![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Funerals, Ancestral Ghosts, and goodbyes
Last Saturday, we held the funeral for my grandmother. The only oddity that happened was that, even though we had a hearse and everything, when it came to the final march towards the grave from church, my male cousins all refused to put down the coffin, opting instead to carry it on their shoulders. So the hearse we hired only ended up as a gigantic music box that halved traffic in front, the coffin on the shoulders of my cousins and some of the young males that married into the family, the grieving relatives, and a marching band. The grave was situated into the side of a mountain on the outskirts of the city, so my cousins kept at it all the way, uphill until we got to the grave, which also has about 6 new bones interred (we also took the opportunity to transfer old bones from other graves).
Normally, however, during funerals, the likelihood of other ancestors hanging out with us increases dramatically. We figured they showed up to pick up their new addition, plus checking us out too. For a bunch of ancestors, they're pretty active, IMO, for a bunch of dead people. So during funerals, we get a new bunch of ghost stories...
1. On the last week of my grandmother's life, my aunt's family had an inkling that she was fading fast because of the fact that she was a little happier than normal. Why? She kept smiling at windows, and at night, they heard her conversing pleasantly with her parents.
2. These parents also decided to investigate my cousins. One of them was messaging into his phone at night downstairs in the same house as my ailing grandmother, when he glimpsed a face behind him on the reflection on the screen of his phone. Those three male cousins living in the house opted to sleep on the first floor with their pallets huddled close together. They're teenagers, by the way.
3. My uncle, upon hearing this, only nodded thoughtfully. "It must've been dada it---. He was here the last time we had a funeral too." To which he relayed the time they had another burial, wherein he glimpsed an old man walking into the room, leaning over the coffin and vanishing from the spot. "It's troublesome when you occasionally think they're robbers.", my uncle mused. One time he had thrown his pillow at a shadow, thinking it was a thief, only to realize which grandparent it was when the pillow passed through.
4. My grandfather (yes, my actual one), died about 11 years ago from lung cancer. On his own funeral, he did his own haunting-- on a friend. That friend had been spending an entire week in the mountain, and on a certain day during the week of my grandfather's wake, he chanced on my grandfather preparing breakfast in his house on the mountain (my grandparents kept a house in the mountain forest, when they descend to the city, they lived with their sons). This friend, however, had been so far away from contact that he had not yet heard that my grandfather was already dead. And thus, he greeted my grandfather in the mountain home that day, and my grandfather invited him in for some coffee and breakfast. The friend accepted, asking only for coffee. So while they chatted for a while, my grandfather got around to boiling some water and made coffee for the friend. He also mentioned to the friend that maybe he ought to come down to the city for a while, and ask around for some news. The friend pondered over this while sipping on the coffee. When his attention came back, he realized that my grandfather had disappeared. Puzzled, he cleaned up the stuff and called out around the house to thank my grandfather, thinking that he just wandered off to finish some chores. When he came down the mountain that day, my mother found him standing at the doorway of the wake, pale, saddened and confused.
5. My grandfather also keeps tabs on his children a lot. On the first anniversary of his death, my aunt, who was a teacher in my elementary school, glimpsed him walking past her classroom door in a white barong tagalog suit, barefoot. She turned to her class and asked them if they saw it too. They agreed, but when my aunt hurried to the corridor, he was gone. On that same day, at the same time, my mother was at home, conversing with a parent of her students' (my mother is also a teacher) at the kitchen counter. She picked up a pitcher of water to pour a glass, at the same moment, the glass skidded around by itself on the counter. In surprise, my mother chased the glass with the pitcher so that the water wouldn't spill ^_^;. when it stopped however, my mother exclaimed, "Aba, ama, kung gusto mong uminom, sana sinabi mo! (aa, father, if you wanted to drink, you should've said so!)"
6. Last year, my aunt's family, who had migrated to New Zealand, came to visit because they also had a funeral from another side of their family. Two weeks prior to their visitation, my mother had a dream. She had woken up in the middle of the night, walked out to the living room to find my grandfather coming in the front door-- and plopped down on the sofa. She asked him where he came from, and he promptly replied, "Oh, I visited Angie in New Zealand." My mother woke up amused. Two weeks later, my Aunt was gossiping with my mother, and mentioned that she also had a dream two weeks prior, "I dreamt that father paid us a visit, it was so funny, how would he know how to get around in New Zealand?!"
7. My uncles live in a house that was divided in the middle. My older uncle, Romy, had six children, but his wife was working in Israel. My younger uncle, Pepito, is married to Aunt Nelia, who we call Tita Bang (I have no idea why) with two kids. When my older uncle's in the mountain, Tita Bang also worries about her nephews and nieces living alone in the house next door. One time, my cousin, Junjun, was sick and alone in the house next door. Tita Bang, anxious, shouted into a crevice in the wall between the houses to ask if he was ok. A woman's voice answered, "Wag kang mag-alala, akong bahala sa isang 'to (don't worry, I'll take care of this one)". Alarmed, my aunt hurried over to the other house wondering who the woman was. She found my cousin alone and asleep. She asked the neighbors if they had seen a woman in the house. The ones living across the street told her that they occasionally glimpsed a tall woman with long black hair and a mole on the center of her forehead. My aunt didn't know anyone with that description. Upon being told this story, my mother replied, "Oh, that must've been my grandmother. She had a mole on the center of her forehead."
