This is an experience I don’t talk about. I believe in the paranormal and I’ve had many experiences but this one...this one is different. It’s like walking into a room and knowing your cousin is going to have a baby boy (even though she just found out she was pregnant that morning and it’s still too early for that gender scan), or like knowing what song is playing on the radio before you turn it on.
When things like that happen, it is like someone walking over your grave; you get an instant chill, and you know that something is working its way through your very soul. Something MUCH larger than you.
My Gramma was one of 13 siblings, but she was closest to her two brothers in Ontario, Ike and Si. Her absolute favorite brother was Ike. They were inseparable. Every summer, Gram would plan to go to Ontario to visit her brothers and their families. Sometimes, she took her daughters with her.
One summer, Gram had convinced my mother to go with her for the trip. While they were in airspace, my Great Uncle Ike got on a ladder to work on his shed, and he fell. The ER doctor told him he was fine and sent him home. Ike wasn’t fine. He had shattered several bones in the fall and suffered from an undiagnosed blood disorder. By the time the plane landed, he was back in emergency, dying. Gramma and Mom got there just in time for the funeral.
Gram was beyond devastated. When she came home, her grief was palpable, a black cloud of sadness that encompassed everything around her. And that’s when the weirdness happened.
Now, I have to say that, while Uncle Ike was my Gram’s favorite brother and my Mom’s favorite Uncle, he really wasn’t much different to me than Gram’s other siblings. I mean, I loved them all, but they didn’t visit much and I rarely saw them.
So, I was sleeping one night, and I dreamed that I was at Gram’s house. I was standing on the back step. And I KNEW I was dreaming. That was the weird part. Everything was so super clear and lucid and I KNEW it was a dream. Couldn’t wake up tho. I reached out a hand, opened the screen door and let myself in.
The kitchen was a mess. The table was full of dirty plates. It looked like the family had just had a scoff. Usually, after we all finish eating, we sit around talking until the kettle boils, and then someone makes tea, and we start serving dessert. But despite the obvious signs that folks had just finished a meal and should’ve been waiting for their tea, chatting away, there is no one sitting around the table. No one is around.
This is wrong on all levels. It scares me deeply. Where is everyone? And then I hear the kettle whistling. I have taken two steps into the kitchen because the fridge is blocking my view of the stove, and I have half a mind to go into the house and see if anyone is in the living room or dining area. And that’s when I see him.
There, in a corner of the kitchen blocked by the fridge, is Uncle Ike. He is slouching in a kitchen chair. He looks at me and grins. He doesn’t say anything but the message I get is “Tell her I’m okay” And I wake up.
Do I go running down to my Gram’s and tell her that I dreamed about her dead brother, and he says he’s doing okay? Hell no! I ruminate for DAYS about what to do. It’s not even like my Gram would be the type of person who wouldn’t believe me. She has had her share of experiences. But the desire not to be seen as a crazy person is very strong.
I put the dream in the “wow, what kinda snacks did I have to eat to dream THAT?” pile. And I vow not to say boo to anyone, ever. Which means, of course, that several nights later, I am back on that back step, walking into that same mess of a kitchen.
This dream is just as lucid, only not nearly as friendly. Uncle Ike is frowning. I manage a “Tell her yourself!” because if this is real, then what the heck does he need me for anyway? There was an answer, something about grief and how it makes it harder to talk to people. Also, I got the impression that he would keep coming back until the message was delivered.
In the end, I found a way to sit down with my Gram and tell her what needed to be passed along without sounding like I was losing my mind. (Although the jury is still out on that one!) I’ve had other weird dreams similar to this, but this one was the “worst” of all of them, mostly because it was about someone I barely knew, and it wouldn’t leave me alone.
Elizabeth D,
Cape Breton NS
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