Original oil painting by: Grandfather’s wife
Grandfather remembers in awe his uncle, Alvah L. Miller.
Major Miller died January 31, 1944, while in command of Darby’s Rangers second battalion. The first, second and forth Ranger battalions successfully landed on the beach at Anzio, Italy, but were wiped out by a German counterattack before they got far inland.
Young Alvah was a highly-principled youth. World War II broke out while he was in college and he immediately left school and enlisted in the Army. He was dismayed by the unfocused nature of the Army as it was cobbling itself together in 1942, and volunteered for duty with the elite Rangers.
Major Miller’s wife said she awoke, frightened, at home in Saginaw, Michigan, the night Major Miller died. He stood before her, at the foot of her bed. He looked once at her, once at their infant son in his crib, and was gone.
Major Alvah L. Miller
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee is an octogenarian in West Virginia who built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
In the spirit of Halloween, I’ll share this story. This was back when I was a little kid. My cousin and I were walking through the woods. We were maybe eight years old. Suddenly we saw a very pale man standing in the bushes. He had his back toward us. We kind of just froze there, staring at him. He must’ve heard the rustling behind him because he slowly turned around. He had the creepiest smile on his face and started slowly moving toward us while making a beckoning motion with his finger. I was frozen with fear for a few moments before turning around to look at my cousin, who was no longer there! Of course I ran away too! I don’t think I’ve ever ran that fast before or since.
The occult is mysterious, indeed. So many of us remember unexplainable experiences.
My wife Tatjana, has the soul of an artist (my portrait, above, is her work) and she tells me of her extra-sensory experiences They are numerous. She sometimes saw small black creatures, similar to gargoyles.
On day as she was walking behind another person she did not know, one of the little creatures walked right through both of them from behind and disappeared.
When I was a kid, my older brother had a computer program that he composed piano music on. One night I was reading in the living room when I heard the most beautiful violin melody I’ve ever heard. To this very day I’ve never heard anything so beautiful. So I’m listening to this gorgeous melody, which was several minutes long. When it was over I walked down the hall to tell my brother he wrote a masterpiece when I realized he wasn’t there. I was in my house all alone.
I do not remember having visual or audio contacts from extrasensory sources, but I have had premonitions of the kind sometimes ascribed to guardian angels.
One night I was riding my bicycle and, for some reason, stopped behind a parked car instead of riding out around it, as I would normally have done.
A drunken driver sideswiped the parked car, destroying its left side. I would have been crushed, had I acted as I usually did.
I was 13 when Uncle Al died and his presence in my life was seminal to my character as I grew up.
In 1944, the country was united as it remained for the next twenty-five years as the U.S. enjoyed her golden age.
I was a soldier, too, for awhile – during the UN’s Korean “police action”. Eventually I used the GI BiIl to attended Michigan State College (now “University”), where Uncle Al had attended.