In this collection, I will be using initials to record a conversation between the interviewer (JC) and interviewee (HK)
JC: Has anything strange happened to you?
HK: Oh, is this for your ghost stories class? I heard you asking around for stories.
JC: Yeah! Do you have any? Or do you know anybody who has one?
HK: Er… you want one that’s happened to someone personally right? Not something generalized like…uh…Bloody Mary, have you heard of that one?
JC: Yeah we talked about that in class, and yes I’m looking for like anecdotes of strange things that happened to people which they couldn’t explain.
HK: So this happened to my friend back home, it was a couple years ago sometime around Halloween. I remember because we were at this Halloween party when her mom called her and told her that her grandmother had just passed away. I thought she’d be very surprised or sad, cause… you know, her relative just died and all that, but she wasn’t. She was just sort of… accepting I guess. So after a while I asked her why she wasn’t more sad. She told me that her grandmother was already very weak before her passing, like she wasn’t even fully awake most of the time, but on the day of the party when she visited, her grandmother was wide awake and smiling. She, the grandmother I mean, told her that her grandfather, who by the way already passed away a couple years earlier, visited her the night before and said that they would be reunited soon. So yea, my friend was sort of expecting her grandmother to pass anytime so she wasn’t that surprised. And her grandmother looked so happy that she couldn’t really be sad about it…at least that’s that she told me
JC: Was your friend’s family superstitious? Did they follow any old Celtic traditions or the like?
HK: Umm I don’t really know that. I don’t think she believes in ghosts? But I’m not sure so don’t quote me on that
Unfortunately, since this was a recount from an external party, I was not able to ask what the subject thought of her experience when it happened, and whether or not she thinks he really visited her or just in a dream. However, we can still see some characteristics that are prevalent in ghost stories.
The biggest trope we can see is that it happened during Halloween, which is the Celtic New Year and a liminal time period. Thus, it is more believable that the grandfather visited the grandmother at that time, as it is believed that the borders between the living world and the Otherworld is blurred during this time. It can also follow that since it is easier for ghosts to visit us during that time, that it would also for easier for us to go to the Otherworld as well, which may be why the grandmother passed away that night.
This story also coincides with the most common ghostly experience – a meeting with a loved one that has passed away. Moreover, the ghost of the grandfather also told the grandmother than she will be joining him soon, which did happen, which justifies a belief held in many traditions that ghosts are extremely knowledgeable and may possess the power of foresight.