Back in the spring of 2002 my mother-in-law began to show signs of a terminal illness. She was losing weight and wasn’t doing well at all. We tried to get her to go to the hospital but, she was very stubborn and refused. My husband and I talked and we decided that we need to take turns staying with her at night.

He stayed the first night and the next night I stayed. I had worked all day and was very tired. I figured that she would be weak and tired and ready for bed but, she was in a talking mood and she sat for hours telling me stories and telling me things she said I needed to know. She told me that my sister-in-law was dangerous and that she had it in for me and her. She said I have never told anyone this before. It was like she needed to warn me of things. She said after I’m gone she will never let you have any peace if you don’t set her straight. I just sat there because I had never known she didn’t like us.

Finally she said you need your rest and we were off to bed. She wanted me to sleep with her but, I told her that I would sleep in the guest room but, would keep an eye on her and she laughed. I went right off to sleep. I began to dream this wild nightmare. I dreamed that my poor sick mother-in-law had lost her mind and was chasing me with a gun. Through the house out the door and I was half in my car trying to get the keys in the ignition and pulling out with her right behind me chasing the car. I woke up with my heart in my mouth. I could not go back to sleep.

A few days later she finally got so weak that she couldn’t walk. Finally we got her to the hospital. They told us she had liver cancer and was dying. She never left the hospital. A few days later she went completely off. She had the strength of a man. She pulled her restraints loose and downed two nurses. It was the toxins from her liver and she never did come back to us.

After her funeral a few days past and we had to move out her belongings from her house. When we went to change her bed we found a gun and a knife under her pillow. I thought that was the end of my dream. What if she had of gotten up and went out of her mind and killed me?

After the funeral we had a big family argument, just as she had predicted. Until this day we have not made up with my husbands brother and sister-in-law. We don’t even know why she was mad at us.

A few days later, I was in her house alone after work, packing her things and trying to organize stuff. A sudden feeling went over me. It was the weirdest feeling. It felt like a hot flash then a cold icy feeling. My hair rose up on my head and arms. I could hear something saying to me “Lock the door now”. It said NOW really loud. I walked over to the door and locked it. I came back through the hall-way and I heard a car pull in and foot steps coming up onto the porch. I looked out and saw my sister-in-law coming in. I started to open up the door when that voice said again “NO don’t open that door.” About that time I heard her cursing me and beating on the door. If I had of opened that door she was planning on hurting me. She was threatening me and looked wild out of her eyes. Just like the dream. She went back to her car. She was screaming and hitting her husband.

I picked up a towel holder for a weapon and, slipped out the back door. I ran to our cousin’s house. He said he kept trying to get out the door to go to church but, something kept holding him back. He let me in and said you’re safe with me. She came to his door rambling on and on. He told her there would be no fighting in his mom and aunts home. She left with all intentions of hurting me. He followed me home and, later that night when I went to sleep. My mother-in-law came to me in my dreams again. She said I was trying to warn you that night that you stayed with me that she hated you, me and my son. I was afraid of her that’s why I kept that gun under my pillow. I wasn’t going to hurt you. She said don’t worry she will never lay a hand on you. It’s been three years and I have not laid eyes on her. If she does ever run in to me I trust that I have a guardian angel, my mother-in-law, ready to lay her out.

I think that dreams don’t all have meanings but, if you dream in color and the dream is vivid, or in color. That is a warning from someone out of our control. So please take heed to your dreams.

All her life my grandma seemed to have the gift, if you would like to call it that, to see events, which had not yet occurred, either through dreams, visions or a feeling she would get about something.

In February of 1948 my grandfather was working as a contract lineman for the local power company in West Virginia and was often working out of the state. My grandma lived with their three daughters each two years apart at 15, 17 and 19 years of age. The oldest, my mother worked across town and would often stay with relatives who lived near her work. The middle daughter was my aunt Mary who was a bit rebellious to say the least. She would often get in trouble at school just for the hell of it. In her senior year she began dating a local boy named Danny Brooks who had a bad reputation for drinking, racing his car and generally creating problems for the local law enforcement agencies.

