My father passed away last May ('97), after a long battle with lung cancer. Christmas was his absolute favourite holiday, and the one time of year he mellowed out, and enjoyed his family to the fullest.
Needless to say, Christmas '97 was a tough one for all of us, but something happened that some of us (especially me) took comfort in.

Dad had always promised to let us know, if after death, he really found that there was a “Great Beyond”. On Christmas Eve, at our traditional family gathering, I believe he did just that.

Dad was an avid reader, and spent many hours reading, even when he became too weak to do much else. He had been in the middle of a novel (I forget the title) at the time of his death. After he passed away, a lot of his books and things were boxed up and stored in his bedroom closet.

Sometime during the evening, on Christmas Eve, my sister and I were standing in the doorway leading from the dining room into the living room, talking. Just inside the living room, through the dining room door, is the stairway to the second floor. Dad's room was located just to the right of the stairs on the second floor. Anyway, as we were standing there talking, we suddenly heard the door to Dad's room slam shut, quite forcefully. Both of us made comment upon it, and I then went upstairs to investigate, thinking that it might be my brother, retrieving his wife's gift, which he had stored upstairs. To my surprise, no one was there, the lights in the bedroom were off, but the book my father had been reading, (which, remember, had been stored in his closet months earlier) was lying in the middle of the upstairs landing!!

It freaked my sister out, somewhat, to say the least, but I took comfort in it, for I saw it as a sign from Dad, just as he had promised me so many times, years before.(bittersweet sigh, smile)

© Paulette Boyd

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