I’ll Be Coming Home, Wait For Me

Just as dusk was falling, we gathered together on Momma’s bed because Ruby, the Incredibly Wide Eyed Monkey said she had heard a story that could turn in to a rumor that may be fact or fiction but it was not her place to relegate plausibility.  No, her job was to relay an account of what she heard and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help her God. So we opened our ears, cleared our minds and concentrated, because after it is rolled out, we will all have opinions to share.

It is not like Momma had much experience in seeing ghosts although she was always open to the idea that it could happen.  I mean, she didn’t know anyone who had ever seen UFO’s but that does not mean they haven’t.… or so Momma theorized.  When Grandmama, Her-Mother-God-Rest-Her-Soul appeared in a dream, it was like an angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over her head. Grandmama’s face shone like the sun, her cloak flashed with fire. And the message she delivered was Momma must talk of, write about, the Mysteries that enshrouded Reality.

About two years after Grandmama died suddenly, (here one minute, gone to her greater reward the next).  Grandpapa claimed (but he was always a great storyteller) that one night when he was sound asleep, he was awoken by a bright white light in his room.  In the light stood three women, transparent they seemed, like crystal angels without cumbersome wings.  Grandmama stepped forward and told him that he should get on with his life.  If he wanted to remarry, so-be-it. Life was for the living.  He strained to see the other women, but they stood in the shadows and did not talk. He wasn’t sure, but thought it was Grandmama’s two sisters (one a Sinner, one a Saint) accompanying her, to deliver the message. ‘Huh,’ said, the siblings, ‘Imagine that’, with varying degrees of skepticism.

Months later when Grandpapa became involved with the Black Widow,  Heart-of-Stone-Lady, some of the family wondered, was the visitation from Grandmama a way to justify the new romance and be convenient to Grandpapa’s long range plans?  Momma’s sisters and brother knew Grandmama was the jealous type till the day she died, always cautioning them that she would still be warm in her grave when Grandpapa would start the replacement process.  No way would Grandmama sanction remarriage, with her children possibly developing loyalty to another woman. Of course, that would never have happened.  The Black Widow could have been Mother Theresa and Momma and her siblings would have pined for Grandmama. Also they were always cognizant that if they didn’t, they would have to answer to Grandmama when they went joined her in Paradise. God knows how she greeted Grandpapa when he passed over!

Funny thing is RIP Daddy was just like Grandmama.  He warned Momma within an inch of her life that if he passed first, she was not allowed to have another relationship. No worries, RIP Daddy.  Even after all this time, Momma has not moved your clothes from the closet or your change from your pockets, flung on top of the bureau. She says, she does, you might be coming home anytime soon like she thinks the company you work for sent you out-of-town to drum up more business to grow the bottom line. What can I say?

Did Grandmama appear to Grandpapa in reality? Will we ever know?  If she did, why did she not warn him about the Black Widow, Heart-of-Stone-Lady?  Or did Grandmama think Grandpapa needed a Life Lesson delivered?  Knowing Grandmama, no one would put it past her.  She had a powerful strong will – that Campbell blood, you know.

Yet it seems like we all got some lessons to learn.  As far as I am concerned, I got some questions that need answering the very second I meet up with Grandmama on the Other Side. Did she really appear to Grandpapa? Was she setting him up?

So….how far is Heaven, did you say?