Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Was He a Ghost?

November 28, 2008--an acquaintance's dad passed away of a stroke. This acquaintance has a very promising future in show business. I am not going to divulge his name to protect his identity, so I am just going to refer to him as "Harry."

Harry and I are not really "friends" ... just acquaintances, because he and my daughter go to the same dance school. When I created my Facebook account, I requested him to be my friend. Being a good young man he is, he accepted my request. That's how I found out that something bad happened to his dad, because his friends were commenting about it, wishing his father well and be out of the hospital soon.

Two weeks after that, I saw Harry, his younger brother, and his dad coming out of the dance studio. I was parked right in front of the door of the studio, so I saw and heard Harry talking about his car trouble. His dad asked if he checked the battery and something about the water. I was elated that Harry's dad is finally better. My mom was sitting on the passenger's side, so I commented to her that Harry's dad is finally okay ... although he still looks frail and pale ... that he should be resting at home. While I was making those comments, my mom kept asking me, "Where?" because she didn't see Harry's dad at all. All she saw were the two brothers walking to the truck. We both thought she probably was just looking at the wrong direction. I even teased her for being "blind", because they walked right passed in front of us. After a few minutes, the two brothers went back to the dance studio but this time I didn't see their dad with them. I thought he probably left to go home and rest.

Several weeks later (maybe about 4 or 6 weeks later), my daughter chatted with me online while I was at work. She started out with, "I didn't know Harry's dad died. No wonder he was going all emo on Facebook." She was right. His Facebook was always full of comments like how he has to stay strong for his dad, etc. I thought his dad was probably still not too healthy to do many things and Harry had to be the man for him, while he was recuperating. So I asked my daughter when and where did he pass away. She checked the http://www.wikipedia.com/ and told me that he passed away while he was at the hospital due to medication error. Needless to say, I was flabbergasted! If that is the case, who did I see talking to Harry and his brother about their car trouble?

I talked to Harry and his brother a week after I got the news. I told him how sorry I was for not even knowing that his dad has passed on. And then came the hard part (because I didn't know what his reactions would be), I told him what I saw. He clearly remembered that afternoon, but he wasn't talking to his dad but to his brother. "Well," I said, "he was there with you that afternoon." I could see tears at the corners of his eyes.

So what do you think, folks? Was I hallucinating that afternoon, or did I really see a ghost? Tell me what you think.