in a basket on the counter. There, sitting on top, were 3 big rubber bands. She had just cleaned that basket out the day before & there were no rubber bands in there.

Mom always said Dad spoiled her -& now she’s finding out how much. She decided to move a small lamp from the bedroom & put it in the bathroom as a nightlight. She went to go get it, dreading having to crawl around to get it unplugged from behind another piece of furniture. She went into the bedroom & found the lamp unplugged & the cord coiled up by it –all ready to go!

His other daughter was feeling sad & had laid down for a nap & was in that stage between being awake & asleep. She suddenly sensed a presence & said “Hi, Dad!” with out thinking. This woke her completely up –& she heard the sound of footsteps approaching the bed & felt a large warm hand pat her side comfortingly. Then the presence {Dad} was gone & when she looked no one was in the room. And the door had been closed the whole time.

Another time she was talking to Mom on the phone. They were reminiscing about Dad. {In the past when she called, Dad would be on the other line listening, but not saying much, just being a part of the call.} While she was talking to her Mom this time she suddenly felt a strong cold wind -but only on the hand holding the phone. There was no possible source for this & it almost felt like it went between her hand & the phone. At the exact moment this happened the line suddenly filled with heavy static, which subsided after a minute. They asked Dad if it was him - & immediately got another burst of static. {You can read an article about phone calls & spirits on our Ghost News page.}

Another son who lives out of state has been visited also. His daughter had shut off a sink & walked away - & the sink turned back on by itself.

I guess Dad was even over helping out a friend of one of his son’s the other day. His son had taken Dad over to see his friend’s rifle shop a few times & Dad was just fascinated. Well, the friend had a pegboard above a bench that was full of small gun parts -some he couldn't even remember what they were for -& most that he couldn't get off the hooks any longer. When this friend went in to his locked shop the other night he found every last thing off the hooks. Everything was sorted & organized neatly on the bench. No one had been in there since he had locked it up earlier. He said he got the feeling it was Dad who did it.

LOVE DOESN'T DIE -UPDATE 3/02/04

Dad is still visiting the family. His granddaughter out of state has reported feeling a hand on her shoulder & turning around to find no one there. She was also startled by a white form going by her quickly. Her Dad reported feeling a cold breeze go by him suddenly in his home office. No source for it could be found.

The daughter who had previously heard the footsteps & felt his hand, had another encounter. She woke from a very vivid dream about him, where he appeared like he did when he was younger than she ever knew him. {It is not uncommon for spirits to visit their loved ones to communicate in dreams. It is also common for them to look as they did in the prime of their life.} Upon awakening she immediately heard rapid tapping on her bedroom window. It apparently came from the inside, as the blinds were moving. And there was nothing outside of the window to cause it.

Mom also heard from Dad when he got upset with her for over doing it again. She was resting on the couch when she was startled by 3 very loud, angry thumps that came from inside Dad's favorite recliner near her. No one had been near the recliner & there were no pets to blame!

UPDATE 3/15/04 - Dad was visiting again over the weekend. Mom was moving furniture this time. As she was in the process of moving a desk through a narrow door way, a coat hook fell off the door & a clock fell down behind the door. This was immediately followed by a man's voice shouting "HEY!" The voice sounded as if it was in the same room with her & startled her quite a bit! She answered him automatically before she realized that no one should be there. She did a through search of the house. The doors & windows were all shut & it wasn't the TV. Just his way of letting her know he's still watching over her....

UPDATE 3/17/04 - Dad's popped in to say 'Hi' to Mom again. She was taking a break from her running & sitting on the couch reading. She had the TV on for the birds. {The cockatiels enjoy their TV!} All of a sudden the TV snapped off -startling her & the birds. At 1st she thought that maybe it was just the channel she was on, but no, the TV had been completely shut off. This in not something that the TV has ever done before! And it worked fine afterwards.

UPDATE 3/19/04 - Mom woke up this morning to the sound of a male voice talking in the living room. She couldn't make out any words & the voice stopped as she got out of bed. She went out to the living room & checked things out. No TVs or radios were on. The cockatiels were usually excited, tho. {& no, they aren't capable of sounding like human -their speaking voices is higher & not as clear} She asked them if Grandpa had been visiting them & they all said "Yes!" at once. On a stand outside their cage, the cockatiels have a couple of animated bird statues that make real bird sounds. Mom has them set so that she has to activate them, not the motion sensor. But the last 2 days they have still been chirping on their own at random times. For a while, one was activating about every 10 minutes!

