Apparent paranormal events at recent family memorial service

My wife is Japanese, and has an extended family of 5 sisters, brothers-in law, nieces and nephews and so on, several generations forming a considerable group. I very recently had the priviledge of attending the memorial service for the husband of one of my wife's 5 sisters. Virtually the entire extended family attended this important event, at a beautiful local university Japanese garden (judged to be a venue he would especially like). He died a couple of weeks prior to the memorial ceremony, after a period of painful decline after being diagnosed with a rare form of fast-spreading cancer.

At least 3 apparently paranormal experiences occured with this group just before and during the memorial, and I thought this might be of interest on this forum. I think that the exhibited phenomena were very typical of the gentle and undramatic, possible but unlikely to be normally explainable, but still compelling to family members strange events occuring associated with the recent death of a loved one. Unfortunately I didn't observe these events myself, but I can report of what apparently happened while I was there.

(1) The first event was that just before the memorial a treasured grandfather clock owned by the deceased and that he had partially dissasembled with parts piled disorganizedly, was mysteriously found all tidied up with some repair work now accomplished. No one in the household did this and no visitors could have done this.

(2) Another  strange event that occured was that during the memorial the daughter of the deceased twice distinctly saw him standing as in life in the Japanese garden. 

(3) The third apparently paranormal event was that a group photograph that was taken of all the attendees to the memorial service clearly showed a strange ray of light descending from above the group and partially obscuring several people, at the left side of the assemblage. The attendees so illuminated included the deceased's wife, son, and daughter, who were together for the shot.

Of course, skeptics could semi-plausibly explain-away each of these apparently paranormal events, and they would not enter any books on parapsychology and the paranormal. The grandfather clock event would have to be fraudulent fabrication, a complex hallucination, or a false memory. The double sighting of the apparent realistic apparition in the Japanese garden could be a subconsciously generated wish-fulfilling illusion - the simplest explain -away "explanation" being that this phenomenon was generated by self-suggestion and the desire to experience some sign that the deceased continued in the afterlife. Or it could have been a deliberate lie. Finally, the strange photograph could have been fraudulently generated by Photoshop or by some other kind of video manipulative technology. 

I personally don't think any of these diverse alternate "explanations" stand up well to examination. To me these sorts of "explanations" are strained, ad-hoc, mostly very unlikely, and just not in accordance with the notion that the phenomena were generated by the attendees given their personalities and identities. I can personally testify to the probity and honesty of this extended family. I know of no incidence of any mental  illnesses or disabilities among them, and couldn't imagine any of them perpetrating deliberate fraud.

Thanks for sharing. All of those are noteworthy and though-provoking.

The grandfather clock event is interesting in that it reverses a familiar occurrence of a clock which stops at the time of someone's passing. On the surface it stretches credibility, however I've known some odd things happen in my own life where no other living person could have been involved, so I tend to consider it very probably has no conventional explanation.

Many strange things happen in life and interpretation is very much down to the individual.  Of course, those who experience the events are usually in a better position to weigh up the evidence than anybody else.  Even if it any of these events are normal, they are still interesting.

I personally don't think any of these diverse alternate "explanations" stand up well to examination. To me these sorts of "explanations" are strained, ad-hoc, mostly very unlikely, and just not in accordance with the notion that the phenomena were generated by the attendees given their personalities and identities. I can personally testify to the probity and honesty of this extended family. I know of no incidence of any mental  illnesses or disabilities among them, and couldn't imagine any of them perpetrating deliberate fraud.

Firstly sorry for the loss of a member of your extended family.

Also agree that the events likely happened as reported. The only place I could see a plausible skeptic explanation is the photograph, the other two events IMO are strongly indicative of Survival.

I forgot to add that those present at his bedside during his final decline reported that he seemed to be surprised at recognizing and greeting some sort of invisible personages as now deceased former family members and friends.