The light in the orphanage

[Althalus]

A benign light, a motherless child, a witness of faultless rectitude: the following stury is told by the Reverand Charles Jupp, warden of the Orphanage and Convalescent Home at Aberlour, near Craigellachie, Scotland.

In 1978, he said, three young children, recently orphaned b the death of their mother, had been admitted to his institution. A few months later several unesxpected visitors arrived, and in order to accomodate them overnight the Reverend Jupp decided to occupy an empty bed in the children's dormitory. At breakfast the following morning, the warden told his co-workers and friends what had transpired during the night:

'As near as I can tell I fell asleep about 11o'clock, and slept very soundly for some time. suddenly awoke without any apparent reason, and felt an impulse to turn around, my face being towards the wall, from the children. Before turning, I loked up and saw a soft light in the room. The gas was burning low in the hall, and the dormitory door being open, I thought it probable that the light came from that source. It was soon evident, however, that such was not the case. I turned round, and then wonderful vision met my gaze. Overthe second bed from mine, and on the same side of the room, there was floating a small cloud of light, forming a halo of the brightness of the moon on an ordinary moonlit night.

I sat upright in bed, looking at this strange appearence, took up my watch and found the hands to be pointing to 5 minutes to 1. Everything was quiet, and all the children sleeping soundly. In the bed, over which the light seemed to float, slept the youngest of the .. children mentioned above.

I ask myself, "Am I dreaming?" No! I was wide awake. I was seized with a strong impulse to rise and touch the substance, or whatever it might be (for it was about 5 feet high), and was getting up when something seemed to hold me back. I am certain I heard nothing, yet I felt the and perfectly understood the words - "No, lie down, it won't hurt you." I at once did what I felt I was told to do. I fell asleep shortly afterwards and rose at half-past 5, that being my usual time.

At 6... I began dressing the children, beginning at the bed furthest from the one in which I slept. Presently I came to the bed over which I had seen the light hovering. I took the little boy out, placed him on my knee, and put on him some of his clothes. The child had been talking with the others; and suddenly he was silent. And then, looking at me hard in the face with an extraordinary expression, he said, "Oh, Mr Jupp, my mother came to visit me last night. Did you see her?" For a moment I could not answer the child. I then thought it better to pass it off, and said, "Come, we must make haste, or we shall be late for breakfast."

The Reverend JUpp never spoke of the matter to the small boy, nor did the child refer to it. Some time later, however, an account of the incident was included in the small magazine put out by the orphanage. When the boy read it, wrote the Reverend Jupp in 1883,

his counternance changed, and , looking up, he said, "Mr Jupp, that is me." I said, "Yes, that is what we saw." He said, "Yes," and then seemed to fall into deep thought, vidently with pleasant remembrances, for he smiled so sweetly to himself, and seemed to forget I was present.

[Loonboy]

That's a good story. I have a question though.

If the Reverend did not speak of it and the boy didn't either, then who was it that reported it in the orphanage magazine?

[Halo_Jones]

That was a lovely and touching story, but it would of been nicer had the reverend told the little boy he had seen his mother the following morning

Thanks Al