An amazing event caught in “the WEB”

Some of you faithful readers may remember the entries that I’ve made about my Grandfather, Harry Lee. He was the author of two books and a play about St. Francis. He lived with his wife Mary in Plainfield, New Jersey. (That’s Papa in the picture and copies of a booklet of poems that he wrote, illustrated and hand printed for his grandchildren.)

He died in the 50’s and my Grandma lived on in the house with her daughter Lillian until they were both put in a rest home late in the 60’s.

Now, fast forward to the present. I recently received an email from a man named Tom Mac who, while surfing the web, came across my blog entries about Harry Lee. As he said, he felt like he’d hit the Jackpot! In 1968 he and his family bought my grandparents house and lived there for quite a few years.

He was able to tell me all about the changes in the neighborhood and even recalled the brook beyond the back yard where I remember catching fire flies at night. When his 4th child was born in 1970 the small room off the upstairs bedroom, (where Papa wrote those books) was their nursery.

And now to the amazing part … One day, shortly after moving in, his 7 year old daughter asked, “Who is that person at the top of the stairs?” When noone was found they chalked it up to “kiddie imagination”. Then, while “noodling on the keys” of his piano Tom would often feel that someone was watching but he never caught sight of anyone. Their dog must have felt the same way because he would run to the stairs and start to bark as if someone were coming down or going up.

Tom says that he and his children, who witnessed it also, never felt threatened and even now they talk about it frequently. I find it fascinating and would love to know if it was a male or a female that his daughter saw.

My grandfather was a blithe spirit … a dreamer, a writer and a poet. I can well imagine that he‘d “stayed on“ after his death to see to the well being of his beloved Mary and how much he would have wanted to welcome the new family to his house. How frustrated he must have felt … not being able to make contact !

I feel like I’ve found a new friend in Tom … one with a connection to my past. He says he still misses the place and I can understand that. He also says that he has more stories to relate and I have a strong hunch that they’ll end up right here as blog entries !