My very first experience was when I was 8 years old. My family and I lived in Texas and just received news that my grandfather had a heart attack and passed away.
We left to head to Mexico for his funeral. I remember the funeral was sad for everyone and my grandmother was devastated. After the funeral we all went to my grandmother's house and about 5 of my cousins stayed over and spent the night. There's a large room in the back where my grandfather was in a majority of the time when he was alive. There's always been 3 full size beds in that room so 2 cousins would sleep in each bed.
The night I couldn't sleep very well. I was hearing noises but was trying to just ignore them. As I turned facing the doorway I saw a figure. A very familiar figure. He was tall, dark, a very big man. He had the same features as my grandfather. I saw him turn towards me and saw I was awake. He came towards me and told me in Spanish to go to sleep and have sweet dreams. He said I'll always be with you.
I'm now 30 and a few years ago my mother and I went to a card reader for fun and she told us a tall, dark, large man is our guardian angel. The first thing my mother said was that it was her father because she's always felt him around her. To this day, I also feel his presence around me to this very day when I'm scared or depressed. He comes to my dreams and speaks to me as well. I've never been terrified or scared of seeing him, not even when I was younger, just because he was always a sweet, gentle man