Late Night Visitor

Homeland Farm

  As many of my blog readers know, we have had 5 generations of our family live here in this old farmhouse. Starting with my great grandmother Allie, it has been in our family for over 100 years. Many of my ancestors were born here, lived here and some even died here. Many as well, are buried in the back cemetery-Homeland Cemetery.

Homeland Cemetery

      Due to the long family history of this farm, my family believes that there have been many visitors from the beyond, and many of us have seen, heard or felt things that can not be "explained away". One of these experiences happened to me a couple nights ago.
       I was sound asleep when I woke up with a pain in my hand. As I lay in bed trying to go back to sleep, I suddenly heard a man's voice coming from the room upstairs over my bed. My 13 year old son Liam sleeps in that room, and I thought "he is supposed to be asleep!" I wondered why he was still up and who he was talking to. Then as I heard a deep voice again, I thought perhaps it was my older son Cameron in there talking to Liam, and perhaps telling him he better get to bed before mom catches him.
        I decided that I would get up, sneak up upstairs and surprise him, catching him in the act of staying up way past his bedtime. So, I got up, put on my robe, and headed up the stairs, which are just outside my bedroom door. I climbed up until I was about 4 steps from the top, and stopped, kneeling on the step to listen.
        I was looking around the hallway, which has 5 doors, all closed except one. As I knelt on the step, I heard nothing..no talking, no sound at all. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of brilliant white light on the ceiling half way down the hall. I looked up where it had been, and there was nothing there at all. With all the doors on the front of the house closed, there was no way car lights could have done it, but as I stood there, I thought it didn't seem like car lights anyway.
     I continued to kneel on that step for a few more moments, while I looked all around, trying to determine if there was anything in that dark hall that could have made that flash of light. As I looked over at a large box in the hallway, there was another flash of light, in the same area as the first one.
This time I was almost looking at it, and a couple things occurred to me. First, it was a very quick flash of brilliant, white light, and also, as bright as it was, it didn't illuminate the hallway, like a car light, camera or light bulb would. It was only about the size of my fist..but SO very bright, and well-I would describe it as pure white.
       I had goosebumps on neck, and for some reason, I thought of my Uncle Billy. He and I were pals, and he used to take me with him to visit farms, and see cows and auctions and fun stuff like that. He taught me how to take good care of my animals, and was quick to call and say that we left a gate open, or that a horse (or two) were out, or that he saw a fox, better lock up the hens. He died at the young age of 64, and is buried over at Homeland Cemetery.

Me and one of my uncle's young calves

      I wasn't sure why I thought of him at that moment, but I dismissed it, and thought I would go check Liam, even though I hadn't heard a peep from him since I was standing on the stairs. So, I climbed up the rest of the stairs, and walked down the hall, casting an eye over head to the spot on the ceiling where I had seen the light. There was nothing to be seen, so I opened Liam's door, and he was sound asleep in bed, not moving or mumbling and certainly not saying anything.
       I walked back out in the hall and down to Cameron's room, knocked on his door and asked him if he had been talking to anyone. He said he hadn't been, nor had he heard or seen anything. I told him to keep an eye and ear out, and went back downstairs. Crawling back into bed, I glanced at the clock, and realized it was just after midnight.
       Cliff was awake, and I told him about the light I saw upstairs, and how I couldn't really explain the deep voice we had heard, other then to say I wondered if it was my Uncle Billy giving me some sort of message. I have smelled his "Brut" cologne before at the bottom of the stairs, and have often thought of him watching over the place.
      Cliff asked me if I knew what temperature the furnace was set on, and I told him I really had no idea. He lay there a moment, and said I think I will go check it. He got up and walked around the bed and into the bathroom to go out and check on the thermostat.
       All of a sudden, he exclaimed "Carmen! What is that? Come quick!"
        I could tell by the tone of his voice I had better go and look quickly. So I jumped up, and hurried to the bathroom where he was looking out the window.
       " Oh my god!" I hollered, as I looked out the window.
Across the backyard, over in front of the horse barn, we saw FIRE.
        I turned and ran into the hallway, and hollered up to Cameron. "Cameron! FIRE in the corral!" I heard his door opening, as I rushed out into the kitchen, looking for my shoes.
Cliff was throwing on his clothes as Cameron and I ran out into the big barn which is attached to our house. Cliff came running out behind us, and he and Cameron ran out back to the fence, while I yelled to Brogan in her apartment to wake up.
       It turns out that one of the water tub heaters Brogan uses to make sure the horses have fresh water in the winter, had ended up resting on the bottom of the tub.The newer heaters now all have a cage to keep it from resting on the bottom, but this was an older model, and when the tub emptied, it evaporated the last of the water, and melted down the tub until it caught fire. The smoldering tub then started to singe the back of the corral fence.
       I knew as I smelled all that melting plastic, and watched as they kicked snow over the burning tub, that that was the message my uncle wanted to send me. He is indeed still watching over this farm and all of us, and the bright light and perhaps the man's voice were all part of the chain of events that were needed to get us up and out to that corral during the middle of the night.

The farmhouse from the cemetery

       Some people might think that these were mere coincidences..I prefer to think it was ole Willie keeping a close eye on all of us, and that is a very comforting thought indeed.