On This Mother's Day, I'm Thinking About ... Ghost Stories
My father was an avid reader and gave me my love for reading, but it was my mother who told me ghost stories. She came from a family and a culture that believed wholeheartedly in ghosts, so she believed in ghosts too. That weird creak from the stairs? Must be a ghost. The strange shadow on the wall when nothing is near? Definitely a ghost. The noise in the middle of the night that almost sounds like someone calling your name? Don’t answer because it is most assuredly a ghost! I will always treasure the memories of me and my mother watching horror movies together on TV. She was of a time that didn’t believe in childhood trauma, so she had no problem letting her five-year-old watch the scariest programs. I will also treasure every ghost story that she told me. All of them were true, she said, and some were so frightening they made my hair stand. I myself am mostly skeptical, but I continue to love ghost stories, so much so that I’m now writing my own. I’ve tried to capture the flavor of ...
