“In 1989, I was a sprite seven years deeply hooked on the strange, imaginative spaces of genre cinema. Having a young, uncoiled mom afforded me the opportunities to ‘just happen’ to be in the living room while she watched questionably legal/video store rental copies of Poltergeist, Beetlejuice, Hellraiser, and so many more with the magic of a VHS record button from HBO. Those moments were hypnotic. Sometimes frightened but always fascinated, my mother noticed my resilience so took me downtown where in Philadelphia during this period was a twinkle of 1970’s Times Square to see Ghostbusters 2. It was friendly enough, not-horror for the both of us to enjoy without any discomfort. It was an experience I’ll never forget; one, because Bobby Brown had a cameo and you could not avoid his mega-star status and two, those Titanic ghosts creeped me the fuck out!”

Read Ashlee Blackwell’s beautiful memoriam for her mother at Graveyard Shift Sister.