Notes |
- When I was a little girl my grandmother, Araminta, used to say that her grandmother was a witch. A good witch mind you. She was apparently a mid-wife and herbalist and she "sat with the dead" after the formal wake was over. She was apparently a respected healer in her community of Castine. She had a "big black book of herbal lore and "spells" that Gram used to mention was taken by the "Green side of the family". Flora was married twice, first to a man whose last name was Green and lastly to my Great-Great Grandfather, Amos J. Perkins.
The psychic part comes in when her second husband was lost at sea. She was apparently upstairs in her little house in Castine when she heard some coach wheels and a horse pull up at the house. She looked out the window and saw a black coach and horse with a single lit lantern swinging in front. Knowing that this was the coach that sent messages of loved ones lost at sea, she knew that her husband Amos was dead.
She went downstairs to greet the messenger formally, but when she got to the front door, the coach had disappeared! A few days later the real coach showed up and she knew that what she had seen was a "sending". Pretty spooky, huh? I guess it's a little late for Halloween...By the way, the story was passed from Flora's daughter Minta to my grandmother to me. Minta apparently had a reputation for telling a pretty mean ghost story.
|