Halloween 1998

We didn't anticipate that Halloween would begin the season of holidays without Cassie. For some reason, we discounted Halloween and focused on how much we would miss Cassie at Thanksgiving, her birthday, December 20, and, of course, the Christmas/Chanukah season.

Like a trick, though, and maybe even a treat, Halloween snuck up on our grief and gave us a not unpleasant surprise.

We first noticed the transformation of the cemetary when we arrived for one of our visits and saw this ghost at a gravesite we often notice for other reasons. Truly, we were flabbergasted. A ghost in a graveyard!!!

Our next visit made Halloween even more personal -- pumpkins left at Cassie's grave by friends, and by Cassie's cousin Katie and her Aunt Patti. We left Tigger, and flowers as we always do.

The phenomenon spread throughout the cemetary, with ghosts, witches, scarecrows, and black cats popping up everywhere. "Happy Halloween in Heaven," one of Cassie's friends wrote on a pumpkin. Witches in trees... spirits among the spirits... but nothing prepared us for the sight of two glow-in-the-dark skeletons just down the row from Cass!!!

Cassie B... we remember your "first" Halloween... you had not yet been born, but we remember walking around our neighborhood for hours with Maya. (Two of Deb's memories from that night -- Cassie moving around inside of her so actively; Maya so sweetly helping to untie Debbie's brown leather boots after trick-or-treating for so long.) We felt so wonderful with our two children... couldn't wait until the next year when you could trick-or-treat together. We also remember your "last" Halloween... so independent from us... off in another neighborhood with your friends, having an outrageous teen-age Halloween night. You came home soaking wet with tons of loot. You are a great sharer!! (Except for when you were about eight years old, and had your special Halloween candy box with combination lock!!)

So... unusual though it seems,

Click here to visit Cassie's Halloween Costume Gallery.

© 1998 by Debra Jean and Victor Montemurro. All rights reserved.