My Great Grandmother

[SCFW]

My Grandmother was a 7t/h daughter of a 7t/h daughter and had foresight. She died in 1923,and had foreseen her own early untimely death. My Father had told me this many times over the years, but it was Memorial Day 34 years ago that I promised my Father I would put a yellow rose on her grave. That was the 1s/t year I had ever been there at Springgrove Cemetery, which is unbelievebly large. It was raining so hard that I sat in the car with our newborn daughter, while my husband looked all over the section in which she was buried, ( sections there are as big as some cemeteries), He kept returning to the car time after time, saying it was useless. All along, something pulled my attention to a certain grave, and kept it there, I just couldn't take my eyes off of it. The next time my husband returned, I pointed to a grave over by a tree and some distance over for him to check. When he got to that grave he stood and starred down for awhile, then slowly turned back toward the car and looked at me with the strangest look. It was my Grandmother's grave.

[Jon.]

Oooo kaaaay...

And your point is that there was something supernatural about this?

Could your father have mentioned at some point that your g-grandma was buried under a tree? Perhaps you forgot that detail but subconsciously remembered. Were there any pictures of her funeral you might have seen that could have given you some clue?

Perhaps the grave under the tree was one of the few he hadn't already looked at? Perhaps you just thought he should look there because it was out of the rain?

Coincidence?

These little stories are touching, but they don't really mean anything to anyone other than the people who were actually involved. Now if you claimed that you could, given the name of a person buried in a cemetery you had never visited, pick out their gravesite 9 times out of 10, we might have something we could test. But these little coincidental stories don't prove anything.

[grayman]

I think the thread should be called Chicken Soup for the Skeptic Soul.

[casebro]

Testing an Opening Paragraph for your Woo fantasy book?

[Miss Whiplash]

Strange, I've heard this story before.

SCFW, try another lesser known story. It goes like this - you pick up a babe-a-rooni who is hitchhiking home from a dance. As you park in front of her house/school/cemetery you find she has vanished/turned into a hag...

[grayman]

How about "The Terrifying Tale Of Large Marge !!"

RryZV8NK9-Q

[TjW]

Wow. You looked and looked for it, and finally found it? That's... unremarkable.

[The Whether Man]

Your grandmother didn't have the foresight to leave you a map of where she would be buried?

I bet you watch people painting, and then say "You missed a bit".

[Cuddles]

Wow. You looked and looked for it, and finally found it? That's... unremarkable.

I wonder if she was surprised that it was in the last place he looked?

[Lothian]

My Grandmother was a 7t/h daughter of a 7t/h daughter and had foresight.That is a co-incidence. I am the seventh son of a seventh son and have a foreskin.

[SimonD]

I wonder if she was surprised that it was in the last place he looked?

Wow, imagine finding something in the last place you look:)

[brodski]

So, your great grandmother’s foresight helped you to find your grandmother’s grave, just by looking for it.
Wow.

[Beady]

I see your father made up for your grandmother's foresight, by not having the smarts to visit the cemetery office for a map. See? it all evens out.

[brodski]

Wow, imagine finding something in the last place you look:)

I refuse to find anything in the last place I look. Whenever I find anything I always look in 9 more places, just to prove the smart Alecs wrong.

Now if you excuse me, I’m off to continue to look for my work ID, which I found this morning.

[The Great Hairy One]

Anecdote =/= evidence.

Not sure how the story "proves" anything. But welcome to the boards, mate. :)

Cheers,
TGHO

[Senex]

Strange, I've heard this story before.

SCFW, try another lesser known story. It goes like this - you pick up a babe-a-rooni who is hitchhiking home from a dance. As you park in front of her house/school/cemetery you find she has vanished/turned into a hag...

Turned into what?! You can't start a story about a hitchhiking babe-a-rooni and end it in the middle. Did someone get lucky? Inquiring minds must know.

[Cuddles]

Turned into what?! You can't start a story about a hitchhiking babe-a-rooni and end it in the middle. Did someone get lucky? Inquiring minds must know.

I think it was cut off mid-word. It was supposed to say "haggis".