-----
Anyway, for the past week, I've been alternately sick or taking short trips to UP for stuff, meeting up with my partner on my last paper, and yesterday, we hung out for an entire day at Suwaki-sensei's house at a sort of farewell party, because he's due to leave for Japan in a couple of weeks. We'll miss you too, sensei.
Normally, however, during funerals, the likelihood of other ancestors hanging out with us increases dramatically. We figured they showed up to pick up their new addition, plus checking us out too. For a bunch of ancestors, they're pretty active, IMO, for a bunch of dead people. So during funerals, we get a new bunch of ghost stories...
1. On the last week of my grandmother's life, my aunt's family had an inkling that she was fading fast because of the fact that she was a little happier than normal. Why? She kept smiling at windows, and at night, they heard her conversing pleasantly with her parents.
2. These parents also decided to investigate my cousins. One of them was messaging into his phone at night downstairs in the same house as my ailing grandmother, when he glimpsed a face behind him on the reflection on the screen of his phone. Those three male cousins living in the house opted to sleep on the first floor with their pallets huddled close together. They're teenagers, by the way.
3. My uncle, upon hearing this, only nodded thoughtfully. "It must've been dada it---. He was here the last time we had a funeral too." To which he relayed the time they had another burial, wherein he glimpsed an old man walking into the room, leaning over the coffin and vanishing from the spot. "It's troublesome when you occasionally think they're robbers.", my uncle mused. One time he had thrown his pillow at a shadow, thinking it was a thief, only to realize which grandparent it was when the pillow passed through.
4. My grandfather (yes, my actual one), died about 11 years ago from lung cancer. On his own funeral, he did his own haunting-- on a friend. That friend had been spending an entire week in the mountain, and on a certain day during the week of my grandfather's wake, he chanced on my grandfather preparing breakfast in his house on the mountain (my grandparents kept a house in the mountain forest, when they descend to the city, they lived with their sons). This friend, however, had been so far away from contact that he had not yet heard that my grandfather was already dead. And thus, he greeted my grandfather in the mountain home that day, and my grandfather invited him in for some coffee and breakfast. The friend accepted, asking only for coffee. So while they chatted for a while, my grandfather got around to boiling some water and made coffee for the friend. He also mentioned to the friend that maybe he ought to come down to the city for a while, and ask around for some news. The friend pondered over this while sipping on the coffee. When his attention came back, he realized that my grandfather had disappeared. Puzzled, he cleaned up the stuff and called out around the house to thank my grandfather, thinking that he just wandered off to finish some chores. When he came down the mountain that day, my mother found him standing at the doorway of the wake, pale, saddened and confused.
5. My grandfather also keeps tabs on his children a lot. On the first anniversary of his death, my aunt, who was a teacher in my elementary school, glimpsed him walking past her classroom door in a white barong tagalog suit, barefoot. She turned to her class and asked them if they saw it too. They agreed, but when my aunt hurried to the corridor, he was gone. On that same day, at the same time, my mother was at home, conversing with a parent of her students' (my mother is also a teacher) at the kitchen counter. She picked up a pitcher of water to pour a glass, at the same moment, the glass skidded around by itself on the counter. In surprise, my mother chased the glass with the pitcher so that the water wouldn't spill ^_^;. when it stopped however, my mother exclaimed, "Aba, ama, kung gusto mong uminom, sana sinabi mo! (aa, father, if you wanted to drink, you should've said so!)"
6. Last year, my aunt's family, who had migrated to New Zealand, came to visit because they also had a funeral from another side of their family. Two weeks prior to their visitation, my mother had a dream. She had woken up in the middle of the night, walked out to the living room to find my grandfather coming in the front door-- and plopped down on the sofa. She asked him where he came from, and he promptly replied, "Oh, I visited Angie in New Zealand." My mother woke up amused. Two weeks later, my Aunt was gossiping with my mother, and mentioned that she also had a dream two weeks prior, "I dreamt that father paid us a visit, it was so funny, how would he know how to get around in New Zealand?!"
7. My uncles live in a house that was divided in the middle. My older uncle, Romy, had six children, but his wife was working in Israel. My younger uncle, Pepito, is married to Aunt Nelia, who we call Tita Bang (I have no idea why) with two kids. When my older uncle's in the mountain, Tita Bang also worries about her nephews and nieces living alone in the house next door. One time, my cousin, Junjun, was sick and alone in the house next door. Tita Bang, anxious, shouted into a crevice in the wall between the houses to ask if he was ok. A woman's voice answered, "Wag kang mag-alala, akong bahala sa isang 'to (don't worry, I'll take care of this one)". Alarmed, my aunt hurried over to the other house wondering who the woman was. She found my cousin alone and asleep. She asked the neighbors if they had seen a woman in the house. The ones living across the street told her that they occasionally glimpsed a tall woman with long black hair and a mole on the center of her forehead. My aunt didn't know anyone with that description. Upon being told this story, my mother replied, "Oh, that must've been my grandmother. She had a mole on the center of her forehead."
-----
Anyway, for the past week, I've been alternately sick or taking short trips to UP for stuff, meeting up with my partner on my last paper, and yesterday, we hung out for an entire day at Suwaki-sensei's house at a sort of farewell party, because he's due to leave for Japan in a couple of weeks. We'll miss you too, sensei.
no subject
Still, my third eye apparently remains stubbornly closed, and I'm very happy this way. >.<
Get well soon~