A Misty Memory

My parents were married in the summer of 1984. The reception took place within a small church in my hometown of Kingston, Ontario. The church was adjacent to a vast cemetery, renowned for being the burial site of Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister. My maternal grandfather was in attendance and at the time was suffering from severe heart problems. His physical health was very visibly deteriorating.

Once my parents recited their vows and the marriage was official, they decided to take a group photo outside the church to commemorate the occasion. At first, all seemed perfectly happy and natural, right up until my grandmother received the developed photos and noticed something unexpectedly strange and rather shocking. At first glance, she noticed the image of my grandfather standing there in the far-right side of the picture wearing his favourite grey tuxedo and a joyous smile glued to his face. He was standing between two of their mutual friends and a mysterious white mist surrounding my grandfather's image was clearly noticeable. The most perplexing part was how he was the only one who seemed to have attracted the mist.

At surface level, one may surmise that this was merely coincidental or perhaps there may have been issues with the camera that was used. However, following my parents wedding, a few more pictures of my grandfather were taken and upon having them developed, the same fog was still present in every one he was featured in.

In July of 1987, my grandfather passed away at the age of fifty-two. My grandmother was understandably distressed by this phenomenal set of events, and she immediately interpreted the mist as sort of a prophetic message that her husband would soon pass away. From her perspective, the mist engulfing my grandfather's image was very questionably a preemptive warning that the spiritual realm would soon intervene with our metaphysical reality and transport him to the afterlife. These photographs are still in my grandmother's possession. To this day, the image of the peculiar mist consuming my grandfather within the astounding photograph remains a mystery.