Mother's Light
My sweet, Dutch grandmother was not the superstitious type. She was very down-to-earth, to say the least. However, once she did tell me a ghost story, and the phantom was her own mother , who returned with a message: " I was seventeen when my mother died. We had only arrived in America three years before and the fear of settling in a new place had just worn away. We had a farm and worked very hard, my parents and the eleven children. At the time of my mother's death I was the oldest girl at home.
One terribly hot July day Mother was brought in from the hay fields. She had suffered a sunstroke. Later that day she died without gaining consciousness, leaving me in charge of six younger brothers and sisters.
The funeral was shortly over, and the heaviness of my responsibility set in again. Mother was gone, and I felt I could turn to no one for help. After the funeral guests had left the house and the children were all asleep, Dad was still talking to family members in the kitchen. I went upstairs only to cry myself to sleep on Mother's bed in the dark. The next thing I knew I was awakening to a bright light that filled the room. I thought it must be morning, sat up, and rubbed my eyes. I soon saw that the light was not coming from the sun, but from a large, radiant glow at the foot of the bed. Within that glow stood my mother, and she was smiling at me.
I felt an enormous rush of love. I immediately jumped from the bed, trying to run into her arms. She stopped me suddenly saying, 'No, do not touch me! I have come to tell you not to worry. Everything will be all right. Just watch over the twins carefully (these were my two-year old sisters).' She went on to say that she was in a beautiful place and that she was very happy. Then she told me that I would be with her someday, if I continued to live a good life.
When she stopped speaking she again smiled at me. The wonderfully bright light in which she stood then wrapped around her like a huge shawl and the whole scene moved backward, through the wall, and was gone. I was left in the dark, and only then did I become afraid. I turned on the light for comfort and went to sleep, wondering at all I had seen."
My grandmother lived to be 90 years-old. She was lucid to the end of her days. She died in a hospital, where she had been placed for tests, had ended up having a heart attack, and lay in a coma for a day. One of my aunts was with Grandmother when she died.
My aunt said she was very frightened at Grandmother's passing because Grandmother, still not awake, suddenly threw back the covers as if she were going to get out of bed. Then she died.
I have no doubt my aunt had nothing to fear. I sincerely believe Grandmother simply left with her mother, after waiting for her for 73 years.