I see dead people

No, this is not a Halloween story, although some of those are coming the last two weeks of October. This is something unusual that happened to me today.

My husband had an appointment at the sleep clinic (finally!) which is in the old part of the hospital. The old part is wonderful. Really art deco with beautiful tiles in the foyer, but that has nothing to do with anything. We went in through the basement. As we were walking down the hall, we saw an undertaker we know. His grandmother used to live next door to us, his dad worked with my dad and my husband, and he actually worked with them when he was in school. Now he's an undertaker. I didn't think anything about seeing him at the hospital. We see him all over town under normal circumstances, but I guess if I'd actually let a thought go through my head, I'd have wondered that he was there, in his suit, all solemn and sort of guarding the corner. We exchanged pleasantries, he asked us where we were headed, told us exactly how to get there and as soon as we turned the corner, in my peripheral vision, I saw a gurney with a blanket covered body.

I'm sure I've seen this before, but if I have, I've blocked it out of my consciousness. Something about this just creeped me out. I averted my eyes as soon as I saw it, we stepped into the elevator and I looked at my husband with horror in my eyes. He said, "What?" I replied, "I didn't like that." "What? Me bouncing the elevator?" "No! You didn't see the dead person on the gurney?" How did he miss that?! He didn't understand why it would bother me. It's something I can't explain. It's one thing to see a body after it's been embalmed and gussied up, but to be that close to a freshly dead person..... It affected me... somehow. My sensitivity was attacked. By sensitivity, I mean my, well, my sensitive-ness. You know. When you feel things.

This is something that goes through the female line of my family, but seemed to skip my mother. My grandmother and I have had ghostly experiences, it seems to me she told me her mother had certain abilities and my daughter and I sense things quite often. My cousin, who is descended from the same great grandmother, will call me as I was about to pick up the phone to call her. Often. I'm jotting down a lot of these stories to begin the tales later in the month, hoping not to forget to tell any of the good ones.

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Now on a totally different subject, a friend of Lena's and mine resigned her position on the Historical Commission and the mayor called me yesterday and asked if I'd be willing to fill her spot. Now before you get too impressed, I've known the mayor for years and years and years. He owned a business with my cousin's husband and lives in our neighborhood. Remember, we're a small town. Everybody knows everybody -- until you go to WalMart or a Little League baseball game and you wonder , "who are all those people" and where on earth they came from.

I called our friend to see just what her position was and what she had to do. She assured me I really wouldn't have to do anything unless I volunteered. That I could just be a voice or a body. As long as I don't have to do anything hard like write letters or call people or anything like that, I said sign me up. The commission is in charge of keeping downtown "historical". I just hope they don't try to make me do anything complicated. Maybe I can go on trips to look at other towns. Now, wouldn't that be fun?

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I'm so disgusted with my ISP. It keeps knocking us off line. I'm not getting to go blog hopping or visit any of the other sites I always like to see. Can't stay on line long enough. I don't think I'm on line right now. Wonder if I'll be able to publish it when I get through?