Not my aunt, actually, but rather an aunt of my younger brother's first
wife. She must have been a really interesting character, though I knew her only
through my brother's recounting of his and his then-wife's brief stay with
Dottie in Ackworth, Georgia many years ago.
Like a lot of rural southerners she was quite superstitious. My brother
told me she was deeply into spiritualism and routinely consulted spirits. Any
matter of concern or importance called for a session with her well used Ouija
Board.
Consulting the spirits would have been easy for her because - according to
her - the homestead was built on a haunted portion of an old Civil War
battlefield. Lots of those around here, at least according to legend.
Most enjoyable is hearing my brother tell of the night he was shaken awake
by a ghost dressed in a Confederate Uniform. Now my brother is a bit more
religious in the traditional sense than I am, having retained a good portion of
our Christian upbringing. I've never found him to be particularly superstitious,
but hang around the creepy atmosphere Aunt Dottie's place provided and lots of
strange things might seem to occur.
When my brother told her about his experience of being shaken awake by a
Confederate Ghost and provided the young man's description, Dottie told him the
soldier's name and little about conversations she had had with him over the
years.
And Aunt Dottie did correctly predict the sex of my brother and his
wife's baby early in the pregnancy, even providing what later proved to be a
reasonably accurate description of what the baby would look like.
I believe Aunt Dottie is long gone now and a regret of mine is that I never
got a chance to meet her and visit her. I love these types of characters and
have known many of them. Doesn't every family have at least one of these old
crone types?
This is a nice post and well written.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of my grandmother who is still alive. She however is talking to angels and the powers of nature (in some sort like Mother Nature or something like that) but sometimes she is extremely rational on the other hand that it even shocked me. She read a lot and is reading to this day but now more spiritual things.
She could even predict also the sex of my sisters child and when I asked her how:
She replied - "Its my family I know how I looked like when I was pregnant and with which child and I have experiences." That means she told me that every child is different when its a boy or girl.
She also predicted how the child would look like because of the genetic similarities. She was a keen observer.
She likes to pray and talk about angels and spirits a lot..
@ Lupin,
ReplyDeleteSo glad you stopped by and left a comment.
I grew up in Pentecostal churches, which means that demons and angels were a common part of our worldview. I'm no longer a part of that scene but still know a lot of these folks. I confess to being one of those who think a person can be both rational and in touch with the imaginal realm. Evidently your grandmother is also like that..