Category: Wild Card

Could this be how it ends?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

The time to go has come. It should have arrived several years earlier, rather than continuing in so much wheelchair loitering, trapped in a dream-state. Now the phone call, “I don’t expect him to live another week,” leads into packing and flight.

Unable to awaken, fully, from the bewildering disconnections. This is not the heart attack or car crash I had predicted. Nor the old age of graceful evaporation into a vanishing point of history. No one will say now, “He lost his mind,” but the new names change nothing. This terminal illness, in stages, until the patient no longer remembers how to eat or breathe. Perhaps, mercifully, an angel will break through the sterile chambers of medical enterprise, and another nature will take its course.

This flesh, shrinking to bone, rather than feather.

Ghosts in the neighborhood

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I’ve previously posted on the phenomenon of ghosts residing in homes in New England, especially, somehow, Maine.

In that vein, I’m surprised we haven’t sensed anything in the household, especially considering its age. Maybe Anna Baskerville’s good vibes should get some credit here.

But I have asked about a few of our neighbors, and they quickly told of theirs. I am surprised by the details, including a smell or two. Also, so far, they seem to be limited to one per house and do prefer to don dark clothing.

At least they seem to be benign, only sad.

Note to self: Keep asking around. It is a great conversation starter.

~*~

Here are some related facts gleaned from Harper’s Index in recent years:

  • Minimum percentage of Americans who say they’ve had a paranormal experience: 67.
  • Who say this experience involved “smelling an unexplained odor”: 30.
  • Who say they have the ability to psychically sense others’ emotions or auras: 24.
  • Percentage of U.S. homeowners who believe their homes are haunted: 49.
  • Of Gen Z homeowners who believe this: 65.
  • Number of states in which sellers must respond truthfully if asked whether a murder has occurred in a home: 9.
  • If asked whether a home is haunted: 1.