Margaret walked downstairs to prepare breakfast and wondered if she would be alone or would she find the old man silently reading his newspaper. Sure enough, there he was, sitting at the dining table just like every time before. The elderly stranger was of average height and build, had wispy white hair, was immaculately groomed in his high-collared shirt and tie, and as usual, was paying no attention to his surroundings. Ignoring the man, she went ahead and made herself coffee and toast. By the time she sat down to eat, he was gone. He was in no way threatening, although it was always a bit of a surprise when he appeared at the table.
It was some years after these visits had stopped, that Margaret’s daughter Teresa visited her cousin Rita to collect the McGrath family bible. There were several old photos pressed between the pages. As Rita removed them and spread them out on the table, Teresa exclaimed “that’s him, that’s the ghost that read the paper in our dining room” as she pointed to the photo of a dapper gentleman. The man in the photo was Edward Patrick "Ned" McGrath, Teresa’s previously unknown great grandfather and Rita’s much-loved and well-remembered grandfather. Teresa had never seen a photo of Ned before that moment. Both of the women were struck by the realization that the news-reading visitor was the ghost of Ned McGrath. He had died more than three decades earlier.
What was it that Ned had left unfinished? Is that why he appeared multiple times? Why did he wait so long after his death to come back? Why was he seen only in that particular place? Why did he later stop visiting?
Would trying to reconstruct his life provide some answers?
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