middle of the night. That had never happened before or since, but I didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until a few days later looking at the calendar that I realized that night was the anniversary of my father-in-law's death and his favorite haunting technique was lights.

The night of his father's funeral my husband and I were in his bedroom when the large florescent overhead light that we never use went on by itself. That happened occasionally for a few years. My mother-in-law would wake up terrified to find the light in the other room on, sometimes hear loud crashes upstairs. At first she thought somebody must have broken in, but the next morning when she had the courage to check, all the doors were locked as usual, nothing out of order. When we came to visit, things were scattered on the bedroom floor that I knew weren't there when we left last visit. At one time or another, everyone in the family saw lights go on by themselves and heard noises. Nobody was scared by it except the MIL. He was ornery in life and nobody was surprised he was the same after death.

That house became a magnet for insect and animal life after the FIL's death. Bats, mice, roaches, flies, centipedes, spiders, hornets. I called it The Haunted House and my husband got mad. The poor MIL had quite a collection of poisons. Now she's been dead for years, too. Sometimes when we stayed there on weekends there was such a heavy negative dark feeling on entering that I wanted to turn around and leave. It took years for it feel like just a house again. Now the husband's thinking about retirement, debating whether to live there in the country or stay in the city.