When Ghosts Speak - Mary Ann Winkowski [47]
“Sal told me to,” I said.
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone as Dennis worked out what that probably meant.
“Ah, hell,” he said, sighing.
“Dennis, I’ve got to tell you some stuff from Sal. And he says you need to act fast.” I repeated what Sal had told me: the location of his body, the guys he wanted Dennis to go after. Dennis read back the information, offered me a brusque “thanks,” and hung up.
I stood there in the kitchen, staring at the phone. I hoped that Dennis would be in time and that Sal’s wife would have her husband’s body for the funeral. I hoped Dennis could find enough evidence to bring Sal’s killers to justice.
I don’t know how the whole story turned out. I know they got the body back, because I went to Sal’s funeral; he was there, and he thanked me profusely. Whether his killers were caught and punished, I don’t know. I watched the papers for a while, but I never heard from Sal again.
Staying to Protect the Living
Parents stay to watch over children; spouses stay because they overhear their survivors saying they don’t know how they will live without their mate. Other spirits stick around out of the best of intentions. They may, for instance, feel the need to save someone from a bad habit, such as drug or alcohol addiction.
When I work with young married couples or young parents, I often come across the ghost of someone who clearly died before his or her time. I remember one young father who had died in a car accident insisting to me that he was not going into the Light. That he was staying to watch over his spouse and children. “Who will be like a dad to the kids?” he asked me. “What if my wife falls in love again?”
Whenever I come across spirits thinking along these lines, I explain the troubles they can cause by staying with the family. I tell them that, to show their love, they have to leave. Most of the time they listen to me and cross over.
Other times it’s the older couples who can be stubborn—perhaps when an elderly husband dies, but his spirit decides to remain earthbound to take care of his wife. When this happens, you can expect that the surviving spouse will end up in poor health, maybe even in a nursing home.
It’s also possible for living people to make a spirit feel guilty about crossing over. This is particularly true when someone has died quickly or unexpectedly. In one tragic case a young father had accidentally shot himself with his crossbow while out hunting. His wife was devastated. They had three children under the age of five and a four-month-old baby.
The man’s sister had asked me to attend the funeral to see if the ghost could tell them what had happened. He confirmed that his death had been an accident. “I feel like such an ass,” he told me, explaining how his bow had caught on a log on the ground and discharged an arrow right into his back. “I need to stay and make it up to them somehow.”
I explained to him that if he remained earthbound, he would only end up causing his family trouble—he needed to go into the Light. But his wife, who was standing near the coffin, was sobbing and begging him not to leave her. I knew she was grieving, but I told her that it would not be good for him to stay. I told her how, even though he wouldn’t mean it, his presence could cause chaos in the house and cause her or the children to be ill. Nevertheless, I left the funeral not knowing if he was going to take my advice and go into the Light, or listen to his wife’s heartbreaking pleas.
A few months later, I got a call from the wife. “You were right,” she said. “Everything is terrible. Can you tell me if he is still here?”
He was. When I arrived, he explained that he couldn’t say no to his wife. She had begged him to stay, saying that she didn’t care if she got sick or the house fell apart. But neither of them had considered what effect this might have on the kids. When his wife finally realized how detrimental his continued presence was, she was able to tell him that he could cross over, as painful as it was for her to release him. I made