[Lothian]

I think it was cut off mid-word. It was supposed to say "haggis".That is funny I though it was ‘Haggard’. You know one minute he thinks he is getting off with a nice girl next he realises 'she' is actually a gay priest.

[Beth]

Welcome to the Forum. I'm sorry about the response you've received to your posting. I'm afraid the most vocal of the denizens of this forum tend to be pretty hard-core skeptics. Hopefully, you can understand why other people might not find your story particularly compelling evidence of the paranormal. But my sense is you weren't presenting it as evidence but that you want to know how odd or common such an experience might be.

Your experience is interesting to me. I'd like to hear more about it. We can talk privately if you'd prefer. Such experiences are often rather personal. They depend so much on the strength of the feeling, how aware of it you were, and other very subjective details. And, of course, sometimes odd things happen. Only you can judge how odd your particular experience was.

[tkingdoll]

My grandfather was a son of a bitch and had poor sight. Cataracts, you know.

Parody's aside, why is the title of this thread 'my great-grandmother' but the story starts with 'my grandmother'?

If she was your grandmother and she died in 1923, 'early' as you claim, then let's assume she was around 30-40 years old when she died. An early death in those days would have been around that age, any older than 40 was beginning to be old and wouldn't have stood out as remarkable.

She would have been born between 1883 and 1893 then. Her son was already born, so he must have been born somewhere between 1901-1911 if she was 18, anywhere up to the year of her death in 1923. Which would make him between 84 and 106 years old. Stop me if I'm under or overestimating. So if your father is between 84 and 106, assuming you were born after he was 18 and before he was, say, 40, that would make you born somewhere between 1919 - 1951. I think. Maths ain't my strong point, but perhaps someone else can confirm my numbers. So you're probably between 88 and 56 years old. Except you have a newborn, so you can't be.

However, you say you made a promise to your father 34 years ago. To have made such a promise and still remember it, I will say you would have had to have been at least eight years old at the time, and that's being really, really over-generous. Pre-teen memory is very unreliable. However, let's go with that. So 34 years ago plus 8 could make you as young as 42, if by some chance your grandmother didn't die particularly young after all, or/and she had your father later in life and he had you later in life.

So let's say you're 42. Well, it's conceivable (pun intended) that you have a newborn, but not very likely. Of course, your story could have taken place many years ago, but in that case your memory of it is likely to be unreliable and therefore as good as useless. Time plus emotion makes liars of us all. Also it doesn't make much sense as your '34 years ago' bit is in the present tense.

I've made some perhaps unfair assumptions there, so let's have a look at what else your testimony gives us. Hmm, this is interesting:

The next time my husband returned, I pointed to a grave over by a tree and some distance over for him to check. When he got to that grave he stood and starred down for awhile, then slowly turned back toward the car and looked at me with the strangest look.

If the grave was some distance away and it was pouring with rain as you claim, how did you see the look on his face? I'm going to assume he had an umbrella rather than standing there with his mouth wide open in shock while it slowly filled up with water and drowned him. Right place for a quick burial though.

Equally, given the same conditions as above, how did he know which grave you were pointing at? If the grave was alone and isolated, perhaps an unusual colour or something, wouldn't that be a likely explanation for it grabbing your attention?

That's assuming any of the story is true, which it isn't.

[joesixpack]

How about "The Terrifying Tale Of Large Marge !!"

RryZV8NK9-Q


I liked "Big Joe and Phantom309" a lot better

[Just thinking]

Oh ... is it my turn?

My father used to tell me that when he was a child at around 13 or so, he went with his mother and father to a carnival -- and my grandmother (his mother) went to see a gypsy fortune teller. She told her that someone in the family was soon to die. Now, there was (I believe) an elderly uncle or someone that was very ill, and it was assumed at first she meant him. But when pressed as to who, she pointed to my father's father -- who was in perfect health. Well within a year my grandfather (who I never met) did die ... he worked at that time in a railroad yard as a laborer and befell a tragic accident.

Now ... that's how the story was told to me by my dad, who is now gone for over 5 years -- and he swore to it. I'm an atheist and skeptic -- it's just that, a story.

