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A Father's Last Farewell

 

This is another story that involves my first-hand encounter with the paranormal.

My story occurred in 1970 when I was still in the 4th Grade. I was a student in this coed elementary school in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines that was located within a vast sprawling university campus known for its beautiful, acacia-lined avenues. I recall being a member of Section Makiling (named after a famous mountain in the island of Luzon) since all fourth grade sections where named after famous mountains in the country.

It was in the middle of the school year when one of the students in my grade level experienced a terrible tragedy. The student's name was Joyce M. (i.e., this is her true first name but I prefer to keep her surname confidential; upon request, I could email the surname to anyone who wants to know her true full name) and I believe she was a member of Section Sinukuan. Joyce's father encountered a terrible accident while he was attempting to board a jeepney somewhere in Quiapo, Manila while he was on his way to fetch his daughter after school. Her father slipped on the running board at the back of the vehicle causing him to fall and hit the pavement head-first. He was rushed to the hospital, fell into a deep coma but eventually died after a few days without recovering consciousness. He was laid in wake at the university's local chapel and it was during this period when this unusual incident occurred.

While her father was still lying in wake, Joyce still continued to attend her classes. Though still distraught with the death of her father I can still recall that she would still manage to respond with a faint smile to acknowledge the condolences from the teachers, her classmates, and other students. Our section's homeroom was just beside the room occupied by Joyce's section.

It was shortly before noon when a series of loud screams emanated from Joyce's homeroom. Our teacher immediately told everyone in our class to remain quiet and seated while she went next door to investigate what was going on. True to the nature of fourth-graders, curiosity got the best of us and a number of students from our section (myself included) decided to follow our teacher to find out what was happening.

The screams emanated from a girl that was seated immediately behind Joyce. This student and Joyce were seated on the left side of a table near the front of the class with the room's windows to their left (a small aisle separated their chairs from the windows). According to this girl, she witnessed a faint mist appeared slowly near Joyce's left shoulder along the left aisle and she claimed that she was suddenly overwhelmed by this feeling of coldness that enveloped her entire body causing her to shout out in fright.

When I arrived next door, I saw this throng of 4th graders huddled around that part of the room where the mist alleged appeared (the hysterical girl was already being consoled by the teachers and her friends). After much jostling I was able to see what they were looking at --- it was a circular spot of condensation on the red-tiled floor that has the diameter of a typical family-sized pizza. Students were putting their hands on the condensation and those who did were exclaiming that it was very cold. I managed to slip my own right hand on the spot and I swear to this day that the area on that floor was extremely cold. It was like putting your hands on the walls of your refrigerator's freezer. The funny thing was, after a person has touched the spot and removed the condensation on the floor, a new layer of condensation would suddenly reappear. This lasted for around 5 to 10 minutes before the condensation finally disappeared. I never managed to talk to Joyce personally after this incident but her friends said that she felt nothing unusual when the alleged mist appeared beside her.

A lot of stories floated around after this incident, the most famous of which was that the mist and the cold spot of condensation on the floor were manifestations of the ghost of Joyce's father who visited his daughter for the last time before moving on. I was already in high school when I got to know about this paranormal phenomenon called cold spot that is known to be a possible indicator of ghostly presences. I believe it was a genuine cold spot that I witnessed back then --- a ghostly phenomenon that I personally saw with my own eyes and even felt the freezing coldness of its condensation on the floor with my own hand.

This is just one of my personal experiences that I would like to share that made me truly believe in the paranormal, in ghosts especially.

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, fence_sitter, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

fence_sitter (4 stories) (27 posts)
+1
6 years ago (2019-01-16)
Hi Rex-T,

Regarding your question on whether I should have remained sitting on the fence on this matter --- until today, I can't find any scientific explanation that could explain the appearance of that cold, circular condensation on the tiled floor (I personally touched and felt it with my own right hand; and it even appeared beside the girl whose father was lying in wake at that time). This eventually led me to conclude that it was paranormal in nature. If somebody in this forum could give some credible scientific, astronomic, geologic, meteorologic, etc., explanation to dispute this, I would be more than glad to accept your assertion that I should have sat on the fence longer on this matter before jumping to conclusion.

Regarding your query if I was able to witness the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 --- unfortunately, I was unable to witness this historic event because I was attending a company-sponsored post graduate diploma course at the Geothermal Institute of Auckland University (New Zealand) from January to November of that year. I only got to watch the TV footages of the eruption from news broadcasts back then. Some of my contemporary colleagues were actually there when the eruption started --- they were part of a geophysical team that was mobilized by our company to assist the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS, a government agency) in monitoring the early rumblings of the volcano. Those people nearly died when the pyroclastic avalanches started cascading down the flanks of the volcano --- luckily they managed to escape on their Land Cruisers in the nick of time.

Thank you for reading my story and also for your kind comments. Peace.
Rex-T (5 stories) (288 posts)
+2
6 years ago (2019-01-16)
A confronting experience fence_sitter, particularly in the formative years of one's life.

My father passed when I was in my final year of high school (now called year 12) and my choice was to either "keep going" and hope I still got my grades for university or "drop out" and repeat the final year.

I suspect that your friend may have made the same decision I did, which was to compartmentalize my feelings and "keep going". This may explain her lack of reaction to the incident, that is, a brick wall of cotton wool, blocking emotional outside influences. She may have even experienced that warm glow when being visited by a loved one.

I have felt a "cold spot" once before but never had the presence of mind or inclination to go back and study it. This is very different from an actual physical manifestation. Would this be enough for you to jump off the fence or maybe, have a good look before you leap? 😲

As a born skeptic, I've seen and experienced too much over the years that have taught me to sit back and consider the evidence before jumping to conclusions either way.

Forgive me for straying a little off topic but with your work, did you get the opportunity to witness the final eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991?

Regards,
Rex-T
fence_sitter (4 stories) (27 posts)
+1
6 years ago (2019-01-15)
Hi lady-glow,

As far as I can recall, Joyce was the typical shy, non-talkative, introvert type of person, but she was intelligent (she belonged to the honor roll of their class back then) and also pretty (she was a mestiza). Maybe, being true to her character, she just doesn't want to be in the limelight or the center of attention (or the cause of the commotion back then) so she pretended not to be affected by the misty apparition; or, she was too focused or concentrated on the teacher's lecture. Or maybe, your explanation is right. Thank you for reading my story and also for the kind comments.
lady-glow (16 stories) (3186 posts)
+1
6 years ago (2019-01-14)
Interesting experience, though I'm a little puzzled at the fact of Joyce not sensing her father's presence, assuming that the mist really was her father, since most people experiencing a loved one's goodbye report more of a spiritual connection regardless of if there's a physical manifestation or not.

But then, we know there are not rules when it comes to the paranormal.

Perhaps Joyce's grief was still too fresh as to let her take notice of what was going on around her, or Hysterical-girl just wasn't paying attention to the class.😕

Thanks for sharing.

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