In Case You Thought They Would Rebuild it Without the Ghosts...

Our neighborhood haunted house was recently dismantled (presumably by the very same denizens of the undead realm who so recently had caused distress), and the rebuilding has commenced.

I know that most townspeople expect an apparition-free building.

I do not.

Case in point: what (besides scary noises and appearances) characterizes a good haunted house... besides stairways and doors to nowhere?

I present my evidence:

Local Haunted House

Around Halloween, I posted about the local haunted house. Apparently the spirits have become more enraged after the police came investigating. In fact, they went so far as to begin demolishing their own habitat.

In these unedited, unretouched photos (which I took today), you can see the destruction wreaked by the undead spirits who inhabit the old house in question. You will note that there is nary a single human presence to be found, yet the house is self-destructing.

This is certainly a new development!

Halloween Police Blotter Report

From the Buckeye Lake Beacon.

• Oct. 27: Police were called by the new owners of the Spurgeon house on Lancaster Street who are concerned strange occurrences. They reported that while repairing the home they have heard strange noises, unexplained footsteps and harpsichord music. Visible objects floating in mid-air on the second floor have also been reported.

This place is just down the block from us. On Trick or Treat night, the residents (?) [or whoever the people on the porch were] weren't handing out candy (even though they had some large bowls of it). Perhaps the candy was reserved for haunts.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People

When I was little, my neighbor brought me (along with her kids) to see a movie. The movie was Darby O'Gill and the Little People. It absolutely terrified me. I spent most of the movie praying for it to be over (and envying my little neighbor kid, who fell asleep). Something about a death coach and a banshee gave me nightmares for quite a while.

Now Jonathan has his own Darby O'Gill experience, coming at the hands of an innocuous-seeming Thomas the Train movie: Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Our neighbor gave it to us, and we, just thinking "ah, it's just Thomas" let him watch it (Thursday). He's been afraid to leave our side since then. He's had nightmares and is afraid to go to sleep, and he keeps telling us, "That movie is stuck in my head forever."

I have to say I know how he feels.

Angels Among Us

Last night I went to a prayer vigil for Dennis, a local boy who has been given 1-3 weeks to live (due to brain cancer, which he has been fighting for multiple years).

They had a speaker system set up and at one point they played the Alabama song Angels Among Us. At this point I was talking to someone I've met around town, and I told her that my grandmother has been having regular angel visits (my mom initially told me about them, but Grandma confirmed it by telling me about the angel - she told me that he never lets her see his face, and I expect that he will one day...).

Anyway, I was told that Dennis has been seeing angels as well. Furthermore, when he came home from the hospital, a dove showed up by his house and hasn't left. There are various folklore explanations as to why this dove might be there, and it could be that it has lived nearby for years and was never noticed until someone "wanted" to notice it (possibly because they knew of the folklore explanation), but that doesn't explain the angel sighting, or the fact that my mother, who does a lot of hospice chaplain work, has experienced many multiple people who, near death, have seen angels.

When I started in ministry, I asked a colleague, Eldon, who worked with me as visitation pastor (and is also a very good funeral director - I want him to do my funeral) how he gets through funerals. He told me what a precious time it is with a family; that this is the one time in this mortal life that they come closest to the immortal, when the veil is thinnest.

I don't pretend that I "get" it, but that's OK. It still makes sense to me, and I'm OK with the mystery. All I know is that there is more going on than we can see...