A strange and beautiful Irish Christmas...and maybe a ghost story

Barfly · Dec 4, 2005

Not sure if this is for this forum but I guess it is seeing as it stemmed from an occurance at last nights gig.

I am first generation Canadian-Irish. Grew up in aVERY Irish household, both parents from Dublin and I lived there for the first 4.5 years of my life.

My mom passed away May 2004. The funniest person I will ever know, that I am convinced of. She was also superstitious as all Irish mom's seem to be, at least the ones I know (aunt's).

Anyway, we played at an Irish pub last night to a Christmas dance of 40+ years Irish folks.

Between sets, I overheard the owner (45-ish Dublin lady from Walkinstown, where I actually lived for those 4.5 years) bellowing to some one:

"Ahh, go and ****e!" - with ****e coming out as "Shysh!"

LMFAO! I howled! That was the first time I had heard that expression since my mom passed and God bless her, she used it a lot around our house.

Now to the strange part.

I just told my wife about this not 20 minutes ago and we were both laughing about it, even the kids.

I went into our bedroom to get some Chapstick from my end table. I open the drawer and use the 'stick. As I'm putting it back I notice a birthday card "to a wonderful son...".

I read the front of the card, then opened it...it's from my mom and dad.

Inside, there was (is) $50 in gift certificates from Long and McQuade (Canadian music store chain) from December 2003.

The card is 2 years old.

I swear on all that is dear to me that I have never seen this card before.

This is the second time since her passing something like this has happened out of the blue.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

Peace,
steve

chips · Dec 5, 2005

thats creepy. I wish my dead relatives would still buy me stuff for my birthday...

shameandspite · Dec 5, 2005

I knew it! My dead uncle really is just a stiff, he owes me twenty five bucks for yardwork.

Barfly · Dec 5, 2005

I didn't mention this on the original because I didn't even think of it. My birthday is the 27th of December.

plexibass · Dec 5, 2005

BARFLY,
that is a great story. my mom died on 2/21/02. 2nd worst day of my life. the worst being when the doc told us that the cancer was just to advanced to do anything. i dont have a story like yours but it is important that you remember your mom everyday of your life. i remember that my mom used to hang a small stocking on my main bass [1969 dan armstrong] every year. i used to keep him [it] on a stand and every christmas morning there would be 5 or so dollars in the stocking so i could by strings or whatever i needed for my bass. i always thought that was so cool of her and i still hang the stocking on him every year just in case.......ya know? i the holidays now.........

Wildcat · Dec 5, 2005

My Best friend and old College Roomate passed away at age 42. He and I had been best friends for over 20 yrs. In College he loved to blast Springsteen especially Born in the USA on his stereo so loud we received complaints from 3 floors above us.

As I was leaving the church after his funeral I was feeling about as low as I could. I start up my car and hear on the radio "Born in the USA" kinda freaked me out because I hadn't been thinking about how he used to do that. Then I started to laugh... I realized things were going to be ok... probably just a coincidence maybe it was a message... who knows...

Barfly · Dec 5, 2005

Dave, you are right - the holidays are difficult but knowing she's still with us is cool.

The first time she 'came back' (I guess???), we were at their house not too long after she had passed. My then 2 year old daughter took my watch into the living room and it got lost. We searched hi and lo to no avail.

Anyway, a couple/three weeks goes by and I was at the house by myself. I decided I'd have another look for the watch so I'm flipping cushions, looking under couches, etc.

There is a large potting plant in the living room that wasn't used anymore. It stands beside a small memorial table to my mom (a couple of 8*10's, nice ornaments, etc). I looked in the pot, nothing. I then looked at one of the pic's of my mom and I smiled - I think I mumbled Love you or Miss you or something.

I turned to my right to leave the living room, towards the dining room and there is my watch, sitting on the head chair, plain as day.

Remember, we had all looked hi and lo 3 weeks earlier and found nothing.

All I did was pick up my watch, turned to the picture and said "thanks".

