For Halloween finish this spooky story, and tell us what happens next. I was walking down a deserted road when…

I was walking down a deserted road when it started to rain.  As the thunder began, I began running down the road, looking for anywhere I could stay.  When I saw a mansion (just in case you don't know what a mansion is, it is a very big house), I knocked and the door creaked open.  I asked if anyone was home, a man came out and said "Certainly, would you like to stay while it's raining."

"Yes, thank you," I replied as I walked inside.  I saw that there were some towels, and asked if I could have one.  He agreed, and I was surprised to find them very warm, as if they had just come out of the drier.  As I dried off, I realized that the table was set.  The man said he was about to eat supper, and I asked where were all the other people.  "Oh I always like to keep the table nice and ready, in case of guest," he replied.

I sat down as he brought out tea and biscuits (in this term biscuits are actually little tiny cakes).  As we had a nice chat, it started to get darker and darker and the rain continued harder and harder.  He finally told me just to pick out a room I liked and plan to stay the night.  While I was looking I heard a large creak, and footsteps on the floor coming faster and faster.  I decided to hide in a closet just in case.  I looked through the bottom, as I heard a person step into the room, but I didn't see feet.  Then I heard a huge clank, and saw two big metal feet as the armor came closer and closer.  It was coming toward the closet.

I tried to think quickly and hid behind a bathrobe, when somebody or something in armor swung open the door.  The problem was that he wasn't leaving, he just stood there.  Then slowly he began pulling one hanger down after another.  As he got closer and closer to me, I realized I was all the way in the back of the closet.  It was a dead end, if he got all the way to me, there was no where else to hide.  As I am thinking on what to do, he trips over one of the clothes, and I dived under the pile of clothes he'd already taken down.  After pulling the last item down, he began picking them up.  There was nothing else to do.  When he picked up the last item, he said, "What are you doing down there?"

It wasn't the suit of armor but the same older man, and I stammered, "but, but, but...but there was..."

"Oh calm down let's go eat supper before it gets cold."

As I followed him, and sat down to supper.  While we were eating there was a bolt of lighting and the lights went out as the thunder clapped.  Then I heard a piano playing, and I got up to go to it in the next room.  As I entered the room, I saw the keys moving with no one sitting there.  I then heard that sound of armor again.  I know it is the knight, and I think fast.  The only option as I look around is an organ.  There is a door on it for repairs, so I hide inside hoping the knight doesn't find me.  (An organ is an instrument kind of like a piano, but a little different, with pipes and such.)

Then suddenly there was silence.  Then out of nowhere the knight opens the door.  I slipped past it's legs, I ran for the door, but it was locked!  I tried to get out the window, but it was boarded!  As the knight is coming, I know I'm at my doom.  But then the man comes out laughing, "We gotcha!  Me and Nicholas here like to play pranks on people who stay here.  It's just a little fun.  No one has ever gotten hurt.  Well, except for the time I went a little too far with Headless Nick, I mean, Nick."

Sir Nicholas then replied, "It is Sir Nicholas now, and second, it wasn't a little too far.  You went way too far."  He then turned to me, and said, "I may be a ghost, but I like to wear my armor, everywhere but bed."

Just then the rain began to lighten up, so I decided to head out.  As I ran down the road, I yelled back "Thanks for the scare, but no thanks!"

Six years later, I was in the area, and decided to stop in and see them.  But the mansion was no where to be found.  It was never seen again. The End

Tell the story of Halloween from the perspective of a piece of candy.

Once upon a time, I was nothing, but I got made in a candy store on Halloween day.  Then they put me in the window where everyone bought candy and someone grabbed the bag with me and my brothers and sisters.  They put me in the car by flopping me on my head.  We all had to turn over, well all but one of my brothers.  He was always very weird, and always on his head.  So when we flipped back upside down, he started to do the thing he always did, humming weird noises.  So then when the lady got out of the car, she swooped up the bag in her hand, and then dumped us all in a pumpkin basket.  She then put her hand through the eye and took out a piece of candy.  Then she unwrapped one of my sisters, and ATE HER!!!  I gasped in horror, and became scared that she would eat me too.  "HELP!" I yelled, but no one came.  Then she opened the door and put us outside the door, and people came down to her subject (subdivision) and got my brothers and sisters.  When someone grabbed me they dropped me in a even weirder bucket.  It didn't look like a pumpkin but a ghosty thingy.  I found some of my friends.  When all the little children went home, they started to eat the candy.  But I was a sweet gummy bear, and I was weird because I had feet and hands.  So while they were eating supper, before they got dessert, I climbed out of the bucket.  Then I helped my brothers and sisters that were here.  My favorite sister, who had always helped me, had already been eaten.  We snuck out of the house, because they left the door cracked open.  We all got away, and headed back to the candy store, and got in our sweet little beds, made of candy of course.  The End.

