Momma says she’d really, truly love to believe in ghosts but so far…no confirmed sitings in the light of the day….

Surely her parents could have dropped in by now…It has been thirty-three years since Her-Mother-God-Rest-Her-Soul departed, in a great hurry, with no goodbyes….and Momma a mere child at the time….that might be an exaggeration but still, younger than Wonder Boy is right now.  And you know, mothers, they have your back….Momma longed to see, or even to talk to her mother one more time but there are zero phone lines or cell towers in Heaven.

Now Her-Father-God-Rest-His-Soul hung around another nine years and announced to everyone that he was off to Heaven that day…but no one believed him….. He saw things, felt thing,s that were not scientifically proven and accepted, you know….

like the Circle of the Fairy Dance…so it was best to take things he said with a grain of salt. Momma and her father were birds of a feather, could almost read each others minds.  Even though in his later years his mind was some what like Swiss cheese, with big gaping holes, from multiple strokes, his passing left a relentless wound in Momma’s heart.

And RIP Daddy…still a No Show…Well, Momma likes to think he is those butterflies that dive bomb her when she is out working in the garden…she hears him calling in the tinkle of the wind chimes…

but really RIP Daddy didn’t have any of that Celtic blood that runs through Momma’s veins making her believe in things both seen and unseen, like Fairies, Angels, Wee Folk and Trees that whisper and shout. However Momma is still a staunch supporter of Science…in her mind the two can co-exist in harmony.

Then there was Momma’s Itty Bitty Sister….She and Momma were so close, just peas in a pod…Itty Bitty believed like Momma,  in the wacky and the wild, all the Folklore you could stuff in to her head, and like her family before, the Sweet Baby Jesus…

and you guessed it…nary a siting of her.  No, don’t get me wrong…she drops by in dreams, they all do, but Itty Bitty is like a Frequent Flyer or a Preferred Customer…with  Privileges, coming night after night, in different scenarios…but it is not the same….Momma misses seeing her everyday, rushing to her bedside, kicking off her shoes, hopping on the bed with her….exchanging tall and small tales such as the old, toothless guy that sat at her table in the cafeteria who tried to kiss her, the latest drama someone from the family was living through that sometimes amazed us, often amused us, commiserating about poor Little Itty Bitty’s endless struggles to breath, walk, holding her hand, when the pain drilled through her valiant soul.

Momma loves the dreams wherein the RIP Souls pop by,  but if she was awake when they dropped by…It makes for a much more believable story – especially if she could use her iphone to record their return on a video…. Stored forever in iCloud, ….that is, if the dearly departed haven’t signed some Confidentiality Agreements forbidding the practise. I hear they have some tight Guidelines and litigious lawyers, in Heaven.

So…where are the ghosts of those who went on before us? You’d think (or Momma would like to think), they have gained wisdom and would be willing to share it with their loved ones, left here, with little guidance, beset with obstacle courses and sink holes that swallow homes, cars and OMG, sometimes even people, into their dark, dank dungeons of slime.

We’ll never know…maybe not even when we enter the Pearly Gates (such things are probably only on A-Need-To-Know-Basis).  So until then (and Pinkie Promise, if any one of my Dearly Departed drop by, I’ll let you know…pronto):

Hello from the other side…I must have called a thousand times…
Hello from the outside….At least I can say that I’ve tried….
To contact you, cause its breaking my heart……
But it don’t matter, nothing can tear us apart, anymore….Hello.(Paraphrase Adele)

You know, Momma is something of a Collector…No, she wasn’t born that way but somewhere along the Path of Life she developed some hard to kick addiction of collecting.

When Momma was a young adult, she said her Motto was more ‘When-in-Doubt-Throw-It-Out’…now it is more like, ‘When-in-Doubt, Keep-It,-Keep-It, Never-Know-When-You-May-Need-It’…much to Wonder Boy’s chagrin.

Momma swears the very day she dies, Wonder Boy will be on the phone renting a 20 yard bin dumpster and just throw all of poor Momma’s addictions in…because, well he is not the sentimental type and what do you want him to do with it….haul it around till his death so his kids have to dispose of it?  Fair question…No answer.

