I loved my Grandma Tessie. I have many fond memories of her, some involving her chasing myself and my brother off her newly swept porch. She always kept her porch swept clean!

 

As oldest, certain resposibilities fell to me over the years since my Dad's passing. One of these was when my Dad's mother, my Grandma Tessie, fell ill and required twenty-four hour nursing care. I flew to New York and was able to place her in a decent nursing home where this care was provided. Within a few years I received a call from the nursing home explaining how my Grandma was well enough to leave the home, no further nursing care required for her. Surprise!

 

The quaint two bedroom house in front of the garage I had been renting became available. Arrangements were made for my sister and Grandma to move in. I flew to New York, got my Grandma and brought her to Colorado. One year later my Grandma's health declined again, enough so that she once again required a nursing home. It was at this time she had me promise I would get her back to New York and buried alongside my Grandpa Montesano. She was also very explicit as to the outfit she wanted to be buried in, especially the shoes. They were a pair of red shoes that my Dad's Aunt Filomena was holding for her back in New York. She explained to me how she needed these particular shoes in order to walk to heaven. OK Grandma. She passed a year later.

 

Unfortunately I had no idea of the expense needed to ship my Grandma's body back to New York. It was completely unaffordable, and it was with a very heavy heart the decision to have her cremated was made, that being the only way I could get her back to New York and buried with her husband. A sad day indeed, I cried.

 

Ten years later my sister and her husband were remodeling a house for resale here in Colorado. It was a huge project with many laborers involved, four of them running out of that house at different times, saying they would never return, scared to death! My sister herself told me about the time she was painting the downstairs there, when in her mind's eye she saw a scary little old man coming up behind her, pointing his finger at her saying this was his house, telling her to leave his house. Truely frightening! It was also very eerie that all photos taken while the remodel was happening shows seven mysterious orbs of light present.

The day came for an open house viewing. Among the viewers was a woman who, upon entering the house, told my sister there were other visitors present. She went on to describe seven spirits she saw there, one a young girl seated in a corner and downstairs, scared and hiding in a closet, the same frightening little old man my sister had seen!

 

As they were leaving the house, the woman turned, facing my sister and her husband. She told my sister she had another visitor, an elderly woman sweeping the porch, pointing at her shoes, saying how badly the old shoes she had on were hurting her feet, that she needed her red shoes on her feet.

 

The day I told my Mom this story she sewed Rosary beads into my pants pocket.