Bestselling author and trusted storyteller Barbara Smith delves into the heartwarming but sometimes sinister stories at that time of year when people may encounter the specters of those who have passed on to the other side:. A distraught young man’’s encounter with the spirit of his grandfather just before Christmas leads him to the career of his dreams. Two sailors take refuge in an abandoned house in London’’s affluent Berkeley Square on Christmas Eve; by the next morning, one has committed suicide and the other has been driven mad by the house’’s ghostly inhabitants. On the day before Christmas Eve in 1998, security cameras in Leicester’’s Belgrave Hall capture the image of an elegant woman in Victorian dress; the Grey Lady is only one of several ghosts inhabiting this stately home. Two travelers stranded in the Australian Outback are saved by the specter of a teenage boy who gives them a lift into town. A young man disembarks a train in April 1998 and is taken to a sumptuous hotel where it’’s Christmas 1946; he narrowly escapes death and awakes to find himself in the ruins of the burned-out hotel. A young woman stranded with her baby in a snowbound cabin receives a visit from a kindly spirit who brings food, firewood and money.And so many more…
