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Whether one ascribes ghostly intervention stories to God or to earthly ties so strong they empower the deceased to reach back from the grave, this legend type is hugely popular because it confirms one's personal belief system (i.e., that God is all powerful and will engineer a miracle to save an innocent, or that the love of a parent will overpower death itself if the child is in danger). Comfort is also found in legends of this ilk due to the implied promise that parental protection will outlast the lives of the caregivers themselves, and that Mother and Father will still always be there in times of need. For folks desperately trying to come to terms with the loss (or projected loss) of a parent, this reassurance is most welcome. In the world of folklore, ghosts have been fetching help for the still living almost since time began. Observe this example harvested by Brunvand from an 1981 newspaper: Versions of the story quoted immediately above were part of oral lore at least as far back as 1890 in at least three countries (Russia, England and Canada). The summoned help is either a doctor or a member of the clergy. Such tales of loved ones fetching help and only afterwards being identified as deceased via their being identified through their portraits continue to circulate: These days, we tend to envision crises worthy of summoning ghostly parents back to do their duty as involving life-threatening physical danger to the child, so in modern tellings of this legend, the parent returns to direct rescuers to a trapped youngster who might otherwise be overlooked or to scoop up the injured tot herself and bring it to a doctor or nearby hospital. But in older versions, the crisis that would kickstart a deceased parent to intervene was spiritual, not physical. In the example quoted above, the ghost mom fetches help not to save the life of her child, but its soul. Popular culture is replete with examples of this legend type, some involving parents and their endangered offspring, some involving spouses (the 1990 film Ghost fleshed out this folktale to make a full-length movie of it), and some involving friends (such as in the 1978 Stephen King novel and 1994 mini-series The Stand when Nick appears to Tom in a dream to direct him to the right medicine to save Stu, who is dying).
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