There has been so much going on this year domestically, and considering the COVID protocols that are still in place and preventing us from getting out and seeking new experiences, I was pretty sure that this would be the year that I would have nothing interesting to write about for Halloween (honestly, I can't believe that this is the ninth year that I've been doing this). But I did have a curious experience nonetheless, and I'd like to share it.
As I had the devastating duty to report earlier this year, first my mother-in-law and then my father-in-law passed away as summer began. Although they were in their eighties, and each of them had various health issues, it was still surprising and incredibly saddening to suddenly have them gone from our lives. And because they were living with my sister- and brother-in-law, and because Rudy and Dan then decided to invite his parents to move into their inlaw suite, furniture needed to be cleared out and my younger daughter was honoured to take her grandparents' Mid-Century Modern bedroom furniture for her new apartment.
The day that Mallory moved, Rudy and I were able to load up the furniture on the U-Haul by ourselves, and when I got the truck to Mal's new place, she enlisted her friends in helping me to get her belongings off the truck. As we went to move one of the dressers, one of Mallory's friends balked at the weight and suggested we take the drawers out - and that's when we found, jammed behind those drawers, some curious items: A letter from my mother-in-law's lawyer, from the 1980's, giving a final settlement of her mother's estate; a Legion Magazine, commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge; and three pairs of discount, Queensize, taupe pantyhose. And hand on my heart, no assortment of random items could have felt like a clearer sign that my mother-in-law was trying to get through to me.
I have watched plenty of shows like Long Island Medium and sessions always begin with the medium saying something like, "I'm being shown the number nineteen" or "the colour blue" or "a gold key", and the person in attendance is generally flabbergasted, saying, "There's no way you could have randomly guessed that; no other image could have been a clearer sign that you're in contact with my loved one." And then Theresa (or whatever medium) will say, "This is Spirit's way of validating that your loved one is here and safe and watching over you from the other side." And who wouldn't want to get that message?
As for the specific items that we found: My mother-in-law's uncle was injured at Vimy Ridge, and while that obviously explains why she would have saved the Legion Magazine that commemorated the battle, Bev also liked to read books about Vimy Ridge and talk about it in a way that made it particularly her own thing; Dave had been spending a lot of time this summer settling his parents' estates, and the lawyer's letter truly felt like an acknowledgement of the work that he had done; and the pantyhose...the pantyhose is what made it feel like a message to me.
I loved my mother-in-law: she was a big-hearted, generous, give-the-shirt-off-her-back type, and these qualities that made her so loveable were also the qualities that drove me a little bonkers. If Bev thought she had anything that I might be able to make use of, she would insist I take it, even if I really didn't want it. Our relationship was decades of her saying, "Here, read this Danielle Steel book...take these socks that are too thick for me...have these brown bananas" and me saying, "No thank you." And then her insisting, "You might like it, there's nothing wrong with them, I'm sure you'll get more use out of these." Drove me bonkers, lol. So, with Kennedy's wedding happening in September, I am 100% certain that if Bev had still been alive and had somehow found three pairs of discount, Queensize, taupe pantyhose at the back of her drawer (the sale sticker, from Woolco - so, at least twenty-five years old - put these at 3 for $1.98), she would have insisted that I take them for me and the girls to wear at the event. Even if Kennedy and Mallory have never worn pantyhose in their lives, and even if I tried to say that they really weren't my size or my colour, Bev would have tried to make me take them with me; her offer, as always, made in the spirit of a genuine delight in having something to give to me, and my stubborn refusal, as always, mystifying to her.
And here's my takeaway: I don't think that these items were supernatural gifts from the other side, but they certainly felt like a message. If these had been images given to me through a medium like Theresa Caputo, the magazine would have served as the initial image to prove that we were in contact, specifically, with Bev; the lawyer's letter was a validation of gratitude for the work that Dave and his sister have been doing to settle the estate; and the pantyhose were the recognition and continuation of an inside joke between me and my mother-in-law (maybe even proof that she finally understands what it was that made me bonkers and giving me a final razzing; no one loved to laugh like Bev did and I want to believe she's still laughing out there). Dave, in particular, was fascinated by these finds: he thought it was no coincidence that they were uncovered in my presence since I'm the only one who watches these kind of shows and would, therefore, be the easiest member of the family to get a message to; Rudy says she cleaned out that dresser twice - when her parents first moved homes and as she got it ready for Mallory - and never found anything jammed behind the drawers; but if she had, I'm sure she would have just tossed them out as the junk they essentially were.
I, on a deeply personal level, did find meaning in these items, and if they were left in my path to validate that those who pass remain safe and ever present in our lives, that's a message that I think is worth sharing. Perhaps not Halloween-level spooky, but certainly suggestive of something surviving death; and isn't that a lovely message for today and every day?
On a related note: That same day that Mallory moved in, she and her roommates were apparently sitting around, flipping through some birthday fortune-telling book, and the first date that they randomly opened to was her Grandpa's birthday. And Dave is provoked by the fact that every time he goes to do some work on the Sauble Beach property, he finds dimes. The first time he found a single dime, and having heard that dimes are particularly known to be messages from the beyond, he thought, "That's weird." The next time, he had three dimes fall to the ground when he was taking down a cupboard in the laundry room, and he said to himself, "This is getting more interesting." And the next time he went up, he bumped a shelf in the garage and a dime fell to the ground, and he apparently said out loud, "Okay, I get it. I know you're here." Dave says he has collected fifteen dimes in all at Sauble since his father passed, and he has come to believe that these are signs from his Dad; and that makes him feel good. Make of that what you will.
Strange stories from previous years:
Halloween I
