Writing Prompt # 148: Hauntings

Anniversary Gifts from the Dead

Hi Friends,

My mother has sent my husband and me gifts on our wedding anniversary every year since she’s died. She did not plan this while she was still living, which means she’s sending us presents from the beyond. And yeah, I know what this sounds like. The first anniversary after her death, I realized we had a credit for a trip to Hawaii my mother and I had planned to take together but had gotten too sick to go. The credit was still good, so we celebrated our anniversary in Hawaii and then scattered my parents’ ashes into the Pacific.

Scattering my parents’ ashes

The next year, I got a notice that she hadn’t claimed her anniversary gift from work. They sent a catalogue, saying she could choose anything she wanted. I wanted the Karaoke machine but knew she would have chosen something practical, so we went for the knives. I didn’t really think we would get them, as my mother had been dead for over a year, but they arrived the day of our anniversary. The next year she overpaid a bill (for O Magazine), so the fifty dollars came back to me on our anniversary.

Another anniversary a very fancy robotic vacuum showed up, and the year after that, we got a credit for the exact amount of a year-long writing program I wanted to apply for: the deadline to apply was the day of our anniversary. I applied, got in, and completed the course. In it, I started the novel I’m writing about my mother’s life, which I wrote about last time, so the gifts are sometimes reciprocal.

I don’t know if I believe in an afterlife, but I do know I’ve been ghosted. Are there other explanations aside from my loved ones reaching me from the world beyond this world? Is the world really just made up of a sequence of strange coincidences? Sometimes I don’t know what to believe; other times, I know that the strangeness of the world is not dependent on what I believe.

I’ve reached the age where I know that life balances hardship and joy, even if it sometimes feels like the former overtakes the latter. I look back on the before times—those days before anyone I loved suffered and died—with nostalgia, I look back at my younger face in pictures, and I don’t just see the smooth skin and bright eyes. I see the lightness of being. There’s a heaviness in my face now, a furrowed seriousness that wasn’t there before. Everything I’ve carried shows. But isn’t that a kind of beauty, too?

But I am getting away from what I want to say here. What I want to say is that perhaps the gifts come because I’m looking for them. Perhaps the first one was a coincidence and ever since, I have been on the lookout for what’s coming next. Isn’t it true the world would be more full of gifts if we kept a close eye out for them?

But even now, I can hear my mother’s voice, saying, “Of course those gifts are from me, you ninny.” And so I give her credit every year. So when I ask my husband, “What do you think my mom will get us this year?” I’m joking, but also, I’m not. Our anniversary is next week, and I’ll keep you posted.

What You Will Need

A way to write

A place you will be unbothered

A timer

The Exercise

Have you ever received gifts from the dead? Maybe you have, but you didn’t recognize it at the time? Think back, looking through the lens of this question. And maybe you did not receive gifts from the beyond, but you received an inheritance, whether that’s a gold locket, a sum of money, or your mother’s old rolling pin. If working in fiction, what would happen if one of your characters received a gift from the dead? Set your timer for five minutes and make a list of all the possibilities. When your timer goes off, take a look at your list. Is there anything on it that suggests a scene (fiction or nonfiction) or a poem? Set your timer for fifteen minutes more and tell the story. When your time’s up, have a look at what you’ve written. Is it the seed for a poem, story, or essay? Maybe a chapter of a novel? If you feel comfortable, please share your writing with us here in the comments. I would love to see others’ gifts from the dead.

Upcoming Workshop

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Until next time,

Suzanne

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