Within a few short weeks of my aunt dating Danny my grandma began to have terrible visions in which she saw my aunt in her new fur coat, that she had gotten the previous Christmas, covered in blood. In these visions grandma would be walking up on the scene of an accident and my aunt would be lying there covered in blood.

Grandma began to have these visions nearly every night, and she finally told my aunt about them and how worried she was. Aunt Mary was not one to believe much in visions or bad omens, however she did promise grandma she and Danny would be careful when out driving around.

A couple of days later my grandma again had the vision but this time she saw that it was Danny’s car in the accident and once again my aunt Mary was covered in blood. Grandma was so terrified that she called her brother Donald who lived in town and asked him to please drive to the diner that my aunt and her friends hung out at and see if she was all right. A short time later my great uncle Donald arrived at my grandma’s home and told her that Danny’s car had indeed been in a bad accident and that all the injured were taken to Charleston General Hospital.

When my grandma and uncle Donald arrived at the hospital emergency room grandma was stunned by what she saw as standing there by the emergency room door was my aunt Mary with her new fur coat covered in blood.

It seems that aunt Mary’s boyfriend Danny let his younger brother Jim borrow the car to pick up a friend from work but before he even got three blocks away a car ran a red light and hit him broadside. My aunt Mary and Danny witnessed the accident and ran over to the scene where my aunt held the frightened boy in her arms until the ambulance arrived which is how her fur coat got covered in blood. Just as grandma had seen it in her visions.

Once again one of grandmas visions had come true, fortunately for my Aunt Mary this time the events that occurred were not exactly as grandma had seen them.

Back in 1972 they were building the new corridor G. from Chapmanville to Charleston.

Me and my boyfriend (husband now of 29 yrs), were out driving on the new section to be paved. We drove about 5 miles of Chapmanville. Our car broke down. It stopped in the middle of no where. We watched for hours for another car to drive by but we didn’t see anybody. As we sat there in the middle of night talking and wondering what our parents were thinking. We knew they wouldn’t know which way to even look for us. I knew I was in some terrible trouble, if I didn’t freeze to death. It was late in the fall and thanks to my boyfriend we did have extra coats and a army blanket.

We started seeing a flame in the ditch line. It was like a hundred feet to the left of the car. My boyfriend said you set here and I will go check it out. He got out of the car and walked toward the flame. I sat in the front seat watching. When he got within 10 feet of it the flame disappeared. He turned around in the dark and walked back to the car. He said humm it went out. He said he thought it was a gas leak and someone might of thrown a cigarette on it.

Just as soon as he sat down and shut the door it came right back. Several times he walked up to it and it would flicker out. He was frightened but, tried not to show it. Finally I dared him to get out and leave me again. I said whatever it is it does not want us to bother it. We sat there till daylight. A work truck coming on the road to work stopped and helped us. He said what seems to be the trouble. My boyfriend said I don’t know the car just quit. We have been here all night. He gave us a jump and the car started. We had the battery checked out later and it was a new battery. It never did do that again.

My father was waiting and after we explained he only jumped on us for not telling them which way we were going. He was too understanding. We told him about the flickering flame. He said can we go back and look for it? In a hundred years I spoke up.. I said I’ve never been so scared. We never did go back and we have passed that place so many times but, we cannot to this day say exactly where we were. Its like something made us both forget the place.

After a day of indecision and snow squalls, my sister and I decided we would make the 84-odd-mile trek from Williamson, West Virginia to Huntington, West Virginia to arrange our summer schedules at Marshall University.

We had planned this trip for weeks. The earlier you get registered, the more insured you are to get the classes and schedule you want and need.

Lynn was working on her masters. I on the other hand, after 10 years, three colleges and beauty school would be attending undergraduate classes majoring in elementary education.

