Mother Came Back

From: G.Cope (gintzu@aol.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: the house I grew up in
Source: Form Submission

When my mother died (after a short, brutish illness), my sister and her family were living in her house. Soon afterwards, my sister started to notice some odd things happening. First of all, various items would disappear for a few days, only to turn up in a very obvious,public place, like the dining room table. Then they started having trouble with their dog. The family mutt normally went up to bed with her husband every night ( he worked the night shift, and so went to bed early), but he soon refused to even climb the stairs. When they tried to force him, he would whimper and cringe, and take off if they weren't holding onto his collar.

Then, the most telling thing (to me, anyway), was when their bed started getting ripped up and strewn all over the bedroom. My mother and father ( long since flown), used to sleep in twin beds, ala Ozzie & Harriet, and when my sister and her husband moved back up from Florida, they took over my mother's bedroom. And since they had no bed of their own, they pushed the two twin beds together. My mother was a famous prude, so I always imagined her ire when she "came back" and found my sister and her husband's sleeping arrangement.

And finally, it was shortly after my mother's death that my little 2 year old niece began to have"conversations" with her Grandma. I never heard them, but my sister says they were bone-chilling to listen to.

Well, that's basically it. It was creepy at the time, but the weird occurences faded within 6 months or so. I am, however, firmly convinced that it WAS my mother, and that she had come back because she had a great deal of unfinished business, which, as far as I could tell, didn't get "finished" anyway. Comments?