UPDATE 3/29/04 - Mom said Dad's been letting her know he's around again. He shut her TV off again the other day. Then this Saturday he was rustling a sack in the closet that some of his tools were in. She was gone for awhile on Sunday. When she got back, she found that some of the doors she had shut in the house before she left were now open. Also, out in the dining room she has this motion sensitive frog, (it starts croaking when you walk by it). It kept going off on it's own this weekend. No one was ever in that room at the time. She's had it out there for awhile & this is the first time it has done this.

UPDATE 4/06/04 - A warning from Dad? The other week his youngest daughter was getting ready for work when a pan in the kitchen suddenly went flying to the floor, startling her. That morning her Mom’s brother suffered a heart attack & that evening her oldest cockatiel died.

He startled her again last week. But this time it was more playful. About an hour before her alarm went off, the bottom of the bed suddenly bounced like someone sat down hard on it. She bolted up right & looked around, but no one was there. That day her Uncle started to feel better. Her Uncle said he had felt her Dad with him while he was in the hospital.

Dad may have liked cats –but Mom’s new cat will not go near Dad’s chair. She tried putting him on the chair & he couldn’t get away fast enough. Maybe it was all ready occupied….

Mom was working out in the yard yesterday, & went up to the deck to rest in one of 2 rocking chairs. Usually Dad would be out helping her & he would take the other chair. He wasn’t able to help her with the yard work, but awhile after she sat down, the other rocker started rocking on it’s own!

UPDATE 4/09/04 - Dad

On their way back from the cemetery they were discussing how much Dad loved flowers. Suddenly a strong incense smell filled the car for a few moments & was gone.

Mom had been saying she needed to get the weed & feed put on the lawn but wasn't sure when to do it. The day after the cemetery visit, she came home from the store to find a surprise. When she opened up the garage door, there, lying in the center of the floor, was the spreader. Next to it was a funnel for putting the weed & feed in it.

If he could have managed to do it himself, he probably would have! Though, it may have freaked out some neighbors....

He also tried to stop Mom from driving when she wasn't feeling well. She went & got in the car, determined to get some running done anyway. She was immediately assaulted by a series of clicks & bangs coming from all over the dashboard. She found out she was shakier driving than she thought. She hasn't heard the sounds in the car before or since.

UPDATE 4/27/04 - The new cat would not sleep on Mom's bed at night -every time she'd set him on the bed & tell him it was ok, he'd immediately jump off. Until she asked Dad's permission. Then right afterwards the cat jumped up & stayed. The other night he would not go near Dad's pillow for anything. He looked at it like he was spooked & jumped off the bed. This time he sat on the floor & stared & couldn't be coaxed back up. The next morning Mom awoke to the strong fragrance of flowers coming from the pillow. It lasted for a short time & then disappeared. This was close to their anniversary. Flowers from beyond, perhaps?

UPDATE 5/6/04 - A sudden hailstorm caught Mom off guard last weekend- but not Dad. She kept hearing rattling noises coming from the front screen door. It would rattle a little & then stop, be quiet for a while & then rattle again. Mom wasn't sure of the cause, but didn't check. A short time later, after the door had ceased making noise, she got up to open the front door to let the cat look outside. She was surprised to find that the glass that she had pushed up on the screen door was now closed. {To further explain, this glass sticks in the track & is hard to raise & lower. Generally, when you try to close it, once you get it unstuck, it has a tendency to slam shut if you don't guide it down slowly.} Shortly after making this discovery, it started to sleet & hail out. She knows she hadn't put the glass down, but this explained the rattling noises she heard. Some one was carefully putting the glass on the screen door down for her!

Last night, Dad's youngest daughter had an odd occurrence. She was sitting at the computer in her dining room when she heard a loud noise coming from the near by sliding glass doors. The noise sounded almost like a bird hitting the glass. She looked over in time to see a round, crocheted 'dream catcher' hit the floor. The suction cup hook that had been holding it on the glass door was no where to be seen. The sun catcher that had been hanging directly below it wasn't even so much as swaying on the door. Her husband came in from the other room, having heard the loud bang in there. They searched all over for the suction cup that the 'dream catcher' had been hanging on, but it had vanished. It obviously hadn't just fallen off the door. That wouldn't have caused as much noise, the suction cup would have been on the floor near by, & the sun catcher would have been moving. & the 'dream catcher' wouldn't have flown so far & with such force! This happened at the same time one of Dad's grandson's baseball games started. Not sure of the meaning of the occurrence, but it was definitely strange!

