My totally true Halloween story
Saturday, 29 October 2016 06:19 pmIt's common knowledge at this point that The Exorcist was loosely (oh so loosely) based on a real exorcism conducted at Alexian Brothers hospital in St. Louis back in 1949. That building is long gone, torn down in the '70s and paved over, which seemed fitting because parking lots are inherently creepy anyway. But a new building was erected to replace it, and fifteen years ago this January, my Grandma Betty was there to die.
(Not my grandma, Betty, but my Grandma Betty. My other grandmother Betty. My step-grandmother. My stepmother's mother. Extended families: requiring parentheses and digressions since forever.)
She had always been warm and inviting to my mother and us stepkids, and naturally my mother wanted to visit, pay her respects and lend some moral support to my half-sisters and their mother. When they needed to leave the room for a moment, Mom stayed behind at the bedside.
The door closed, and Betty turned her head to my mother, and said, "Your father was never proud of you."
It's possible this frail little woman had been carrying a grudge against my mother for years, and decided to vent it before she left this world.
It's possible she wasn't even aware she was talking to my mother, and was instead speaking through a medicated haze to some moth-eaten memory, or my stepmother (and if so, thank heavens she'd stepped out).
But my mother swears the voice that came out of Betty's mouth was not Betty's voice...
(Not my grandma, Betty, but my Grandma Betty. My other grandmother Betty. My step-grandmother. My stepmother's mother. Extended families: requiring parentheses and digressions since forever.)
She had always been warm and inviting to my mother and us stepkids, and naturally my mother wanted to visit, pay her respects and lend some moral support to my half-sisters and their mother. When they needed to leave the room for a moment, Mom stayed behind at the bedside.
The door closed, and Betty turned her head to my mother, and said, "Your father was never proud of you."
It's possible this frail little woman had been carrying a grudge against my mother for years, and decided to vent it before she left this world.
It's possible she wasn't even aware she was talking to my mother, and was instead speaking through a medicated haze to some moth-eaten memory, or my stepmother (and if so, thank heavens she'd stepped out).
But my mother swears the voice that came out of Betty's mouth was not Betty's voice...