Ghost Story

So my Mom had a neglectful childhood with bad feelings towards her father Grandpa Enders.

My Grandpa Enders shot his second wife and then killed himself.

He died with a lot of unsolved issues with my mom.

At night he appeared at mom's bed calling "Dimples, Dimples Please!".

This went on for years until I was in my 20's.

My mom spoke to doctors and they told her to talk to him but this didn't stop the visitations.

One night I found my mom sitting on our porch all alone looking sad. So I asked her what was wrong and she told of Grandpas visitations. I asked why she never spoke of it before and she replied that she didn't want to scare us children.

The official report say's that Grandpa and Grandma Alberta had been fighting and that he shot her in the stomach with his shotgun and then shot himself in the head. Alberta lived 5 minutes longer then Grandpa. They called it a murder suicide because he was drunk. You know the old drunken Indian excuse.

It didn't sound right to me.

I think that they were arguing and he threatened to kill himself and Alberta grabbed the gun away from him and was shot in the stomach.

I think that Grandpa saw what happened and called the police. He then sat in a chair and removed his shoe and sock so that he could shoot himself in the head.

After all an experienced hunter knows that if you want to kill someone you shoot them in the head or chest. Never the stomach because that takes hours to die.

Now back to my mother.

She said that she tried telling him to leave her in peace.

But that didn't work.

"Mom with all of the stories about your childhood and your relationship with Grandpa Enders, I don't think talking by itself is going to help."

"You need to forgive him."

She said that she couldn't because she was so angry at him and she couldn't forget all the bad things that happened.

"Mom, no-one ever said anything about forgetting."

"God say's that you have to forgive not forget."

She told me stories of how she felt neglected and betrayed by her dad and that was why she didn't visit him at his grave.

"Then that's what you need to do and talk to him and then forgive him."

"We don't know his side as to why he did those things but I think it's obvious that he never meant to hurt you." 

So the next Saturday mom and I drove down to Sayre. There on a road that runs parallel to the highway is where my Grandpa and Alberta are buried. I walked up to the grave with mom and asked her to sit and just talk to Grandpa.

I walked away to give her some privacy.

After about an hour I returned to her side.

How do I forgive him? She was almost crying.

"Tell him dad I know that you didn't want to hurt me out of malice. I can't forget. But I can forgive you dad."

"I love you."

My mom repeated and was crying so hard that I had to put my arm around her.

I think that this was the first time that she ever let her feelings out about Grandpa.

I had to drive us home but you could feel the sense of peace my mom felt.

On the way she said, "How did I ever get such a smart kid?"

Grandpa only visited in her dreams from then on.

And they were all good and loving dreams.