Uncle Alvy's Mules

From: 
Story type: Ghost
Location: Patrick County, VA
Source: Form Submission

In April of 2000, Uncle Alvy passed away. He was my husband's great-uncle, no blood kin to me, but we all called him 'Uncle Alvy'. He was 84. I didn't get to go to his funeral, due to a death in my family at the same time.

In May of 2000, on my way to Floyd, a small town near us, I took a back road. Just tooling along, thinking of what I needed to buy, I entered a gentle left-hand curve.

On the left hand side of the road, I saw Uncle Alvy standing there, with a team of mules. He was holding the right side mule by the halter with his left hand, wearing his bib overalls and a duckbill hat. He lifted up his right hand and waved at me.

I thought to myself, "Oh, there's Uncle Alvy.", and waved back at him, and continued on my way. I only went about fifty feet when it hit me - Uncle Alvy was dead! I slammed on the breaks, came to a stop in the middle of the road, and looked back. There was nothing there.

I was rather shaken up, but continued on down the road to Floyd. After I got back home, I went down to Pa and Granny's house. (Pa is my husband's grandfather and was Uncle Alvy's brother) I asked him if Uncle Alvy had ever had a team of mules.

Granny immediately said, "No, he never had no mules", but Pa sat there, thinking, and then said to me, "Yeah, at one time, when we were young men, me 'n Alvy was farming together before we got married. We bought a team of mules to pull the plow. I didn't care much for them, but Alvy loved them mules. I talked him into selling them and buying a tractor, but he missed them mules and talked about them for a long time".

When he asked me why I wanted to know, I told him. He sat real quiet, and then said, "Well, I reckon he come back for his mules".

As God is my witness, this is true.