Ghost stories.

 It has been a while since I've heard from my Mom.  

Okay, I know that's a weird statement because well, in case you missed it, my Mom passed away in 2019.  Here's the thing though.... my Mom has, up until very recently, kept her presence (at least, our theory is that it's her presence) known in our home since she passed.  

The first occurrence was actually the day she passed.  There was a framed poster that she kept in her home that I kept after we moved her into memory care.  Because it's an awkward shape and the frame is a bit too heavy for just a nail, we installed it with a screw so it would stay on the wall without falling.  The day that she passed, that poster fell to the ground.  The frame was completely intact, the screw that held it up still in the wall; the poster had just fallen.  The glass in the frame didn't crack, the frame didn't crack (it fell a couple of feet), everything was perfectly fine.   My oldest was instantly like "That was Abi!"  (Abi is short for Abuelita.)

Around the poster we have other artwork in her home, made by Panamanian artists, that would randomly get moved, just nudged out of place but nudged enough so we would notice.  When we moved to our current house and had her piano set up, I created a corner where I had her favorite artwork and I also had other artwork featuring some of my favorite musicians.  On top of the piano, I placed pictures of her and my Dad along with pictures of my grandparents.  Since no one in the family plays piano on the regular, that area of our living room has turned into temporary storage for an entire Ikea kitchen and bathroom that is supposed to go in the casita, the rower, an extra couch (also for the casita that I purchased from the previous owner of our house) and a bunch of artwork that I had to take down due to prepping to paint our own house.  My Mom makes it known that she does not like all the clutter there and she does so by moving the paintings on the wall.  Sometimes they're just a little bit askew.  Other times, more so. 

I thought I was crazy, that perhaps the cats were doing it, but the cats tend to avoid that area.  One afternoon, I saw that they were askew and I went and moved them back so they were straight.  Kacy and I were talking and I walked into the kitchen, Kacy turned back to her computer (which is in the same room) and when I walked back into the room, the paintings were moved.   

"Son of a bitch! Thanks, Mom!" I said sarcastically.  Kacy instinctually looked over at the paintings, because we had been talking about how I thought she moved them.  

Her eyes got wide and she looked at me and said "You just fixed those.  I saw you, you just fixed those."  

I nodded in agreement, walked back over to the paintings (having to climb over a couple of boxes), and said "I know, she does this to me."  My oldest popped out and asked if Abi had come for a visit.   I told them, yeah, she had, and set back to moving the paintings back so they weren't crooked.  

In October we moved my Dad in with me.  The paintings moved so they were relatively crooked once and then we had nothing until near Christmas.  They moved just slightly in December, but only once.  It was like my Mom was saying "Yeah, I'm still checking on you."  They haven't moved since then.  

This week we should be getting all of the Ikea stuff out of that corner and we should be able to have everything straightened and cleaned up.  I'm hoping she comes by and says hi.  Only time will tell...