Dad has also apparently been having fun with Mom's cat. Lately the cat has been chasing, staring at, & batting at something that only he can see. He's even jumped up on the back of chairs to reach it. Mom knows it not a bug, as the cat will sometimes sit up on his back legs & stare at something that is right in front of Mom -which she can't see - & will try to touch it with his paws. The other night, tho, Dad did scare the cat off his pillow again. Mom was in bed & the cat started up towards Dad's pillow, then suddenly jumped & took off like a shot. The cat hasn't approached the pillow since.

Dad also shut the glass on the screen door for Mom again before a recent rain shower.

From his youngest daughter: The suction cup that went missing the other week turned up. It was found under a piece of furniture that belonged to Dad's Mom, {& was at a good 90 degree angle from the door it fell off of} - inside a box. She was also startled this Saturday. She was home alone, reading the paper, when someone suddenly tapped her on the arm twice. Not even the cats were near her. Dad....?

06/20/04 HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD! The other weekend when Mom had been doing laundry, but her oldest daughter wanted her to go to the store with her. So Mom ran down to shut the dryer off. Now Dad had this lamp that he really liked, it looked like a camping lantern. Well, the lantern is hard to switch on - & then you have use another knob to adjust brightness. Mom put it downstairs on a table in case of emergencies, but hasn't touched it. Well, when she went down stairs to shut off the dryer, there was the lamp on -& turned up as bright as it could go.

Dad to the Rescue!
Mom went to the store needing to find white duct tape. She went to the correct aisle- but all that she could see was colored tape on both sides. No white. She gave up, did some more shopping, & thought again, oh they should have white. She went back -looked a little closer. Still no white. She needed it to finish a project, but gave up & went & got in line for check out. Suddenly she got a strong feeling to go back & look again. She thought 'this is silly -I know they don't have white', when she 'heard' Dad's voice tell her to go back & look for some boxes of colored tape. When she finds them, move them aside, & the white tape is in the back. Curiosity got the better of her, so she made another trip back to the aisle. She found the boxes of colored tape, moved them aside -& there in the back was the white duct tape- just as promised! Dad always did know his duct tape...

7/02/04 Dad's been helpful with the laundry again - twice in the last week Mom has gone downstairs & found the laundry room light on, waiting for her. What makes this more unusual is that it is the kind that is a light bulb socket with a pull string. Those normally don't get switched on accidentally.

7/26/04 Dad is being helpful again. Mom had put a load of laundry in & as she left, she turned back & opened the door a little as the room smelled damp. She distinctly remembers the light being off. When she went back down to put the clothes in the dryer, he had flipped the main basement light switch on for her. That now makes every light down t here that he has turned on at one time or another!

Today he was helping out with lawn care. Last time Mom used the weed eater, the string had pulled all the way up inside of it. She was too tired to fix it at the time & hung it up, as it was, in the garage. Today she decided to tackle the task of taking the bottom off & getting the string pulled back out. She went to take it off the hook & discovered that 'someone' had all ready done this for her! Unfortunately, Dad wasn't able to get the bottom snapped back on all the way, - but who knows, maybe she interrupted him before he was done!

8/2/04 Dad seems to be very active lately. Friday night, his youngest daughter saw something she almost couldn't believe she was seeing. She had been sitting at the computer desk, & had just hung up from talking to her Mom. Suddenly she heard a loud 'whap' sound next to her. She looked to her left, where the sound originated. There was about an 18" high stack of books on that side of the desk. Suddenly the stack levitated about an 1" into the air & dropped back to the desk with the same 'whap' that she had just heard. Apparently she missed the 1st levitation, so he had to do it again! She wasn't even touching the desk when it happened. She reached over & tried to lift the books with her finger tips to try & duplicate it, & was unable to do so -the stack was too heavy. The incident did help her remember that there was a book she had been meaning to loan to her Mom & had kept forgetting to look for it!

The next night, the same daughter was again at the computer, & this time was startled by the sound of 2 vases hitting against each other. The vases were sitting on the counter behind her, & once again, no one was near them, nor was there anything to cause them to move.

Sunday was pretty quiet, but Monday morning, he paid a visit to Mom. Her phone suddenly made an unusual noise. She had heard this one other time but, dismissed it. This time she asked Dad if it was him. Immediately all the lights on the phone started flashing in sequence. Something it has never done before, & shouldn't be able to do! After the "light show" finished, the phone shut off by itself. She told Dad that she appreciated the reply, but she did need her phone left on. The phone then turned itself back on.

