That's Not My Uncle

When i was a teenager, my favorite uncle died in a terrible fire.. Of course we were all broken hearted and for the next year we tried to go thru the "normal" grief process. Three days before the one year anniversary of his death a series of strange events took place. Little did we know it was just getting started.. The first night, at around 11:30, heavy footsteps and knocking began up and down our hall. My dad was a cop and of course investigated the sounds as a cop. When he couldn't find the cause, we all came up with our own "reasonable" explainations. Nite two began with the same thing at the same time. We all gathered in a bathroom while my dad investigated. As he returned to the bathroom, both the sink and bath water turned on by themselves. We believed that not only were these things paranormal, but a visit from my uncle. On the third nite, the events repeated followed by my mother having a very vivid dream. In this dream Uncle Jim came to her bedside and told her about his funeral. We lived 1800 miles away at the time and were unable to attend. He told her things we didn't know and were later confirmed by my grandmother.
For the next month all was quiet and we thought that the events were his way of saying goodbye. Then all hell broke loose. Not only were the sounds back every night but we had things disappearing and reappearing under a bush in our yard. Things would move before our eyes, my stereo would turn on and blast all by itself, we all heard our names called out of thin air, and most disturbing, someone at 11:30 every night would sit on the end of my bed. I, in particular, was scared but intrigued at the same time. This went on for months.
During this time, my mom began having alot of problems coping. She got very depressed and started drinking....alot. Of course we connected the two but at the time there wasn't help with the paranormal as there is today so we did the best we could on our own.
After about a year of this...one nite my mom was home alone while the rest of the family helped a relative move. When we returned, we found my mom on the floor having tried to take her own life. At the hospital she admitted that for months my "uncle Jim" had been insisting that she "join" him. We never went back to the house. Family memebers even went back to the house to move our things. When they arrived, the house was trashed. We left everything where it was never to return.
Of course, over the years, I've often wondered about all of our sanity at the time. But I saw so many things there is no explaination for. It couldn't have been caused by my Mother's slide into depression.