I Discovered 13 Mysterious Candles and My Photo in My MIL’s Basement—The Shocking Truth
It was just supposed to be a regular family celebration—my mother-in-law’s birthday. But when I went into the basement, I found something shocking: a ritual that made me question everything, especially the woman who raised my husband.
Honestly, this was wild! My mother-in-law has really lost it!
So, here’s what happened.
It was Jane’s birthday party. The whole family was there, and everything seemed fine. People were laughing, drinks were flowing, and she was acting sweet and welcoming.
You know, typical family stuff. I had only been married to Willis for a month, so I was still figuring out the whole in-law situation and trying to get along. But if someone had told me earlier what I was about to find, I would have thought they were joking.
Willis and I were in the living room with the guests when Jane, my mother-in-law, casually mentioned we were out of wine.
“Chelsea, dear, could you and Willis go down to the basement and get some bottles for the guests?” she asked, smiling in that warm but slightly forced way she always did. I didn’t think much of it, so I nodded and followed Willis downstairs.
The moment we stepped into the basement, something felt off. Maybe it was the musty smell, the dim lighting, or just a feeling deep in my gut telling me to leave. There was an eerie silence that hung in the air like a bad sign. I glanced at Willis, but he seemed completely unaware of anything unusual.
He walked straight to the wine rack, chatting about how his mom loved a good Chardonnay, while I lingered by the stairs, looking around. That’s when I saw it.
In the far corner of the basement, past the shelves of old family albums and dusty boxes, was a small table. On it sat a framed photo of… me.
“Uh, Willis?” I called out, my voice a bit shaky.
“What’s up?” he replied, still focused on grabbing a bottle.
“There’s a picture of me over here…”
He stood up, holding two bottles of wine, and walked over, looking confused. I pointed to the table, and that’s when he noticed it too.
“Why is your picture here?” he muttered. That’s when I spotted the candles.
Thirteen candles. Eight were lined up in front of my photo, one in each corner of the room, and one right in the center, right on the floor.
“What the hell?” I whispered, feeling my stomach drop. “Why are there candles? And why are they all around my photo?”
Willis blinked, just as shocked. “I…I don’t know. This is weird.”
“Weird?” I snapped, my voice rising. “This is more than weird, Willis! This is freakin’ creepy!”
I rushed to the table, my heart racing with questions. Why would Jane have a picture of me like this? Was it some sort of ritual? A strange family tradition? Or something darker?
I turned to Willis, my heart pounding, feeling like I had stepped into a horror movie. His face was pale, and his eyes were wide with disbelief, as if he had seen something much worse than just a weird setup of candles and my photo.
“Willis,” I whispered, barely able to speak. “What… What is this? What’s happening?”
He didn’t respond right away. He just stood there, staring at the candles, his breathing shallow. I could see the panic building in his eyes, the kind of fear that freezes you.
“Willis?” I repeated, my voice trembling. “Please, talk to me.”
Finally, he turned to me, his lips parting slightly, but no words came out. After what felt like forever, he spoke, his voice hoarse and shaky. “I… I think my mother’s been using a spell,” he stammered.
“A curse?” My stomach dropped. “What are you talking about?”
He took a deep breath, clearly struggling with whatever awful truth he was about to share. “My grandmother… she was into all this—this dark stuff. Witchcraft, curses, spells. I—I never believed it, but…”
He ran a hand through his hair, his voice almost breaking. “She taught my mom everything. And I think—Chelsea, I think my mom’s been trying to curse you.”
I stared at him, my mind racing. “Curse me? For what?”
I blinked, and there it was: positive.
“Willis!” I shouted, barely able to contain my excitement. “Willis, come here!”
He rushed in, panic flashing across his face. “What? What’s wrong?”
I held up the test, my hands shaking. “I’m pregnant,” I whispered, tears spilling down my cheeks.
For a moment, he just stared at me, his mouth hanging open in shock. Then his face broke into the biggest smile I had ever seen.
“You’re—wait, we’re—” He stammered, pulling me into a hug so tight I could barely breathe. “We’re having a baby?!”