Tell the story of Halloween from the perspective of a pumpkin.

One day a whole lot of people were in my pumpkin patch and almost every pumpkin in the patch was gone somebody cam super close and picked me up!  She put me in a car and drove away from my home.  Then she put me in a big white thing (called a refrigerator).  After a few days she took me out of the big white thing and put me on the counter.  She then grabbed some very, very sharp things.  She cut around my stem and then pulled it off like a hat.  She took all the pumpkin seeds, and my insides out.  It made me feel like I was a mummy.  She carved two eyes, a nose, and a very weird mouth.  I closed my eyes for most of it, but it still hurt a lot.  I did like how I looked afterwards, except for my new mouth.  After she finished carving everything, she put a little light in.  She then put me on the porch, along with five other pumpkins.  The names of the 5 pumpkins where Hewey, Dewey, Louis, Donald, and Daisy.  One night it was looking like a peaceful end to the day, when she lit our lights.  But when it was dark, mummies, ghosts, and all sorts of things began coming to the door and yelling "Trick or treat!"  I became frightened.  After that night, I feel asleep, but I couldn't wake back up.  Duh, Duh, Duh.  The End.

I have posted all that much this October, though I have written a few blogs over on the blogspot. Tonight at 7pm is the Wave of Light, the idea is that from 7-8 pm in each timezone candles are lit to remember the babies and children who are gone, so that across the world a candle burns for 24 hours. I won't have Abigail's candle with me tonight, as it is packed up with everything else we own, but you can believe that I will find something for tonight.

Thanks to CarlyMarie who has once again done the prompts for #CaptureYourGrief and #WhatHealsYou and put together all the images that she has graciously shared that we can remember our sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, grandchildren as well as support others whose lives have been touched by PAILS (pregnancy and infant loss).

Pretend you are a rain drop.  Tell me about your journey.

One day I was high up in the sky in a cloud when it started raining.  I fell down, down, down from the sky.  I landed in the sea, in the middle of the ocean!  Then it immediately stopped raining for some reason, but I don't know why?  Then one minute right before I got sucked back up in to the clouds, I got sucked up by a whale.  Then I slipped down the whales throat, but he spit me back out through his blow hole.  I landed back into the sea.  I wished I had arms and feet so that I could walk out of the sea, but I don't.  So, eventually after one whole day I washed up on a beach.  But then it started raining again.  I was washed out by the waves, and washed up on a totally different beach!  I sunk into the sand.  As I tried to get away duh, duh, duh I got sucked up by a plant.  But it let little water drops out on it's leaves as it made food.  I slipped down the leaf and fell into the sand, plop.  Then I was ready to evaporate, but all the water had already evaporated. DUH, DUH!  I then joined up with some other water in a puddle, but I was in the bottom, so when all my friends were in the top.  I tried to get up there, but I couldn't move since I didn't have any arms and legs.  So finally the evaporation started again, and all of my friends and I together went up.  We all stuck together, and nothing was in the way, so we all went to the same cloud.  We lived together in the water cycle, happily ever after.  The End.

Imagine you have joined the circus.  What job would you have?

I would be an acrobat, because it sounds super fun to swing off of something high up in the air.  Even though I might be a little afraid it would still be awfully fun.  My costume would be a bright pink leotard with a skirt of feathers.  The other acrobats on the bars would be boys and they would wear orange pant suits.  I would be known as Ruth the Radiant.  We would start out in Florida but when we had enough money we would travel all over the place Alabama then Mississippi and then Tennessee, and then Texas, and way out in California.  I think it would be a fun job, but very hard.  Because one year we'd have to put on a show in PA in winter time, but my leotard was very very cold.

You just discovered a new planet where people could live.  What is it like?  What do you name it?