10/12/04 Earlier in the year, Mom got a toy for the cat that she always jokingly referred to as "Dad's Orb". It's a small, clear ball with multi-color LED lights in it. It lights up when you move it. Last week Mom had gone out to the kitchen to get something out of the refrigerator. She heard an odd noise coming from the living room & turned to look. There was "Dad's Orb", lit up & rolling in from the living room, in a straight line, right at her. She hadn't been in the living room, and the cat was asleep in the other room. She got a laugh out of Dad using "his Orb" to say "Hi" to her.

10/31/04 Dad has been very active this week! Thursday night, Mom was talking to her oldest daughter's son on the phone. They had been discussing Dad. Shortly after they hung up, Mom & her cat were startled by the VERY loud sound of a door creaking open in the kitchen. They were both on the living room couch at the time. The cat jumped up to cautiously investigate the noise, with Mom following. No doors were open in the kitchen & nothing was out of place. She spoke to her youngest daughter on the phone after this. While they were talking, her daughter heard a noise coming from an antique wardrobe in the room with her. {Which used to be at her parents house a long time ago} The hat door on the wardrobe had come open by itself. Later that night she heard knocking on the same wall.

A couple of days earlier, the same daughter had a piece of heavy jewelry go flying out of jewelry armoire by itself. No one was near it, or had been near it, for a couple of hours.

Today, Mom was out in the living room with the cat when the door to her bedroom suddenly, & loudly, slammed shut. She had been in the bedroom earlier & had asked Dad if he was around today. A little after the door incident, she was out in the kitchen, when the silverware in the sink started shaking around with no one near it.

Last night, her youngest daughter reported smelling a very strong spicy sweet smell -like some kind of candy. It was so strong, but there was nothing in the house to account for it. Suddenly she recognized the smell: spicette gumdrops. They were Dad's favorite candy. Once she identified the smell, it vanished.

Between a full moon, lunar eclipse, & Halloween, Dad has had plenty of energy to use up this week, I guess! He knows he is always welcome.

11/02/04 Dad visited his son who lives out of state yesterday! The son reported that he was sitting at his desk yesterday morning when he suddenly heard his pen start rattling & tapping on his desk near him. He looked towards it & it stopped, but it did it again when he looked away. No one else was near the desk & he wasn't touching the pen. It is the only thing that moved on the desk.

Mom also reported that she was out in the breezeway yesterday afternoon when she heard things moving around on Dad's tool bench in the garage.

11/28/04 Mom has had a few more visits from Dad this month. One day she was sitting & thinking about him, & asked if he was around. The phone beside her started to do the same odd display of lights it had performed in August. Shortly after it stopped, she heard her bedroom door slam shut, but when she went to check, it was actually still open. I guess she got her answer!

On another day, she had gone out to a place that they used to go together a lot. After she got in her car to leave, she leaned over to get her keys out of her purse on the passenger seat. As she was doing this, the driver's door locked by itself. The car has manual locks, & she was not touching the door! Just letting her know he went along, too...

That night when she went in to go to bed, her bedroom door was shut. She always leaves that door open, but Dad had always shut it when he was in there. This has happened to her before.

He was looking out for her on Thanksgiving, too. She had stopped with her youngest daughter, & son-in-law, to put flowers out for him at the cemetery, before coming home. It was a cold day, & she was chilled by the time she got home. She noticed the house was warmer than when she left. She checked the thermostat & discovered it had been raised 2 degrees from where she normally kept it. Her daughter said Dad was probably concerned about her being cold. Shortly after her daughter got back home, Mom called. She had changed her clothes & went to turn the thermostat back down. When she got there, she discovered it had already been set back. As she was telling her daughter about this, wondering if it really was Dad, the thermostat then jumped back up 2 degrees as she was watching it. Then it went back down & back up repeatedly. {This is a fairly new digital thermostat & had never done anything like this before.} Finally she said, "Ok, Dad, we know you're here. Thank you." The thermostat immediately went back down to the normal temperature setting & stayed there. {It hasn't done it again since, except for one time when she was talking to her daughter on the phone & they were discussing it - then it jumped up & down a couple of times again, then stayed.} Shortly after the thermostat stopped changing, the cat suddenly saw something Mom couldn't & started batting at it & chasing it through the house. Good 'ol Dad. Happy Thanksgiving.

1/12/05 Dad has still been around. He was most active around the holidays. During the week of Christmas, Mom was sitting in the living room reading one night, with the cat on her lap. They were both startled when Mom's alarm clock suddenly went off in the back bedroom! This was an old fashioned type alarm clock with the 2 big bells on the top. It ran by batteries instead of being a wind-up, but Mom had not used the alarm in quite awhile. And the last time she had, she certainly never set it to 7pm!