Paul Newman’s brutally honest words – he once confessed what he really thought of Robert Redford
Although the real-life outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were close, actor Paul Newman admitted that he harbored some grudges against the young Robert Redford throughout the period of filming.
A true testament to their acting prowess, Redford as Harry Longabaugh, aka “Sundance Kid,” and Newman as Robert LeRoy Parker, aka “Butch Cassidy,” were convincing in their portrayals of the Wild West friends, notorious criminals who were eluding the law after a string of bank and train robberies.
The 1969 film, which was based on the actual outlaws, won four Oscars and is still regarded as one of the best Westerns ever produced. Four years later, in The Sting (1973), another caper movie starring two similarly attractive heartthrobs, the stars reunited.
Legends in their own right, Newman and Redford worked their magic when they were together. However, have you ever wondered how Hollywood’s A-listers get along away from the camera?When he was 44 years old, Newman, who portrayed Butch, admitted that he had been interested in the 33-year-old Redford’s 33-year-old character.
In a BBC Talking Pictures interview, Newman noted, “We have a lot of fun together, and we bounce off each other really well.” I would have wanted to play Sundance, he continued. With that cooled-out quality, I feel a little more at ease. It must be the simpler part, I suppose.
Redford was a budding star who won the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year in 1965 for his work with Natalie Wood in the movie Inside Daisy Clover.
After appearing in movies like Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Elizabeth Taylor, Newman had already achieved superstardom.
Redford was cast opposite Newman, who was winning acting and directing accolades, in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after Steve McQueen turned down a role in the film. McQueen also declined parts in Dirty Harry, The French Connection, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
The two celebrities weren’t truly friends at the time, according to Newman’s memoir, “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir,” the BBC reports.
Newman said, “You can’t depend on Redford. You’re never sure he’s going to be there. That’s simply discourteous.”
Their differences in working styles, according to Newman’s youngest daughter Claire Newman Soderlund, whom he fathered with his second wife Joanne Woodward, may have contributed to their conflicts.
She said, “My father was very much a stickler for timeliness and Bob, that was never really his strength. It was hard work for dad. He worked very hard at it because he wanted to be good and he wanted to be successful and Bob was more of a free spirit.”
When Newman passed away from lung cancer in 2008, Redford, who is now 86, told ABC News that, “It was just that connection of playing those characters and the fun of it that really began the relationship,” he said, reflecting on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “And then once the film started, once we went forward, we then discovered other similarities that just multiplied over time, a common ground that we both had between us, interests and so forth, and differences.”
Newman and Redford looked into possibilities to collaborate on a third movie after portraying renowned outlaws and later thieves in The Sting, but it never materialized.
In Bill Bryson’s 1998 book of the same name, A Walk in the Woods, which was adapted into a 2015 movie, it almost happened. The plot of this buddy movie centers on two elderly guys who are out of shape and want to hike the challenging Appalachian Trail.
In 2005, Redford, who both appeared in and produced the movie, chose this script with his close friend Newman in mind.
In 2015, Redford said, “It started with Paul, because Paul and I had been looking for a third film to do together. A lot of time had gone by, and I just couldn’t find it. When I read this book… I thought of Paul right away.”
Redford, who was 79 at the time of the interview, claimed that he sent the book to Newman, who later cast Nick Nolte in the part because he wasn’t sure he could do it physically.
Since they initially worked together on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the relationship between Newman and Redford, two highly regarded performers, has significantly deepened. The performers, who lived in Connecticut just a mile apart and started to act like brothers, are also close with their families.
Speaking after his buddy died, Redford said, “We both got to know each other’s flaws pretty well. Of course, I outweighed him on that front. But knowing each other’s flaws, we just played them to the hilt and we’d try to trick each other. We’d try to surprise each other, and it was so damn much fun that it became like–it became like a scenario unto itself.”
He added, “Paul really likes to have fun and he loves to laugh and he really especially loves to laugh at his own jokes, and some of them are just really awful. So the fact that he enjoyed them so much, you forget about the joke and you’d start to laugh with him because you’re so caught up in his enjoyment of them.”
Paul Newman and Robert Redford had such a great chemistry! Let us know what you think of their on-screen friendship and real-life romance!
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