To: ghost-discuss@aurora.cdb.com
From: coby@infocom.com
Subject: Re: Experience

I've been reading a very interesting book called "Hello From Heaven". It's about people contacting their loved ones after they have died to let them know that they are o.k. and still alive (only in another dimension or whatever you want to call it) or to tell them things that they wish them to know, etc... Anyway, it got me to thinking about if there were any stories that I have heard in my family about anyone contacting someone after they had died. I can only think of one instance I was told about and it's not really long, but here goes.

This story concerns my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. They are my mom's parents. When I was a very small girl, about 5 I think, my Grandpa Johnson became very ill. He was an alcoholic, but I don't remember him badly. All I have of him are happy memories. Whatever problems he had in his life with his drinking never affected me and I wasn't aware of them. Anyway, he was an alcoholic and he developed liver disease because of it. When he was in the hospital dying my grandma and him made some kind of pact to each other that if he was still 'alive' in any sense after his death he would let her know. Well, he died soon afterwards from liver disease.

After his funeral, my mom and dad, aunt and uncle, and my grandma were all sitting in the living room of my grandma's apartment consoling each other and whatnot. Next to the living room was the kitchen (in fact, it was like one great big continuous room) and sitting in the middle of the kitchen table was this big wooden pineapple thingy. What it was is there was a big platter with this big wooden pineapple in the middle of it. Around the pineapple were little wooden bowls and the middle of the pineapple was hollow and contained a bunch of little wooden knives. It was used for like crackers and cheese and other things you might have at a party. It was a rather large pineapple, I'd say it was at least 6 or 7 inches tall and since it was made out of wood it was rather heavy too.

Anyway, like I said, they were all sitting in the living room when my aunt heard like a scraping sound. She turned to look and the pineapple was no longer in the middle of the platter--it was on the table and the scraping sound that my aunt heard was the pineapple. It was moving across the table all by itself! My aunt screamed and pointed to the table and everyone else looked and saw it too. The pineapple slid to the end of the table and then slowly lifted up into the air. When it got about a foot above the table it started to move across the room towards where everyone was sitting on the couches. They were all just sitting there speechless while this was taking place. The pineapple continued to move towards the couch and when it reached my grandma, it landed right in her lap. Everyone was freaking out! Everyone but my grandma that is, because she knew that it was only my grandpa letting her know that he was o.k. and still 'alive' somewhere.

I heard this story many times while I was growing up and everyone that was present when it happened swears that it's true. I've seen the pineapple too, and eaten chips and dip from it and it's surrounding platter and bowls. Does anyone else have a story about someone contacting someone they loved after their death? I find this subject fascinating. Hope this helps out a little since it seems there haven't been too many stories lately! :)

Laurie
coby@infocom.com