As a child, Momma had one addiction…dolls….she could get them for her birthdays, or wait till Santie Claus left them under the Christmas Tree.  She even loved the second-hand pass them down dolls that came her way.  As she spent long hours, playing with her dolls, she day dreamed of meeting the Perfect Handsome Man (of course), getting married (they did that in ‘The Day’ 🙂) and having sweet little beautiful, smart babies.

However, Momma is a Virgo so she had to have a plan…not just one baby because then she might spoil him or her ….and that is just an abomination to bring a self-serving narcissist in to the world….although, no matter how you slice, with Grandmama as her mother, it wasn’t in her blood to spoil a child.

Life doesn’t always hand you what you planned for….a Man, Check, a Marriage Check, a Baby, No Check. Instead Momma received the Curse of Infertility.  Lots of treatment, many tears, many years, no babies….but in a flash, changes can occur….but not the way Momma planned….no, it was the God‘s Plan that was rolled out.

That, Virginia is how, Momma and Daddy, ended up with a 15-year-old daughter (sorta-kinda), the Run Away Princess, one cold, grey, October day.  She had run away from home and would not return to her parents but she would live with her Aunt and Uncle… RIP Daddy and Momma because….they were cool (lol says Wonder Boy). Don’t get me wrong…the Run Away Princess  adored her father….but her mother was… well, hardcore and since the Run Away Princess was a Leo born in the Year of the Fire Horse… well East met West and my way or the highway and the highway it was.

And so it was a great surprise, when after so many years of trying in vain, Wonder Boy, at his own time, on his own schedule, meandered in across the finish line, causing much disbelief and joy… like the same day the Run Away Princess arrived, bag and lots of baggage, on Momma and RIP Daddy’s doorstep…like go figure. Timing is everything…..

No matter how hard, they kicked the can, Momma and Daddy had a two child family – that third child seemed to allude them…but who knew…he was on his way…they knew him from the time of conception, nurtured him, treasured him, supported him emotionally, physically and spiritually over the coming years….because he was Itty Bitty’s (Momma’s sister) only child  and at the age of 24, with the passing of his mother, he became Momma’s third child….to have and to hold, from this day forth…our Super Kid. RIP Daddy and Itty Bitty are waving with glad tidings, from Heaven. They got our backs, our sides, our tops, our bottoms....we just gotta have faith!

All we can say is God‘s Plan, God‘s Plan (Drake). Thank you, God.

Poor Mother Hubbard…no kids in her cupboard…well, if she moved things around there maybe one son hiding out behind the pickle jar… but he was a Geek…before the term was even coined.  Science turned him on…no concussions for him from the Good Ole Hockey Game….What do you do with a kid like that if you’re a Hockey Mom in Canada, eh?

It read like a Greek Tragedy, the Townies said….but it didn’t start out that way…the roll out was glorious for the family, for the Town and even for the Future Montreal Canadians…but Stuff happens … for no reason, in no particular order, World Without End. Amen.

Mother and Father Hubbard came sailing in to town, with their three sons willing to share their fame and fortune, Son #1 and Son #2…because when you have talent, the rumours arrive even before the finished product…..not so much Son #3, who was busy with his microscopes in his bedroom (it was the 60’s folks).

Son #1 was headed straight for the Big League. He flew down the ice, he shoots , he scores …..  so like The Rocket Richard or Guy Lefleur.

The Habs parachuted an agent in to snap him up, sign on the dotted line and sent him to a summer school on the Farm Team to ready him for a future brilliant career. The Franglais (French/English) Townies were  delighted that their school and town won every tournament but still there was a…shall we say envy that was pervasive.  Why him?  Why not my son?