I landed on the planet Bombaton.  First things first, I saw that these weird things were flying in the air.  When I was about to examine it, I bumped it and it broke the glass of my helmet.  I realized that I could break the air here.  Next, I realized I was going to have to be careful since there was explosive rock floating everywhere.  So, I decided to chart a map of this place, and put it on a frag stick so that anyone else got lost here, they would see the map.  I also wrote down the danger points that I knew about this planet.  I decided to figure at as much as I could for the users protection.

I looked at the plants.  As I examined them, I realized that some of these plants were very different from Earth's.  One minute I was examining something that looked like a cactus, but when I stumbled and hit it, it began shooting spikes everywhere.  Thankfully, I still had my suit on and I wasn't hurt.  Then I saw that one of the spikes hit another plant.  When I went to take a look, it grabbed me with it's mouth and ate me.  As I struggled to get out, I pulled out my swiss army knife, and cut my way out.  Finally I was out, so I decided to not touch anything else.

The atmosphere was different.  It appeared to have different laws of physics.  The smaller the object, the heavier it is.  For example, Kate would weigh about a ton, and Daddy would be about one ounce.  Water is a little different.  While humans can drink it just fine, it is perfectly still like a rock or as flowy and reckless as a tsunami.  You should just plan to bring lots of water when you go to space.

Next I looked around to see if there was any life.  I heard the ground shaking, something big was coming up.  It isn't easy to describe, but let's say it was kinda like a chameleon, but big enough to eat a building.  As I followed it, I realized that it ate the explosive rocks.  It wasn't affected by the explosions, in fact there was no explosion at all when it ate them.

All in all, it was a pretty weird place.  I hope that no one lands there any time soon.  The End.

7. INHALE + EXHALE | Today is like a Capture Your Grief Free Day. This awareness month can become overwhelming quickly so instead of pouring your heart out, take today to look after yourself and your mental health. Be mindful of your breathing. Take some time out in nature today and just breathe. Recharge.

I will confess I've been struggling a lot in the last few months, so I decided back in September that I needed to get back into the practice of finding something each week in more ordinary life to be thankful for by make a spot in my planner each week. I'm always grateful for the kids and Gary, and over the years of unemployment I have learned to be very acutely aware of thankfulness for a job and food, etc. But what I am talking about is finding the little things to be thankful for, in the chaos of life. This week while I wasn't thankful to be out of a job, while I wasn't thankful to have to move again, while I'm not thankful that one of my children isn't here on earth with me, I am thankful that we are through moving out and cleaning out the house that we are moving out of. I am not thankful that we are all crammed in a camper in my inlaws yard, but I am thankful that they love us enough to give us a place to land till we find the next place. We don't have to be thankful for all the hardships and awful things in life, but we can be thankful for little things that make those things bearable.

There are alot of times that the lack of connection really bothers me. Not knowing the things that mothers should know about their children: their favorite colors, what they love to eat, how they like their hair, how they respond to challenges, etc. Early on in this experience I saw a number of pictures that in someway included the children who were gone. Whether it was a sunburst of light reflecting or the actual outline of a child. This year sortly before Abigail's birthday, a lady posted in our facebook loss group, that she too had lost a child, and that she know made these for loss parents. After talking a bit we learned that her daughter would have been around the age of our Abigail this year. And she took my photo and made this image for us. When I first opened it, I squawled, and squawled. It was so beautiful. For once I felt like I was looking at all of our family together. And for once I could really clearly imagine her. I sometimes try to imagine what she might be like, I like to imagine her with long stick straight red hair, and freckles all across her nose. But this picture just felt like so much personality. I could see her hair blowing in the wind off the waterfall. But it was clipped back half way, to show her round baby face. The sleeve of her shirt blowing too, and her in a skirt like all my girls. I loved the way that she was on tip toes with one foot rocked up under her. It was a tiny thing, but have me such a feeling of connection.

October begins again with PAILs Awareness.  This will always be dear to my heart, because we lost our daughter Abigail, our fourth child who was stillborn at 22 weeks.  Our daughter died.  There is no easy way to say that, no easy way to deal with that.  It is still every bit as bitter of a fact as it was the day we walked out of the ultrasound room.  Abigail was born August 25th and she would be 4 years old today.  She was due on New Year's Eve, and might have celebrated a birthday with her Mister.  I think of her daily, but especially in the month of October.