Halloween in the year 2020 may go down as one of the spookiest ever. The streets will be hauntingly empty compared to non-virus years, but all will be back to normal a year from now. Scientists all over the world are toiling and troubling over chemical cauldrons whipping up various potions to fight this wicked pandemic, and making excellent progress.
Maybe they’ll conjure up some anti-virus candies to hand out by the millions next year. Whatever it takes.
With no little children trick or treating at my door tonight, I’ve chosen some books from my library to lose myself in, maybe even pick up some skills, and a few new recipes.
However, being the lousy cook I am, no doubt I’d be useless at brewing up potions as well. I even murder K.D.
There is a chapter in Mastering Witchcraft on Vengeance and Attack, which might come in handy if there’s ever another toilet paper hoarding war. Hopefully we’ll never see that level of human madness again.
For those of you without books to crawl into, how about a true haunted house ghost story to entertain your dark side with.
No doubt many of you are familiar with well known Winnipeg media personality Jon Ljungberg, not only a star of stage and screen, but also an extraordinarily talented artist.
You may not know that he is originally from Massachusetts, where, in the family home during the wee hours one night, he met the woman of his nightmares.
He messaged me the story in his own words, but before I give you that, some important facts he shared with me during a preliminary chat.
At one time, immediately behind the house he speaks of, there had been a hospital of sorts used as a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, and during another period, served as an asylum for mentally troubled souls. Thank God medical science has demystified those illnesses which are now treated the same as the many other human maladies we slog through.
The house had been the home of the president of the facility throughout the mental illness incarnation, also used as a halfway house for those re-entering society. One of those patients, a woman, was employed as a nanny there, and following the accidental death of a child, took her own life in a front bedroom closet.
"My folks bought the house, located in Rutland, Mass., in 1976. It hadn’t been lived in for quite some time. It was a big house, 17 rooms, with a stone foundation and dirt floor basement," wrote Ljungberg.
"We started to notice little things at first that just seemed a bit odd but dismissible, then slowly graduated to more disturbing events. The living room had floor to ceiling bookcases and on more than one occasion, books would be off the shelves, some stacked. Furniture would be moved around, or in a different room altogether, the activities escalating to one night after I got home around 2 a.m., when I was lying in bed and felt as if someone was tucking me in. I thought perhaps the dog had joined me. I turned to see a woman from the waist up, her lower half very misty. She was wearing a blue higher collar dress and smiled with a blank expression. I turned to switch the light on, looked back and she was gone. Shortly after we found out about the closet incident that had happened some 40 years earlier. My Dad experienced the same thing at a later date, and went and sat up all night in our well-lit kitchen. The family moved out shortly after."
Good grief Jon boy, you’re a hard act to follow. My books won’t be nearly that entertaining. Nothing beats a true ghost story, thanks for sharing. Happy Halloween folks. Sweet dreams.
Comments and feedback always welcome!
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