After an intense training Summer School Program, packed with future Glory Day stories, Son #1 returned to continue his high school and tried to fit in off the rink. He joined the Baseball League, the Football Team, the Track Team…and you guessed it…aced it all.  Even his team mates started to wish that he would just stay home already. Enough is a enough….so one night, under the lights at the baseball diamond, a scuffle broke out…no, not the other team….members of his own club were pushing him around, giving him the gears…so Son #1 took his bat and left, walking down lonely street to home…maybe he was  walking along, preoccupied, maybe the hit and run driver of the car was drunk…whatever the circumstances, our Little Town lost our only chance to send ‘Our Boy to the Big League’ as metal met flesh that long and lonesome night.  Son  #1 had joined ‘The Big League’, In the Sky, Lord, In the Sky.

Notwithstanding, Mother and Father Hubbard were heartbroken.  Son #2 would not have to endure small-minded, small town politics to play hockey.  A city team in the province next door welcomed him with open arms…even though he’d never be as outstanding as Son#1…still…he was good….and he loved the game.

Now fate is so random…who knew…in those days when players did not have to wear helmets, that a Puck had his name on it….but it did….Right in the middle of a tense game, a puck travelling over  100 miles an hour made contact with Son #2’s temple and it was literally…Game Over and Out ….Forever.  Son #2 was In the Sky, Lord, In the Sky, with Son #1, hockey stick still clutched in his hands.

It was said that Mother Hubbard set plates for Son #1 and #2, on the table at every meal until the day she died…we can’t confirm that because after the death of Son #2, Mother and Father Hubbard  packed up their belongings and moved to another province…where no one knew their sad tale, it was said…but we all know that would be a pipe dream…there are some secrets you can’t keep wraps on…just ask Donald Trump…

Son #3 – Where are you?  Did you thrive as an only child, dragged into the limelight by the absence of your older brothers?

Son#2 – You were so much easier to digest….more imperfect …like the rest of us…we miss you.

Son #1 – All apologies and should’ve, could’ve, would’ve’s….You know, we were so proud of you…and your team-mate who started the kerfuffle felt so badly….you were OUR Superstar on skates ….While the Instigator, was OUR Superstar  with the opposite sex….so you both had some things to work out….

But….

Are you going away with no word of farewell….Will there be not a trace left behind…Well, we should’ve been less jealous… Didn’t mean to be unkind…..
You know that was the last thing on our minds….. (Paraphrase Tom Paxton)

We wonder…we wonder…..

Long, Long Ago…. (well, not that Long Ago, actually) Ms. Been-There-Done-That lived across the street from us in a ramshackle home (what does that even  mean, Momma?) that had seen better days, with its peeling paint and fractured windows.

Momma says it looks like if you push on the outer wall with your pointer finger, it will collapse, flattening everything in its path….so sidle on past it…. with Extreme Caution.

 

 

We never really talked to Ms. Been-There-Done-That but we’d wave and holler across the street.  She was pea green with envy over Momma’s Magical Garden with flowers, stepping-stones, rocks that bled rivers of silver and our Itty Bitty Fairies and Angels that twirled around in the Circle of the Fairy Dance.

 

Little did we know that Ms. Been-There-Done-That was fighting her last battle with Killer Cancer and had chosen to  self medicate with Jack Daniels….bottles and bottles of Jack Daniels.  She had lost her  Husband to The-Other-Women, she had lost her Son to Addiction, BUT…..

 

She would lose her Life with her Ever Loyal and Faithful Splotchy White and Black Mutt Dog at her side.

Some say on the night of her passing Ms. Been-There-Done-That crossed the street and became the Lead Ballerina in the Circle of the Fairy Dance….but others swear on a Stack of King James Bibles:

As the moon glows down on her haunted house, now that she feels better, Ms. Been-There-Done-That roams our street at night, crisscrossing the road, searching, calling out for Ever Loyal and Faithful Splotchy White and Black Mutt Dog, saying, ‘Here Boy, Here Boy’ in a quiet whisper, then sprinting up to the neighbours’ front doors, ringing door bells, and when they answer, vaporizing before their unbelieving eyes…

Seeking the lost… Seeking the lost…Saving, redeeming… At an immeasurable cost.

Look for her….If you have eyes to see…Listen for her…If you have ears to hear….because….She is so out there!!!!!!!!!!