The Lamp Mystery

 For some time now I have been debating whether or not to write about these strange events which are connected to recently departed people. Today it is rainy, humid, a gloomy day, so what better time to put on paper my recollections of two similar and unexplainable  happenings?  Make of them what you will.

Recently my close friend Sylvia passed away from a stroke.  She lived in the apartment next to mine.  She did not die there--made it to the hospital; however, she did not make it back home.  Her apartment is still vacant.  The maintenance man has replaced the carpet, painted the walls, and done minor repairs.  Two people had signed up to rent it.  Apartments here never stay vacant more than the few days it takes to make them ready.  The first one, a man, came to check it out before moving in.  After being inside briefly he told the manager he changed his mind.  No reason given that I am aware of.  I don't know what happened with the woman who was next in line to move in.  She has not arrived.  In the meantime Sylvia's birthday arrived September 2nd.  She would have been 83.  The morning of her birthday I noticed that the light on her porch was lit.  "That's odd", I thought.  When the manager came I called him asking if he knew that light had been left on.  He thought perhaps the maintenance man had been in and left it on.  The maintenance man was dispatched to turn off the light. Later in the afternoon I noted it was indeed off.  That night when I took Hannah for her late evening outing, the light was again on.  "Happy  birthday Sylvia", I said.  Then Hannah and I returned to our apartment.  Next morning when we ventured outside, the light had gone off.  It has not come on again.  The apartment is still vacant.

So I would think this was all the figment of a very active imagination EXCEPT--this has happened to me in the past.

I was renting half of a mobile home after selling my home and looking for a new smaller place to live.  The man who also lived in that trailer was a friend of my son-in-law.  Bruce was a very unhappy fellow as his wife had moved out recently and was apparently living with another guy. Bruce was a nice person.  We shared the kitchen, making our own meals and living quietly otherwise, each in our own half of the trailer.  I had a Siamese cat and an Afghan dog with me.  Bruce loved the animals and they both enjoyed time in his company.  One evening just before Christmas, Bruce told me he was going to town to get some coffee.  He was gone longer than it should have taken.   The phone rang--it was my daughter.  She asked if I knew where Bruce was and I said he went to the store.  "No"- she said, "on the scanner now it was saying he had gone to the laundromat, shot two people and then himself".  My daughter called a neighbor who came over and said she would stay with me.  When Shirley arrived, I asked what she had heard.  She told me that apparently Bruce had found his wife, her sister, and the man he had thought was the one his wife had gone with, in the laundromat.  He killed her.  Shot the others and then turned the sawed-off shotgun on himself.  I saw no reason why Shirley needed to stay with me, but she decided she should.  So after a bit I made up a bed for her on the couch. As I was heading down the hall to my bedroom, Shirley called out that a lamp in Bruce's bedroom had just come on.  (His bedroom opened onto the livingroom and he had left his door ajar.) I came back, went into Bruce's bedroom and turned off his bedside lamp.  Before I was out of the room, the lamp came back on.  Okay, it must be on a timer, right?  I traced the cord to the outlet and found no evidence of a timer.  Off again.  Oh Oh --back on again.  This time I unplugged the lamp.  Shirley was becoming uneasy.  I reassured her there was no ghost and even if there was, Bruce would not hurt us.  Well I guess you know where this is going.  The lamp, completely disconnected from any power source, came back on.  This time I went into the room, stood there quietly for a few minutes, then said," It's okay Bruce.  We understand.  You can go now".  My dog and cat had both followed me into the room this time.  The dog was wagging her tail and they both looked over towards the lamp as though they saw someone they knew standing there.  The three of us exited the room.  The light went out.  It never came back on.  Shirley stayed overnight.  The next morning as we ate breakfast we discussed what we both knew had happened.  We knew no one would believe us.  We also knew it was no hallucination.  I eventually told family members.  Shirley has passed on now, so I can feel free to tell this tale.  Many years have elapsed between  events.  Now with the more recent similar happening,  I still do not know what to believe. What I do believe is that there is far more to this ether we live in than we are able to comprehend.