The Day Regina Said Goodbye, Sometimes, the unexplained lingers in unexpected places. Let me start by saying that I’m a hardened skeptic and atheist. I don’t believe in gods, ghosts, or any kind of spiritualism. But, despite my rational outlook, there is one incident from my childhood that I still can’t explain. It was the mid-1970s, and I was about seven or eight years old, living in a small town in Germany. Our house had two apartments—my family lived upstairs, and a middle-aged couple downstairs ran a small daycare. Kids came and went, but there was one girl, let’s call her Regina, that I especially connected with…….. See more
Let me start by saying that I’m a hardened skeptic and atheist. I don’t believe in gods, ghosts, or any kind of spiritualism. But, despite my rational outlook, there is one incident from my childhood that I still can’t explain.
It was the mid-1970s, and I was about seven or eight years old, living in a small town in Germany. Our house had two apartments—my family lived upstairs, and a middle-aged couple downstairs ran a small daycare. Kids came and went, but there was one girl, let’s call her Regina, that I especially connected with. She was older than me by a year or two, and I admired her, with her light curly hair and calm presence.
One afternoon, as I was playing badminton with my mother on the lawn, I saw Regina standing in the doorway of the house. It seemed normal, so I called out, inviting her to join us. She didn’t smile, just replied with a serious tone, “I’m going away, Ron. Goodbye.” She then walked between me and my mother, heading off across the lawn. When my mom asked who I was talking to, I said, “Regina,” but by the time I turned back, she was gone.
The next day, my father sat me down in his study to tell me something. Regina had died—electrocuted by a faulty tape recorder in the downstairs apartment. He said it happened the day before. I was in shock. How could she have been walking away from our house if she had already passed? My parents, who hadn’t planned to tell me at all, only did so because my mother had overheard me talking to her.
To this day, I still can’t explain what I saw. I’ve never experienced anything like it since. But I often wonder—where did Regina go?
