The Last Day of School

Snapshots In My Time, Of My Time.....Hauntings.

May 1973

My mother always used to say that her mother came back to her in dreams. We thought she was crazy and mystical and pooh-poohed her away with all of that nonsense. It was may and I was just about to get out of the 7th grade. It was the weekend before the last week of school and there was to be parties everyday next week. I was looking forward to all those parties. Well Sunday night came and my mother said that she was keeping us--my brother and I home next week. I was devastated. I was going to miss all of my parties. I asked my mother why??? Why was she going to spoil all our fun that was planned for the last week of school?

My mother told me her mother came to her in a dream and told her that something was going to happen the last week of school. She did not know who or what but she was sure of the time frame--the last week of school. We were condemned. We stayed home. She was a school teacher but she went to school. She knew it was safe for her and took the warning that it had to relate to my brother and I since the last week of
"school" was mentioned. There was nothing my brother or I could do or say that would change her mind. We had to stay home.

Monday came. Nothing happened. Tuesday came. Nothing happened. Wednesday came and it was about 1:00pm when there was a knock at the front door. It was the last full day of school. It was the neighbor who lived across the street from us. I was afraid to open the door. My mother did not say where the "bad thing" was going to happen. Supposed my brother and I were sitting ducks at home? This knock at the door could be fatal for my brother and I. Why on earth was the neighbor knocking? How did he know anyone was home? Noone knew my brother and I were at home.

The knocking continued. Louder and longer. He was a school teacher at another school in the district. Finally I cracked the front window--not the door and said hello. It could be a trick for him to get into the house. He could be a killer. He said he had gotten a call from my mother and that she would be home soon to pick us up. I asked why as school was not out yet. It was early. He said she would be home soon but he was checking on us. It was all very strange. Something was wrong and I did not know what. The neighbor seemed worried. He left and I locked the window and waited.

My mother got home a little while after that and she was frazzled. She said that we had to go hospital. My father had been injured. As she hustled around getting his underwear and socks and slippers and robe she was all the time muttering to herself that she thought it was going to be the kids, not him. The kids, not him. She did not think about him being in danger. Once she got all the clothes packed, she sat for just a short while on the living room sofa to collect herself. I asked for details as i still did not know what had happened to my father. Finally my mother tearfully told me.

My father worked at a naval shipyard as a marine electrician. He had been working that week on a submarine in a dry dock. He had to work on scaffolding that was the height of 3 telephone poles stacked on top of each other. He fell from that scaffolding onto the cement floor of the dry dock and broke his neck. His fellow workers were helpless to do anything but watch him fall silently through the sky. They did say that he left long nail scratches down the side of the sub as he desperately tried to catch onto anything to stop his fall on the way down.

We spent the long, hot summer that year at the hospital. We went everyday and stayed all day long. Our playground that summer was the long, sterile hallways of the hostital. My father lived and made a full recovery after a long period of recouperation.

Never again did I take my mothers warings as crazy ramblings. She does have some sort of conection with the spirit world with my grandmother as her contact. There have been many other warnings since that of the "last day of school" warning. They have all come true as well. Some, I think, may have even saved my life.