The Light in the Orphanage
Source: Mysteries of the Unexplained
A benign light, a motherless child, a witness of faultless rectitude: the
following story is told by the Reverend Charles Jupp, warden of the Orphanage
and Convalescent Home at Aberlour, near Craigellachie, Scotland.
In 1878, he said, three young children, recently orphaned by the death of their
mother, had been admitted to his institution. A few months later several
unexpected visitors arrived, and in order to accommodate them overnight the
Reverend Jupp decided to occupy an empty bed in the children's dormitory. At
breakfast the following morning, the warden told his co-workers and friends what
had transpired during the night:
'As near as I can tell I fell asleep about 11o'clock, and slept very soundly for
some time. suddenly awoke without any apparent reason, and felt an impulse to
turn around, my face being towards the wall, from the children. Before turning,
I looked up and saw a soft light in the room. The gas was burning low in the
hall, and the dormitory door being open, I thought it probable that the light
came from that source. It was soon evident, however, that such was not the case.
I turned round, and then wonderful vision met my gaze. Over the second bed from
mine, and on the same side of the room, there was floating a small cloud of
light, forming a halo of the brightness of the moon on an ordinary moonlit
night.
I sat upright in bed, looking at this strange appearance, took up my watch and
found the hands to be pointing to 5 minutes to 1. Everything was quiet, and all
the children sleeping soundly. In the bed, over which the light seemed to float,
slept the youngest of the .. children mentioned above.
I ask myself, "Am I dreaming?" No! I was wide awake. I was seized with
a strong impulse to rise and touch the substance, or whatever it might be (for
it was about 5 feet high), and was getting up when something seemed to hold me
back. I am certain I heard nothing, yet I felt the and perfectly understood the
words - "No, lie down, it won't hurt you." I at once did what I felt I
was told to do. I fell asleep shortly afterwards and rose at half-past 5, that
being my usual time.
At 6... I began dressing the children, beginning at the bed furthest from the
one in which I slept. Presently I came to the bed over which I had seen the
light hovering. I took the little boy out, placed him on my knee, and put on him
some of his clothes. The child had been talking with the others; and suddenly he
was silent. And then, looking at me hard in the face with an extraordinary
expression, he said, "Oh, Mr Jupp, my mother came to visit me last night.
Did you see her?" For a moment I could not answer the child. I then thought
it better to pass it off, and said, "Come, we must make haste, or we shall
be late for breakfast."
The Reverend Jupp never spoke of the matter to the small boy, nor did the child
refer to it. Some time later, however, an account of the incident was included
in the small magazine put out by the orphanage. When the boy read it, wrote the
Reverend Jupp in 1883, his countenance changed, and , looking up, he said, "Mr Jupp, that is
me." I said, "Yes, that is what we saw." He said,
"Yes," and then seemed to fall into deep thought, evidently with
pleasant remembrances, for he smiled so sweetly to himself, and seemed to forget
I was present.
Sources: Mysteries of the Unexplained
Page
updated Tuesday August 21, 2007
