I told the story 
some time back about the grandfather clock in my Uncle Ken's house[1] that tolled when my Grandpa Cairns died. The clock hadn't worked for years despite repairs, and didn't work after. It turned out that the clock tolled at the same time Grandpa passed away. Could be a coincidence. I know the facts to be true.
Now a new story:
I have my dad's watch. It's a digital Casio G-Shock DW-5600E, the one pictured above. Not long ago, the alarm went off at night. I asked Mom what the alarm might have been for. She said Dad never used the alarm. The watch was in another room and it stopped by the time I got to it. Hasn't gone off since.
There are many explanations for what I heard - wasn't the watch at all; was a neighbor's alarm (it was an unusually warm night for early spring, windows were open and sound travels) ; Dad actually did set the alarm and Mom just didn't know; was a different sound in the house I hadn’t paid attention to before; etc.
Even so, I want to believe, just as I want to believe in extraterrestrials and cryptozoological beasties.
I'm a skeptic, but I'm in love with possibility. More on that later.
This is he flag that was on my Dad's casket. It's now on top of the Amish pie safe in Mom's house, my boyhood home. Left to right, the children are my daughter Dee Dee, my nephew Gage, and my son Charlie. There are a number of rustic Colonial items in the house like the painted wooden flag on the wall.
[1]
At that time, Pollock Road in Holly, Michigan. That would have been my uncle, Ken Cairns, his wife Dorothy, and their children Carolee, Dee Dee and Tom Tom. Everyone of course has long since grown and moved away and that house belongs to a new family. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did as a child. For a few years it was the focus of summer vacations and a few holidays.
Started: 2012-05-08
