Takei, who told me that version of his death.
But in Lily Dale, where dead and gone are words never used together, that wasnât the end of the story. Soon after his demise, her brother assured her that he hadnât been preparing to die, said Sherry Lee. In fact, he hadnât felt a thing that day. He was deadbefore he hit the ground. He also told her that the lesion in his brain hadnât killed him. That was important to Sherry Lee, since she and Gretchen had done a healing on Chapman to shrink the tumor. Theyâd gone inside his brain and worked a bit of magic, according to Lily Dale lore.
Chapman had also come back to comfort Bonnie, she told me, but it hadnât helped. She shouted at him that he needed to stay away. His presence only made things worse. âThere he was having a great time, and I was left behind,â she said.
Bonnie and his sister werenât the only persons who testified that Chapman had returned. He hadnât been dead a week before he was tramping around Betty Schultzâs house, exciting her dog, disrupting the old ladyâs rest, and causing the kind of commotion that Betty would never have tolerated from Chapman when he was alive. The next day Betty paid a visit to Sherry Lee.
âChap showed up,â she said in her customarily abrupt way. âWhatâs this about a pig?â It seems Chapman was holding a ceramic pig when he appeared at Bettyâs house. Itâs well known in Lily Dale that spirits often bring some token to identify themselves in case the living donât believe theyâre who they claim to be. Of course, Betty had known Chap most of his life, did recognize him, and didnât doubt him for a minute. Nevertheless, the pig was a nice touch, Sherry Lee thought.
The sisters buried Chap in Mr. Piggy, an old, chipped, faded cookie jar that they had fought over as children. One of them had taken it for her own after their mother died, but Chap loved it, and since he was the first to go, they gave it to him. They cremated him. Burying a body six feet under might keep a spirit earthbound, according to some Spiritualist thinking, and Chap, a bachelor all his life, was a man who loved his freedom. So the sisters cast two-thirds of their only brotherâs ashes to the winds and buried the rest in the cookie jar.
At the funeral, Bonnie and the Clark sisters stood around the little hole in the ground with a bottle of Glenlivetâanother nice touch, since Chapman had loved his scotch. The sisters poured a little scotch on the grave, and then each grieving woman took a swig herself. They handed the gravedigger the rest of the bottle. He tipped it up, swigged, and said, âDamn, thatâs good stuff.â
Chapman appeared to Sherry Lee several times afterward. In her accounts of those visits, his behavior seemed decidedly strange to me, although it made perfect sense to his eldest sister. Once he came holding a buttercup under his chin. As he twirled it, he chanted, âButter, butter, who doesnât like butter?â Sherry Lee called her daughter with the exciting news. The girl hoped to buy a farm near Buffalo but hadnât been able to afford anything she liked. Sherry Lee said Chapman was returning to let her know that she would find a house and it would have buttercups around it. Soon thereafter her daughter did indeed find such a house.
Â
O ne longtime believer in spirit communication said of an aunt who had died two weeks earlier, âItâs about time she checked in.â Shortly thereafter the aunt did make contact, but not in the form anyone expected. She left her name on the caller ID of a telephone, according to the story. Spirit methods are infinitely varied, say Spiritualist accounts. They often flicker lights or appear as a smell associated with the loved one. Sometimes they manifest as nothing more than a feeling.
Kent Bentkowskiâs father contacted him via telephone. The two had not spoken for
But in Lily Dale, where dead and gone are words never used together, that wasnât the end of the story. Soon after his demise, her brother assured her that he hadnât been preparing to die, said Sherry Lee. In fact, he hadnât felt a thing that day. He was deadbefore he hit the ground. He also told her that the lesion in his brain hadnât killed him. That was important to Sherry Lee, since she and Gretchen had done a healing on Chapman to shrink the tumor. Theyâd gone inside his brain and worked a bit of magic, according to Lily Dale lore.
Chapman had also come back to comfort Bonnie, she told me, but it hadnât helped. She shouted at him that he needed to stay away. His presence only made things worse. âThere he was having a great time, and I was left behind,â she said.
Bonnie and his sister werenât the only persons who testified that Chapman had returned. He hadnât been dead a week before he was tramping around Betty Schultzâs house, exciting her dog, disrupting the old ladyâs rest, and causing the kind of commotion that Betty would never have tolerated from Chapman when he was alive. The next day Betty paid a visit to Sherry Lee.
âChap showed up,â she said in her customarily abrupt way. âWhatâs this about a pig?â It seems Chapman was holding a ceramic pig when he appeared at Bettyâs house. Itâs well known in Lily Dale that spirits often bring some token to identify themselves in case the living donât believe theyâre who they claim to be. Of course, Betty had known Chap most of his life, did recognize him, and didnât doubt him for a minute. Nevertheless, the pig was a nice touch, Sherry Lee thought.
The sisters buried Chap in Mr. Piggy, an old, chipped, faded cookie jar that they had fought over as children. One of them had taken it for her own after their mother died, but Chap loved it, and since he was the first to go, they gave it to him. They cremated him. Burying a body six feet under might keep a spirit earthbound, according to some Spiritualist thinking, and Chap, a bachelor all his life, was a man who loved his freedom. So the sisters cast two-thirds of their only brotherâs ashes to the winds and buried the rest in the cookie jar.
At the funeral, Bonnie and the Clark sisters stood around the little hole in the ground with a bottle of Glenlivetâanother nice touch, since Chapman had loved his scotch. The sisters poured a little scotch on the grave, and then each grieving woman took a swig herself. They handed the gravedigger the rest of the bottle. He tipped it up, swigged, and said, âDamn, thatâs good stuff.â
Chapman appeared to Sherry Lee several times afterward. In her accounts of those visits, his behavior seemed decidedly strange to me, although it made perfect sense to his eldest sister. Once he came holding a buttercup under his chin. As he twirled it, he chanted, âButter, butter, who doesnât like butter?â Sherry Lee called her daughter with the exciting news. The girl hoped to buy a farm near Buffalo but hadnât been able to afford anything she liked. Sherry Lee said Chapman was returning to let her know that she would find a house and it would have buttercups around it. Soon thereafter her daughter did indeed find such a house.
Â
O ne longtime believer in spirit communication said of an aunt who had died two weeks earlier, âItâs about time she checked in.â Shortly thereafter the aunt did make contact, but not in the form anyone expected. She left her name on the caller ID of a telephone, according to the story. Spirit methods are infinitely varied, say Spiritualist accounts. They often flicker lights or appear as a smell associated with the loved one. Sometimes they manifest as nothing more than a feeling.
Kent Bentkowskiâs father contacted him via telephone. The two had not spoken for
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