This is based on a real life story in Koosang Koosom Magazine, by Tipsord, written in Thai Language, translated by Ginger.

I’m going to take you back to the year 2540 (1997), my mom was diagnosed with Leukemia (blood cancer) and passed away peacefully on May 12, which was the first day of a new semester; I was in the second grade at the time.

When I got home from school, I saw a coffin in the driveway, I was in state of shock but since I was just a kid, I can’t remember if I was sad, the only thing on my mind at the time was having fun and playing with my friends. My aunt then took my brother and I to my mom’s room to pay our final respect by ‘grarp’, which I bowed on my knees and placed my hands together into an upside down Y and placed them by her feet.

At that moment,…it hit me, I feel that my mom is no longer with us; I sneaked off to cry by myself.

The first day, the funeral service was held at our house, my aunt ‘ni mon’ (invited) the monks to perform chanting ceremony. That night I dreamed of my mom, she came to see me and was crying. I recalled that in my dream she spoke to me, “come and let mom hug you.” But I was so afraid that in my dream, I ran away.

The next morning, I told this to my grandmother, she said that my mom must have been worried about me and that is why she came to visit.

The second day, we moved my mom’s casket to Wat (Buddhist Temple) and we had an open casket ceremony where we were allowed to wash her face with coconut juice (it is a traditionally belief that coconut juice is a purify water and a custom to use coconut juice to wash the face of the dead)

Since the Wat (Temple) didn’t have an icebox, to solve the problem, we brought in some ice cubes to place inside the casket (each piece is quiet big and heavy, not like small ice cubes that we often use with drinks.) The undertaker carefully loaded the ice cubes into the casket, as he was about to finish loading the last piece, he accidentally dropped it on my mom’s shoulder. The only persons that witnessed this were the undertaker and his helper, my aunt, and I.

That evening, another one of my aunts told us that she took an afternoon nap and dreamed that my mom came to visit her and said, “My shoulder hurt.” My aunt and I then walked over to my mom’s casket, lifted her sleeve to see her shoulder, we were shocked to see the bruised where the ice had fell on her, we looked at one another and didn’t say a word.

My mom’s funeral service finally came to a closing, and then strange things started to happen…

At night, the dogs started to ‘horn’ (howling, Thai and Lao dogs have very distinctive howling when they see ghost, sort of long and drawn out howling) from the beginning of the Soi (block) heading toward our house, which is at the end of the Soi. This happened at least 2 to 3 times, as if someone was heading toward our house, and certain night, we would smell the incense, but no one lit it, and it couldn’t have been our next-door neighbor because we don’t live that close to them.

Then one night, there were no one home except for my bother and I; my aunt went to pick up my grandmother and dad at my other grandmother’s house. At that time it wasn’t that late, might have been around 7 pm, I went to sleep early and didn’t know that my brother had sneaked off to his friend’s house that is in the same Soi (block) and left me by myself.

I was half awake, half asleep, and all I could remember was that I heard the dogs howling but I wasn’t afraid because I thought my brother was with me. Then I felt a hand stroking my hair to comfort me until I fell asleep. I thought it was my brother at the time, so I didn’t bother to open my eyes to look.

I’m not sure how long time has lapsed, but my sister came to wake me up and took me over to her house that is about 7 Soi from us and didn’t give me any explanation. The next morning, she brought me back home and told my aunt, grandmother, and father that last night whilst she was asleep, she felt someone tucking her blanket, and when she woke and sat up on her bed, she saw my mom standing at the foot of her bed and said,

“Your sister is home alone; can you go take care of her?”

My sister said that she was afraid and in state of shock, she took off running, got in her car, and drove straight to my house. When my bother got home, they gave him the third degree, and I later asked him when did he leave? He said right after I fell asleep.

…which meant that last night, the person that stroked my hair was not my brother, but it was my mom. My grandmother thought that my mom must have been worried about me and that is why she went to ask my sister to come over.

Since then I have not dreamed of mom again but I often Tum Boun (Merit offering) for her until April 11 of last year, my brother became a novice monk to pay respect for his elders, both living and passing. That night, I dreamed that I saw a picture of my brother as a novice monk sitting at the sanctuary hall and sitting next to him were my mom and grandfather that passed away. In the photo, my mom and grandfather were smiling and seemed so happy.

I believed she came to tell me that she received the merit that was offered to her by my brother, I feel sad that I lost both my mom and grandfather but I’m glad that they’re in a better place now.