This story a part of the True Ghost Stories page on Obiwan's UFO-Free Paranormal Page. Please do not copy or distribute without permission from Obiwan and/or the original author!
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 17:31:39 -0800 (PST)
To: guestbook@ghosts.org
From: Karen Spring (lilmiss29@home.com)
A few years ago, when I was in college, we were in the midst of a mammoth snowstorm. I went to La Salle University in Philadelphia, and it was the winter of 1994, one of the most brutal that I can ever remember. One night, my roommates and I had some of our friends over to visit, in the hopes of keeping us all sane. I don't know why we decided to whip out my OUIJA board. I think we wanted to have a little fun and see if any of us could spook each other. My roommate Jen and a friend of ours named Mike had the board between them when a presence came on and asked to speak with me. We had about eight people in the room and I felt a shiver as the board asked to speak with me. Why me? I wondered, but I figured that since I wasn't playing with the board I would ask it some questions. Anyway, the presence identified itself as Stephen. Everyone in the room laughed at this except me. All of my friends thought this was a sheer coincidence since my younger brother's name is Ste! ! phen. I also have an uncle named Stephen. I asked the presence who he was. The ghost said that it was my grandfather. My father's father was also named Stephen, but he died of cancer in 1980 when I was eight. At this point, Jen leaned over and asked me if this was true and I told her that it was. I asked the ghost a few questions about things to see if I could stump it. All of the answers seemed to point to the fact that this was indeed my grandfather. Finally, I asked the spirit a question that only my grandfather and I could possibly know. I asked it what my grandfather used to bring me as a special treat when I was a little girl. The spirit quickly spelled out the word bubblegum. I remember sitting back on the sofa, pale. Jen looked at me and asked, "What does that mean?" I explained to her and the others in the room that when I was little, my grandfather, who smoked cigars, would bring me a cigar box full of bubblegum cigars. The two of us used to sit on my front st! ! oop and I would pretend to smoke while he would light up. The whole thing totally freaked me out, but the ghost didn't seem to want to scare me and after that, it told me that it loved me and it signed off. This episode with the OUIJA board reminded me of a dream I had had when I was about 12. My grandfather had been dead about 4 years, but I remember him coming to me to tell me that he was okay. I asked him if I could go with him to heaven, and he told me no. He said that all he wanted was to let me know that he was okay. My grandfather and I were very close, as you can tell, and even now, 17 years after he died, I can still feel him with me. I think that the dream and the episode with the OUIJA board are his ways of telling me that he is in a better place.