[JoeTheJuggler]

I'm still trying to figure out the units of Time divided by Height (t/h).

Also, if she predicted her untimely death then how was it untimely? (Sort of like expecting the unexpected?)

[chillzero]

My grandfather was a son of a bitch and had poor sight. Cataracts, you know.

Parody's aside, why is the title of this thread 'my great-grandmother' but the story starts with 'my grandmother'?

If she was your grandmother and she died in 1923, 'early' as you claim, then let's assume she was around 30-40 years old when she died. An early death in those days would have been around that age, any older than 40 was beginning to be old and wouldn't have stood out as remarkable.

She would have been born between 1883 and 1893 then. Her son was already born, so he must have been born somewhere between 1901-1911 if she was 18, anywhere up to the year of her death in 1923. Which would make him between 84 and 106 years old. Stop me if I'm under or overestimating. So if your father is between 84 and 106, assuming you were born after he was 18 and before he was, say, 40, that would make you born somewhere between 1919 - 1951. I think. Maths ain't my strong point, but perhaps someone else can confirm my numbers. So you're probably between 88 and 56 years old. Except you have a newborn, so you can't be.

However, you say you made a promise to your father 34 years ago. To have made such a promise and still remember it, I will say you would have had to have been at least eight years old at the time, and that's being really, really over-generous. Pre-teen memory is very unreliable. However, let's go with that. So 34 years ago plus 8 could make you as young as 42, if by some chance your grandmother didn't die particularly young after all, or/and she had your father later in life and he had you later in life.

So let's say you're 42. Well, it's conceivable (pun intended) that you have a newborn, but not very likely. Of course, your story could have taken place many years ago, but in that case your memory of it is likely to be unreliable and therefore as good as useless. Time plus emotion makes liars of us all. Also it doesn't make much sense as your '34 years ago' bit is in the present tense.

I've made some perhaps unfair assumptions there, so let's have a look at what else your testimony gives us. Hmm, this is interesting:



If the grave was some distance away and it was pouring with rain as you claim, how did you see the look on his face? I'm going to assume he had an umbrella rather than standing there with his mouth wide open in shock while it slowly filled up with water and drowned him. Right place for a quick burial though.

Equally, given the same conditions as above, how did he know which grave you were pointing at? If the grave was alone and isolated, perhaps an unusual colour or something, wouldn't that be a likely explanation for it grabbing your attention?

That's assuming any of the story is true, which it isn't.

Teek,
Although I agree with your general premise about this little tale, I read one sentence of that differently than you did.

it was Memorial Day 34 years ago that I promised my Father I would put a yellow rose on her grave. That was the 1s/t year I had ever been there at Springgrove Cemetery, which is unbelievebly large.

I think these events happened 34 years ago.

SCFW, welcome to the forum - why don't you add a little more detail to your opening post, and stay for a chat? You can probably expect a little less criticism such as some of the above posts if you hang around to discuss your posts more, or let us know your reason for starting the thread - what kind of conversation would you like us to have about it?

If you want us all to say "Wow, that's great ..." that isn't going to happen on a board like this. However, if you want to discuss the bigger picture around events like this, or give us your perception as to what was special about this event that would prove the paranormal, then you're on.

[tkingdoll]

Ah, chilly, I think you may be right.

In which case she's saying that she promised her father to put a rose on the grave the same day she actually did it?

Of course, a 34year old memory is a pretty crummy bit of evidence. I'd like to know what dead grandma (or great-grandma) has done since then. The ability to direct someone to your grave is just about the lamest after-death power ever.

[John Jackson]

Last year on the 7th July, my grandfather, a seventh son of a seventh son, was watching the horse-racing at Ascot. In the seventh race of the day there were seven runners one of which was called Seven.

So I took this to be an omen and bet seven pounds on the horse.

It came seventh.

[Hawk one]

I refuse to find anything in the last place I look. Whenever I find anything I always look in 9 more places, just to prove the smart Alecs wrong.

Now if you excuse me, I’m off to continue to look for my work ID, which I found this morning.
So what are you going to do once this trend spreads and everyone's saying "It's always in the 9th last place you look", huh?