ZoomBoy · Dec 5, 2005

I think that our departed loved ones find a way to let us know that they are still with us in some small way. Not trying to derail here last summer my sister-in-law had one of these experiences. The summer previous, on the day she and her family were returning from a 2 week vacation on Martha's Vineyard, her oldest son and my nephew, was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was only 22 and one of those old souls who made friends wherever he went. His death was very hard on the family as you could imagine. The following summer my sister-in-law and family go to the Vineyard for vacation again. When they get back my nephew's cousin calls my sister-in-law to tell here about a dream she had. In the dream my nephew Ryan came to her and insisted that she was to tell his mother that the piece of glass was from him. She was puzzled by this so she had to call her aunt. Turns out that while my sis-in-law was on the beach one day during the vacation some little girls were playing in the sand nearby. One girl came up to her, handed here a piece of worn sea-glass and said this is for you. My sis-in-law hadn't told anyone about the girl on the beach. When I heard the story I got the chills....

She's with you Barfly....

plexibass · Dec 7, 2005

the only really strange thing that has ever happened was when i was the roadie for the hellhounds [satellites], the drummer, randy delay, every single time i would bring him a drum, cymbal, whatever or whenever he would walk past me would say in a really fake hick accent, "hey dave!". i mean every gig at least 20 times a day he would say it. he passed away in 1993 of cancer. absolutely devastated me. i have never to this day teched for another drummer. can't really.
7 years later i'm teching/playing with this cover band. i put the thing together with a guitarist and bassist i'd known for years. the drummer was a guy i met at the gym who was looking for a band. we hit it off and he joined. now he had never in his life met randy or the guys in the satellites. the first gig we did, he's carryng in his drums, walks right past me and says in a big fake hick accent," hey dave", stare at me and winks. i start hyperventilating and the whole time he just stares. my guitarist has to get me calmed down and sedated. drummer never asks what the deal was but looked at me like he knew..........i'm not religious or spiritual but that was just too much right there. no way in he** he could have known.

Barfly · Dec 7, 2005

davetakis said:

the only really strange thing that has ever happened was when i was the roadie for the hellhounds [satellites], the drummer, randy delay, every single time i would bring him a drum, cymbal, whatever or whenever he would walk past me would say in a really fake hick accent, "hey dave!". i mean every gig at least 20 times a day he would say it. he passed away in 1993 of cancer. absolutely devastated me. i have never to this day teched for another drummer. can't really.
7 years later i'm teching/playing with this cover band. i put the thing together with a guitarist and bassist i'd known for years. the drummer was a guy i met at the gym who was looking for a band. we hit it off and he joined. now he had never in his life met randy or the guys in the satellites. the first gig we did, he's carryng in his drums, walks right past me and says in a big fake hick accent," hey dave", stare at me and winks. i start hyperventilating and the whole time he just stares. my guitarist has to get me calmed down and sedated. drummer never asks what the deal was but looked at me like he knew..........i'm not religious or spiritual but that was just too much right there. no way in he** he could have known.
Click to expand...

Wow...just...Wow

i_got_a_mohawk · Dec 7, 2005

Wow, thats creepy, yet cool ! !

And about the sense of humour, i think its an irish thing, its a certain charm irish women seem to have (i'll leave it there and not derail it more)

Barfly · Dec 11, 2005

i_got_a_mohawk said:

Wow, thats creepy, yet cool ! !

And about the sense of humour, i think its an irish thing, its a certain charm irish women seem to have (i'll leave it there and not derail it more)
Click to expand...

That, they do.

Barfly · Dec 11, 2005

ZoomBoy said:

I think that our departed loved ones find a way to let us know that they are still with us in some small way. Not trying to derail here last summer my sister-in-law had one of these experiences. The summer previous, on the day she and her family were returning from a 2 week vacation on Martha's Vineyard, her oldest son and my nephew, was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was only 22 and one of those old souls who made friends wherever he went. His death was very hard on the family as you could imagine. The following summer my sister-in-law and family go to the Vineyard for vacation again. When they get back my nephew's cousin calls my sister-in-law to tell here about a dream she had. In the dream my nephew Ryan came to her and insisted that she was to tell his mother that the piece of glass was from him. She was puzzled by this so she had to call her aunt. Turns out that while my sis-in-law was on the beach one day during the vacation some little girls were playing in the sand nearby. One girl came up to her, handed here a piece of worn sea-glass and said this is for you. My sis-in-law hadn't told anyone about the girl on the beach. When I heard the story I got the chills....

She's with you Barfly....
Click to expand...

And wow...jut wow aswell...

I guess they do come back, or even stay, eh?

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