The Month Of October

The month of October has always had some type of meaning for me for as long as I can remember. As a little girl my parents would decorate the whole house and the whole yard with Halloween decorations. We would often decorate our unfinished basement and hold great spook alleys for the neighborhood. My dad inherited a trunk full of old Halloween costumes and dress up clothes from his family. We would use these as well as the costumes that my mom would make or purchase throughout the years to dress up. Thanks to my mom's great costume make-up talents, our family members were always among the "Best Costumed" group of students in school on Halloween.

As we grew older my parents began a business called Hunt Mysteries and Company. My dad would write great Murder Mystery Dinner Theater plays and they would hire a cast to perform them at different locations for private and public Dinner Parties. As young kids we would often go along and help with the set up and technicalities of the shows. My brothers were working the sound equipment with my mom at a very young age. For us at this point in our life, October meant Business. We would have many many shows booked for the Halloween season and it grew as the years went on. As a family the month of October was bitter sweet. There was always a sense of accomplishment and excitement as we pulled off another great run. But it was also a source of great stress and frustration.

Halloween night however usually always turned out great! Somehow my parents were usually able to come home from the shows and we had some great times! One year my dad scared some local teenagers half to death! Throughout the month we had a stuffed dummy sitting on our front porch bench. On Halloween my dad put the Dummy costume on and as the kids would come up to get candy out of the candy bowl he would grab their hand and scare the heck out of them. It was Great! The other fun costume for my dad was his custom made pirate costume. My dad lost one of his legs to Cancer when he was twenty. So he made the perfect pirate with a peg leg. He would answer the door wearing his peg leg and the Trick-or-treaters would stare in wonder at my dad. Another great memory...

Now that I am grown and a mother, the month of October has many meanings and emotions attached to it. I love to plan what the kid's will be for Halloween as early as August.:) Although, Jakob announced that he wanted to dress up as a ghost this year. This was a surprise to me. But a ghost is a lot easier then the Pilot that I was going to dress him as. I enjoy decorating our house too. I inherited some of the decorations that my mom would use to decorate our house while I was growing up. I love the sentimental value that they portray.

It is interesting that the traditional meaning of the word Halloween is commonly known as the Day of the Dead. I don't think I would think about this much except for the fact that our daughters were born the day before Halloween 2006. They both passed away leaving the month of October filled with a small sense of irony.

We feel blessed to have the knowledge and comfort that our little girls are well and that we will see them again. If we didn't have this knowledge and conviction, I'm sure the month of October would be filled with the darkness that it could portray if a person wants to invite it into their life.
For us, the month of October is a poignant reminder of the good and bad of times past. As well as the opportunity to fill our little family up with some great memories similar to those that we both have from our life growing up.