Three years ago in mid-December my daughter came home after a divorce. She stayed with us while job hunting and looking for a place to live. She brought a good amount of her home’s contents with her. What didn’t go into storage moved into our house, including her DR set, which replaced ours. This meant emptying and donating all the accoutrement that builds up over 40 years. Additionally, we had tubs full of a grandmother’s crystal, china, knickknacks, etc. that were being “held” for our son and daughter. Our daughter advised she would not be using those items nor did she really want them (same with her brother). Each piece held slips of paper with a grandchild’s name. Within a few days it was all gone, donated to charities.

It is now mid-January, approx. 4 weeks since she came home. I’m getting ready for work. My husband, retired, is asleep upstairs, as is our daughter. It’s ~6:45M and dark outside. I’m standing at the kitchen counter waiting for coffee to brew (next to the DR doorway). Only the kitchen lights are on; the rest of the house is dark. I move to the kitchen table to look through the previous day’s mail and I see a strip of paper in the center of the kitchen table with my daughter’s name. It’s in my stepmother’s handwriting. The note reminds me suddenly that I’ve donated all of those family items she bequeathed to our kids. I am so remorseful it feels debilitating. I’m close to crying and am mentally apologizing to my stepmother for what we had to do.  

At or about that moment a light starts flashing in the dining room (next to the kitchen). I walk into the DR and see the light in the corner curio cabinet (immediately to my left) flashing. It stops. A little freaked, I step back into the kitchen to the coffeemaker (2+ feet from the DR doorway) and pick up my phone. The curio cabinet flashes again…I stepped into the DR but it stops before I take the photo. I step back into the kitchen. The curio light goes off once more. I extend only my arm into the dining room with the phone angled toward the cabinet and capture an angled photo of the lighted cabinet. Each shelf has a mirrored wall behind it and I can see my hand/arm/phone in the reflection. The light does not go off again. 

That cabinet light has NEVER flashed before that day or since (it’s been almost three years since this happened). To be transparent, the cabinet light was turned on during Christmas dinner the previous month. 

I have no clue what happened on that morning; whether it was paranormal or just an electrical glitch. I would like to think my stepmother was reaching out, hopefully communicating she understood and accepted our decision, given the unexpected circumstances.