Our Story Begins

Our story begins in the mid 1960’s when our family became involved with Drum & Blue Corps (also referred to as drum corps or corps). It was through the first drum corps we were involved with that we met “Ed.” He was an instructor as well as a member of the group that managed the corps, and he was very much loved. Ed’s family was also involved with the corps and it wasn’t long before our two families became good friends. He spent a great deal of time at our home, whether he came alone or brought his family along, and he soon became a constant presence in our lives. Ed was like a favorite uncle.

My mother was a whiz when it came to making clothes. When Ed decided that he wanted new uniforms for the drum corps, my mother volunteered to make them and she and Ed would get together for designing sessions. The kids from the corps would stop by our house to be measured and it wasn’t long before she was immersed in her project. Ed was very excited about the new uniforms and would often stop by our house on his way home from work to see how my mother was progressing.

During one of his visits, Terry was sitting at the kitchen table with my mother and Ed while they were going over the uniform designs and talking about the corps. Out of the blue Ed said, “One day I will come back and haunt all of you!” Terry told him that was not funny. No one knew why he said that, but a few months later Terry would remember those words well!

Along with their involvement in drum corps, my parents were active with the local rescue squad. One particular December evening while my mother was on duty, she and the other volunteers noticed that it was unusually quiet. There were no phone calls coming in on the emergency line, which was good, but the private house phone that members used for their personal calls wasn’t ringing either. It was odd for all of them to have such a quiet night because the rescue squad was usually bustling with activity. When the house phone finally did ring, my mother was told the call was for her. It was my father calling to tell her that Ed had just had a heart attack and passed away.

At our house on that same night, right about the time that Ed passed away, our front door which was locked and had a rug against it to keep out the draft, blew open and a strong gust of wind went through the house. Terry was sitting on the sofa at the time watching television and she screamed because she thought someone was breaking in. My father came running into the room to see what was happening, but he could not explain how the door had just blown open.

By itself the incident with the door was not especially significant and we didn’t give it a great deal of thought at the time. The unusual calm and quiet night at the rescue squad was not typical of an emergency service covering a large area, but no one gave it much thought at the time either. It wasn’t until later, as more and more things began to happen, that we would think back on that first night and realize that this was the beginning of a long line of events that would eventually become a part of our lives.