About a month after my father passed away in January of 1977, my mother and brother were having a conversation at my mothers home when a strange event occurred.

In the right front corner of the living room, resting on the carpet was a red balloon that had come with some flowers I had sent my mother for her 48th birthday the week before. The helium had all but gone out of the balloon over the six or seven day period. As my mother and brother carried on their conversation the topic turned to my father and how much my mother missed him, they had celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary that past October 29th and losing my father over the holiday period had proven to be very difficult on all of us.

As they continued to reminisce about my father, all at once the balloon began to rise off the carpet and bounce up and down against the living room ceiling. As my brother got up and started to grab the balloon, my mother told him to "leave it alone and see what it does". As the two of them looked on the balloon continued to bounce up and down against the ceiling for a few more seconds then drifted down about half way between the ceiling and the floor and began to float down the hallway toward the rear of the house. The balloon stopped at the doorway of the family room where my father spent most of his leisure time reading, watching TV or dozing in his easy chair.

After bounding around for a minute or so, the balloon floated through the doorway and into the family room. Still watching from a distance my mother and brother observed the balloon eventually drift across the family room to just above my fathers easy chair, then gently as a feather settling to the ground, the balloon came to rest on the seat of the chair. Once the balloon had settled,my brother picked it up and tossed it up in the air a couple of times and it quickly fell to the floor as there was no helium remaining in the balloon at all.

My mother felt that the incident was a sign from my father that he was OK and that he would always be with her. What would cause a half filled balloon to suddenly rise and travel some 65ft down a hallway and make a "left turn" to another room only to come to rest on my fathers easy chair. maybe it was some sort of sign from my father that "he was home".