During the later part of World War II, my Grandfather was
serving as a ships electrician on a battleship in the South
Pacific. Grandpa would often write my Grandma of how he
missed her and their three girls and how he would give
anything to see them again.
Grandpa had been away nearly nine months and was very
homesick. My Grandma worked in a factory during those war
years as many women did, doing their part to help with the
War effort. One evening after a rough shift at the plant,
Grandma came home intent on getting to bed early for a good
nights sleep. After making supper for the girls Grandma went
to bed at about 9:30 that evening.
Grandma was exhausted from a long day but still had trouble
getting to sleep, tossing and turning and having uneasy
feelings about my Grandfather. Despite his insistence that she
not be afraid for him, it was difficult for Grandma not to worry
about my Grandfather, after all he had already survived the
sinking of his first ship, and the ship he was currently serving
on was in a navel battle just three days after he came aboard.
After a few hours of unrest, Grandma finally got to sleep a
little past midnight. At about four in the morning Grandma
again woke up with an uneasy feeling, after a couple of
minutes Grandma sat up and turned on the small night light
on her night stand. Grandma then glanced toward the foot of
her bed and was shocked to see my Grandpa standing there.
In stunned silence Grandma just sat there, knowing that
Grandpa was thousands of miles away in the South Pacific. As
my Grandfather continued to stand there and smile at her with
a look of contentment on his face, Grandma continued to sit
there attempting to come to grips with what she was seeing.
Just then Grandma decided to reach out for Grandpa and as
she reached for him and called his name, he vanished.
Grandma got up and turned on the bedroom light and looked
around but found no evidence that anyone had been there.
Grandma then checked on the girls and found them sleeping
peacefully. Before going back to bed Grandma tried to
remember exactly what she had seen, through the light of her
small night light she could remember that Grandpa was pale
and looked much thinner than when she had last seen him.
The next day Grandma wrote my Grandfather a letter and
telling him of what she had seen but before she could mail the
letter, there was a knock on her door, when Grandma
answered the door she received a telegram from the Navy
informing her that Grandpa was suffering from malaria and
had been unconscious for several days with a high fever.
Grandma sent her letter later that day and a couple of days
later she received a second telegram from the Navy informing
her that Grandpa's fever had broken and he would be all right.
When Grandpa finally received Grandma's letter he wrote
back saying that he thought he had seen her and the girls but
figured it had to be the fever as he couldn't remember much
of anything. Grandpa included a picture of himself in the hospital
and to my Grandma's surprise he had lost about twenty pounds
from the fever and looked very pale.
Grandma always felt that the fever from the malaria allowed Grandpa
to "escape" and come home to see her. My best guess is that
Grandpa had what we now refer to as an "Out of body experience" but
in 1946 it was simply a homesick sailors strong will to go home.