[Becky]

When my father died my middle daughter (who was still the youngest then) and him were 2 peas in a pod. No one would ever dispute this fact. Even after he died, she would talk about him endlessly. One morning she told me that she visited Grandpa and she told me all about where she went to his shining house. She told me that my father then told her it was time for her to go home and that she couldn't stay there with him. She said he got really mad at her and finally he had to hit her to go home.

At the time, I used to go to my girlfriend's house for lunch everyday (brown bag it). She lived with her mother and her mom would make us tea and we would eat and then drive back to work. I told them about Leigh's "dream". Her mother freaked and told me that I needed to tell Leigh that she absolutely, positively was too young to go anywhere without me and she was forbidden to visit my father without me because she was too little to go by herself. She believed that my girl was visiting (and her description of the event sure sounded like it) and that she was there alittle too long and needed to return (or maybe not be able to). Then she gave some stories of her own (more posts for later). She freaked me but I did do what she said. I said it to my daughter nicely - that if she wanted to go visit PopPop, I had to come along.

So, about 2 months pass and she says to me that she went to visit PopPop but I shouldn't be mad because even though she didn't get me to come, Grandma came with her. She said that PopPop came to get her and when she said she couldn't go without me he told her they would go get Grandma and they did. She said they went in Grandma's room and sat on her bed until she woke up, then they left and she came home.

This was a weekend day so alittle later on in the day my mother calls me and says - yep -"I had a dream last night. My bedroom door opened and your father and Leigh were there and they were sitting on my bed." She said, "I swear to God they were really there. It seemed so real". Leigh was there and I told her to tell Grandma about her adventures (because it had to come from Leigh right then) and we all just about freaked. After that, I told Leigh she could never go with my father again - never.