That same night she could not find her flannel nightgown that she had hanging up in her closet. She looked all thru the closet, & checked the dresser drawers, with no success. The following night, she opened a dresser drawer to get something else -& there was her nightgown, folded neatly on top! It had definitely not been there the night before.

Another day she had laid down in the afternoon to take a nap. The cat was curled up asleep on the bottom of the bed. A short time after she laid down, she heard one of the cat toys, a ball with a bell in it, jingling away in the living room! Even the cat snapped awake & looked towards the door at the sound.

On Christmas day, she really had an odd occurrence. She had went & put her coat on, & was preparing to go outside thru the French doors to feed the birds. When she got to the door she discovered it already unlocked & opened about 4 inches. The screen door was also open a couple of inches, & the ventilator deflector by the doors had been moved out of the way. Being understandably alarmed by this, {she had opened the blinds on the door a short time earlier & the door had still been shut & bolted}, she went out another door & checked for tracks in the snow. All the snow in the backyard was undisturbed. When she went back in & stood by the opening of the French door, she discovered something even stranger. It was very cold out, but even with both the French door & the screen door open -there was absolutely no cold air coming inside!! She said it was as if something invisible was blocking the cold air from entering. Apparently Dad was just trying to help her out by getting the door open for her. Feeding the birds outside used to be one of his favorite tasks.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMM....? The Sunday after New Year's Day, Mom had yet another strange incident with the French doors. She had opened the blinds, & later went out to feed the birds again. She closed & locked it again afterwards. Later in the day she went to go put some peanuts out for the squirrels. This time when she went to open the French doors, the whole door knob almost came off in her hand! The 2 screws that held it in place, which can only be unscrewed from the inside, were almost completely removed. They were pulled most of the way out. The door knob had been just fine & sturdy last time she used it that day! Nothing like this had ever happened before. She had to hold the door knob firmly on the outside just to put the screws back in tightly again from the inside. Was Dad just tinkering around with things like he used to do? Or was it just another way to say "Hi" in a way she'd be sure to notice?

3/29/05 Back around the end of January, Mom was sitting on the couch reading, with the cat near by. Both of them were startled to hear a single note from Dad's harmonica, played loud & clear from the other room. {Dad was an a very good harmonica player!} She went in the other room to check, but it was sitting on the shelf where she had left it & hadn't been disturbed. Not so, the next week. She went to get something from the room & discovered the harmonica had moved to a different shelf! That same week she also awoke to the strong smell of freshly cut carnations 2 days in a row. She had no flowers in the house. The smell disappeared after a short time.

Since that time she has had other experiences, such as hearing her name called when no one was around, hearing the sound of objects falling when none have, & hearing the cat toys jingling when her & the cat are not in the room with them! Actually Dad has had quite a sense of humor with the cat toys lately. On one nice day, Mom had opened the front door for some fresh air. She was in the other room doing some things & suddenly thought she should move a cat toy that hung on the front door knob to the other side, so the cat could still play with it. When she got back in the living room, she was startled to see that the toy was already moved for her! Another incident occurred while the husband of her youngest daughter had stopped by. He was standing in the living room talking to her when they were interrupted by the sound of an electronic mouse voice! The cat has a battery operated mouse that only moves & speaks when it is swatted. No one -including the cat - was even near the toy at the time. The other day she was contemplating some work she had to do around the house & said out loud that she wished Dad was still around to help her like he used to. This same mouse, which was sitting by itself in the middle of the floor, suddenly went off on it's own again! Apparently this was Dad's way of letting her know he was still there - even if he couldn't help with the work any more!

7/03/05 While Dad has done various things to let us know he is still around, I'm just going to list the most startling one that took place around his birthday. Dad had a big portable radio that he often took with him outside, when he worked in the garage, or doing laundry downstairs. Mom hadn't even turned it on since he had used it over a year ago, but she decided to put it downstairs in case of storms. A few days later she went downstairs to do laundry & heard music coming from the darkened room. She discovered Dad's radio on & one of his toolboxes taken down from a shelf. The toolbox was opened & some items were taken out & were set beside it. No one had been downstairs since she took the radio down, & his toolboxes were in place at that time. The radio was running on batteries & doesn't have a timer. There is no way that the radio's batteries would have lasted so long, if she had some how switched it on accidentally. In fact, Mom said the on/off switch is actually hard to move. Besides that, the radio was actually on too loud for her to have missed that! Apparently Dad just felt like using his radio again. We're not sure what he was looking for in the toolbox, tho...