The Name

Prior to ever getting pregnant with baby #3 while, on a date, Chris and I started talking about baby names.  Our waiters name was Brighton, I mentioned that as a name possibility and Chris agreed and our girl name was born.  However, this name would become something we would argue over for the next decade as my husband wanted it spelled Brighton and I wanted Bryton (it looks prettier and matches Payton); I ultimately won.  Chris loved the name so much that if he ever shared it with anyone he would make them promise to never use it, even if he never had another girl.

Over the years, we went on to have a Straton and a Boston but no Bryton.  One day someone mentioned if we ever had a girl we should name her Bryton Megan Wintle giving her the initials BMW.  This name grew on us, but I kept going back to the name Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is my grandmothers middle name on my moms side and  there is a Catherine Elizabeth in each generation except my mom stopped the tradition and named one of my sister Catherine Shea instead.

When I was pregnant with our oldest daughter I originally was going to name her Payton Elizabeth and last minute I gave her my middle name Jean instead as it just did not fit her.  Something similar happened with Bryton.  When she was born the nurses asked what her middle name was and I hesitated and said, Megan.  Then when Chris filled out her information he left the middle name blank and handed it to me to fill out.  I hesitated again and then ultimately wrote down Elizabeth and instantly felt at peace.

As we walked out of the hospital with a white box instead of our daughter Bryton Elizabeth my mind was suddenly flooded with the dream of baby Elizabeth and I almost collapsed as I looked at my husband and said, "we just had our baby in a box."  He responded with, "and you said she was perfectly fine, we won't find a cause for her death."  I sobbed the whole way home, harder than I have ever sobbed in my whole life.

Later I learned her full name means an illuminating place consecrated to God.  A fitting name for our angel illuminating our way back to our place in Heaven.

Haunted

In 2010, Chris and I moved from Lehi where we had experienced some strange things such as seeing shadows walk by us, hearing people walking around our upstairs (when no one was home), and doors opening and closing on their own all the time.  We did not fully realize how bad it was until we moved and all of these things stopped when we stayed at my dad’s house while house hunting.

It took longer to find a house than we planned so we decided to rent a condo until we found a house that felt right.  Once we moved our youngest Straton started to talk to someone.  He would tell them to stop playing on the fans and would demand they get down from the ceiling.

One night while in bed my husband and I were watching TV when we heard a loud knock on our bedroom door.  Chris yelled, "What?" and no one answered.  He opened the door and no one was there.  We checked all the kids’ rooms and they were all fast asleep and our front door was locked.  Another night our bedroom door was open while watching TV and we heard one of our kids running down the hall and stop at the end of our bed, but no one was there.  Again we checked on each kid and all of them were fast asleep.  We both looked at each other and started to wonder what was going on, as there was no mistaking that we heard and felt the running. At this point, we went from playfully joking that we were being haunted by a child to fully having to admit it was real.

Around this same time Chris and I were trying to decide if we should try for another girl.  We decided yes we would try for another and then I developed a condition that I was told if it did not leave me sterile I would only have a 1 in 3 chance of getting pregnant and then if I did get pregnant a 1 in 3 chance that I would be able to carry them full term.  Once it was confirmed I was not sterile and that I was healthy we decided to start trying and surprise we got pregnant right away and the haunting stopped.  Straton stopped talking to whomever he was talking to and we heard no more knocking on doors or running through our halls.