April 24, 2009

Bright Jack-O-Lanterns

Rate this encounter:[an error occurred while processing this directive] Kerry - Albuquerque, New Mexico - Halloween 2004

It was Halloween night 2004. My mother was having her usual Halloween dinner. She really gets into her holidays and had her house decorated to the hilt. My two nephews both brought a jack-o-lantern that they each proudly carved to add to my mother's outside décor. After dinner my mother, sister, brother-in-law, two nephews, and I headed out for a round of trick-or-treating. My dad stayed home to hand out candy. As we left, my mother asked my dad to please light the boys' jack-o-lanterns. We made our rounds around the neighborhood and upon returning to the house we all commented on how neat my mom's house looked and how beautiful and extra bright the jack-o-lanterns looked all lit up (making my nephews very proud). We got in and my sister and her family said their goodbyes and left. I stayed behind to help my parents take down their décor (my mother is very particular about not leaving decorations up when the holiday is over). While taking down the decorations my mother made her way over to the jack-o-lanterns. When she went to take the candles out… there weren't any! She asked who took the candles out so she would know where they were. I said that I didn't take them out and my dad said, "What candles? I didn't light them because I couldn't find any candles to do so." At this time my mother and I looked at each other with boggled looks on our faces. We both said at the same time, "You are kidding right?" He said nope, that he was busy handing out the candy and tried finding some candles but they weren't anywhere to be found so he didn't do it. My mother and I knew we saw those jack-o-lanterns lit up very brightly upon returning home. Trying to figure out what was going on, we looked back inside the pumpkins and to our amazement the pumpkins looked fresh… no soot, and no cooked/burned pumpkin areas. There was no evidence that anything had burned in them. Just to confirm that my mother and I weren't going loony, we got on the phone and called my sister and asked, "You did see the jack-o-lanterns burning brightly when we were returning home, right?" And her, my brother-in-law, and nephews said, "Yes… that we all even commented on it." This was one of the coolest things that I have ever experienced. We believe in our hearts that it was my grandfather who lit the pumpkins. He passed away December 10, 2003. He loved the holidays like my mother does and I know he wouldn't want my nephews disappointed by not seeing their jack-o-lanterns that they worked so hard on, not lit up. I think he also wanted us to know he was still with us celebrating each and every holiday.