Usually excited about snow, we both were disappointed when periodically throughout the day snow squalls passed through the area covering roadways.

Lynn had to teach and would not be leaving until later in the afternoon, so we had hope the snow would pass through and we would be able to make the trip.

It had not snowed for a while when Lynn returned home from work and we opted to go ahead and attempt to get to Huntington. If it got to bad, we would turn around.

But being us, we did not get on the road as early as we should have and the sun was setting as we left the house.

From Williamson to Huntington you follow the Tug Fork River to the Big Sandy along US Route 52 passing through once booming coal communities with only echoes visible of their past prosperity.

US 52 has quite a haunting history of death. If you have lived anywhere along the route for any length of time you know at least one person who has met his or her maker on that road.

Well, as I was saying, you pass through small communities that could simply be classified as “wide spots.” Some bearing the name and number of the mine which brought the community into being, such as Borderland 1 and Borderland 2 and other with names like Nolan, Millers Creek, Maher and Naugatuck and Kermit.

From Williamson to Kermit in 1988 it took about 30 to 45-minutes to drive the 15 to 20-miles. Along the route you passed through the two Borderlands, then Nolan, Millers Creek and Maher.

As Lynn and I passed through these communities we discussed the day, what we were going to do in Huntington, what we were going to eat, and whether we were going to be able to get there at all.

We had just passed by Millers Creek and were zipping down one of the few straight stretches along 52 before entering into the Maher curve. A huge curve arched like a horseshoe with the biggest community cemetery in Mingo County, West Virginia following the north bound lane from the road’s edge to the Tug River. Our grandmother is buried there, as are many friends and relatives.

Coming down the straight stretch Lynn asked, “Did you think we were going be able to make this trip?”

I believe I said, “Yes, I knew we would try anyway.”

The subject changed by the time we entered into the curve. It change to, “Where did this snow come from?”

It was pouring. By the time we reached the section where our grandmother is buried, the road was snow covered.

We discussed whether we should turn around, but opted to continue with hopes we’d drive through the snow shower.

Oh, how wrong we were.

As the snow peppered down, the road began to worsen and was treacherous by the time we reached Naugatuck.

After crossing the two sets of railroad tracks in Naugatuck, we turned toward Kermit. It wasn’t long after we crossed those tracks we decided we had to turn around. The snow was blinding leaving visibility almost nil.

We knew there was nowhere to turn around along this road, another straight stretch with the railroad on one side and mountains on the other.

Traveling only a short distance from the point of our decision to turn around, we saw what appeared to be two stone columns marking an entrance to a driveway.

Seizing the opportunity to turn around, we pulled into the driveway, which appeared to lead straight into the mountainside. Cautiously and quickly we backed back onto the highway to return home.

Now heading south on 52, we once again passed the snow-covered cemetery at Maher, but by the time we reached Nolan the road was clear with only flurries of snow flying about the night sky. The closer we got to home the signs of the sever weather we had experienced became less and less visible to when we reached our mother’s driveway there was not a trace of snow.

We ran in told our mother we were home and I went home to my apartment surprising my fiance.

Sometime in the wee hours of morning, my phone began to ring. It was my mother. Her dad had passed away. He was buried next to our grandmother at Maher.

Lynn and I discussed the trials we had in trying to get to Huntington and how someone must have been telling us not to go. However, that’s not were this story ends.

Several years later Lynn and I were traveling to Huntington, a trek I had made almost every weekend while attending Marshall University and she had made to visit. As we passed Maher we began talking about the night Pop Paw died. How strange it had been that night, it was as if someone was telling us to go home.

When we came upon the second set of tracks at Naugatuck, Lynn said, “Sonya can you find the place where we turned around.”

“I have driven this road over a hundred times since that night. I have looked for the driveway where we turned around and I cannot find it,” I replied.

“Neither can I.”

We couldn’t find it that day either, nor have we since.