Spoke Media

Hello, Ghost Family.

Welcome to Family Ghosts.

The last time I saw my grandmother on my dad's side, she was 94.

I'd gone to visit her at the senior center where she was living.

And I knew it might be one of the last times I got to see her.

So I had brought my tape recorder with me because there was this story I'd heard just

a few years earlier.

It turns out I had an uncle I never knew about who died by suicide when he was a teenager.

As longtime listeners might recall, that story was the basis for the season finale of the

first season of Family Ghosts.

But you don't hear my grandmother's voice in that episode because that day at the senior

center, I was too scared to ask her about it.

I spent a few hours with my grandma that day, and at one point she even looked me right

in the eye and said, I've got a few stories I could tell you.

But still, something stopped me from asking about my uncle.

Eventually an attendant knocked on her door and told me it was time for my grandma to get

ready for her evening routine and that I had to leave.

And the memory that has haunted me ever since that day is turning in the doorway and seeing

her sitting in her chair looking out the window and realizing this was probably going to be

my last image of her.

Which it was.

...