The following is a former winner of the Amazing but Incredibly True Story Contest.
Copyright Christine Beers, 1997
I was eight years old when my maternal grandfather passed away. After he died, my grandmother was invited by my parents to move in with us to help ease the loneliness that comes with widowhood. Due to the fact that I lived in constant contact with her (we even shared a bathroom), I feel a very strong connection to her. I know that she felt it to, although it was not in her personality to show emotion at all. She was an amazing woman: she drove until the age of 86, and was doing the laundry three times a week up to a year before she passed away at age 95 (which entailed walking up three flights of stairs with a heavy basket). I loved her very much and am indebted to her for all the things she did for me throughout my life. She was in many ways like a second mother to me.
When I was 11 she gave me a watch for Christmas. I wore that watch every day and never got another one. It wasn't anything special...just a $50 watch from a random store. It may sound strange, but I hung on to that watch as if it was a symbol of my grandmother's love for me. It sometimes needed new batteries, but it worked perfectly for years.
This is where the paranormal activity starts. Like I stated before, my grandmother was always in perfect health until a year before she passed away. At that time she had a series of mild strokes that affected her physically and psychologically. For a woman as independent as she was it was a strain to rely on others. It was at this time that my watch started to break repeatedly. I replaced the battery a few times in one year, and stopped wearing it altogether at some points because it would mysteriously stop. I never replaced the watch, however, for I believed that that that would constitute giving up on my grandmother.
As her health deteriorated significantly, and we knew it was a matter of only days that she would be with us, I wore the watch again as a symbol of my love for her, even though it was telling the wrong time. We received the call from the hospital announcing that she had passed away at 11:40 at night. MY WATCH STOPPED WORKING AT 11:30...the exact time that my grandmother passed away. I still have that watch, and I look at it sometimes in amazement that this really took place. It remains stopped at the exact time of her death.
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