1932
9
YEARS
VISIONS OF ELI
“As I was being helped into my coat at school that October morning I remember so well, I asked my mother what was the matter, and why had I to go home...”
Underwood walking behind his brother and father while on holiday in Clacton in Essex.
“She replied, bravely through the tears,
‘Daddy has gone to be with Jesus…’ ”
“That night… I suddenly found myself wide awake.”
“There, standing bathed in moonlight, stood my father at the bottom of the bed…”
“I sat up, eyes wide and unbelieving…”
“...‘You didn’t think I’d leave you, did you?’ the form seemed to say…”
“‘Mum… it’s Dad
- he’s come back’”
“My Mother, sleepy-eyed, followed the line of my staring eyes... her arms automatically reaching out towards the form…”
Next morning I said to my mother, as soon as we were awake,
‘I dreamed that Dad came back last night’.
She seemed very silent and looked at me very strangely, so that I added,
‘It was a dream, wasn’t it? But you saw him too, didn’t you?’
She nodded.
‘Yes, dear, I saw him, but we won’t talk about it.’.”
“I tried many times to get her to tell me what she had seen
- until sadly, she was too old to remember.
But perhaps I saw my first ghost when I was only nine years of age...”
