In the spirit of Halloween I’d like to tell the following story.

On the magical and much haunted island of Martha’s Vineyard.. in the town of Oak Bluffs.. in a restored Victorian home is a restaurant called The Sweet Life Cafe.   In this house in the 1930’s lived a daughter and her mother.   In this house the mother passed away.   That woman was my grandmother and the daughter was my mother.   I had never met my grandmother as she passed on long before my parents were married but I always felt a closeness to her. 

A few years ago my daughter and I decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the Sweet Life Cafe… we’d never eaten there but felt the time was right.   It was around 5 o’clock on a beautiful cloudless and breezeless May evening so we opted to sit on the patio in the garden as it was empty and peaceful.   We had a glass of wine and settled back to talk about our day and enjoy the pretty surroundings.   The tables were beautifully laid out and each had on it a small hurricane lamp with a candle in it.  We looked around and noticed that the candles on all the tables but ours were lit!   Our waitress re-lit ours.   The candle went out.   Again she lit it.  Again it went out.   She came back with a new candle.  Again out it went.   Again she re-lit it to no avail.  My daughter and I joked that our grandmothers were joining us and were definitely in a playful mood.  

Later after we’d eaten I stepped inside the house for the first time ever.  As I climbed the stairs to the second floor and headed down the hallway to the restroom I passed what had been three bedrooms and a feeling of comfort came over me. 

Later that evening as my daughter and I were passing by the restaurant we looked in at the patio……   the candle on the table we had been sitting at was burning brightly !!