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A Stranger In The Night?

 

I was around 7 years old when I had my first encounter with the paranormal.

My father had just left home, and I was devastated, I was very close to him and believe it was the reason it all started.

I was staying with my aunt for a while, along with my younger sister. It was a bungalow set in the rural outskirts of a Leicestershire town. My mother's house was on a council estate around 7 miles away, and couldn't have been more different. The bungalow had been built in the early 30s by my grandparents, and was my mother's family home; my grandfather and uncle were also living there. It gave me some security as I grew up, a familiar safe place.

It must have been around the end or beginning of the year, it was very cold and the old heating system was pretty useless. My sister and I were sharing the huge double bed with my aunt. The bedroom door was open to let in the heat from the living room fire, and I was under a very heavy pile of blankets. It would have been around 1981, before the modern duvets became common. I woke up needing the toilet, I remember looking into the living room and making out a chair, the moon was very bright, the night was clear and still, very still, I couldn't hear the birds I usually did, I distinctly recall listening very carefully for the slightest sound, my aunt started to snore very loudly next to me, and a relaxed a little. I had just plucked up the courage to get out of bed when the room just suddenly grew freezing cold, My breath was coming out as though I were smoking a cigarette and the comforting sound of my aunts snoring had stopped. I burrowed deeper into the bed and peered over the top of the sheet into the empty room beyond.

Across the room was the kitchen door, My granddads dog Prince slept there, I could hear him crying the way a dog does when its scared, the only thing Prince was afraid of was thunder, but after what seemed like an eternity of holding my breath there hadn't been the slightest rumble, and Prince was becoming more agitated by the second, suddenly he was deadly silent, it seemed as though he was watching or waiting for something. I looked into the middle of the room, something had caught my attention.

It was a white mist; it appeared from nowhere and grew thicker and larger while silently drifting toward the TV that was out of my line of vision. It continued to grow in size until it was the length of a tall person, stopping where I could still plainly see it. It than slowly took the form of a woman in a long dress or shroud. The strangest thing to me was the fact that she had short black curly hair, not white and transparent as the rest of her body was. She was praying, and for the entire period of time, which was perhaps no more than a minute, she stood motionless, until slowly and while still in the praying pose, she gradually lay flat whilst sinking through the floor, into a, and which I later described, burial position.

Prince started to whine again and after a few minutes settled down. I started to breathe again; I had been holding my breath without knowing it. I was so scared I actually weed the bed! This did wake up my aunt who hadn't stirred at all during the whole time.

I told her everything, shaking and crying the whole time. In the morning, after much persuading, my aunt told me that my grandmother, on my fathers side who I had no memory of, had died of cancer and had been buried with her wig. She wouldn't tell me anything else. I had always understood she had died when I was just a baby.

About 7 years ago I found the grave of my grandparents, My grandfather had died when I was 13, I had been told he had died when I was 2, for some reason I had not been told the truth. My grandmother had not died when I was a baby, but had passed away in 1981, when I was 7 years old.

I never saw my dad again, or any member of his family, but it would seem the woman in white I have never forgotten, was a grandmother who came to say goodbye.

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, lochness, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

generalchaos (2 stories) (141 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-11-26)
I'm confused. How would your aunt (if I'm reading this right, this is your mother's sister?) would know that your grandmother had apparently recently died and was buried with her wig?
You said this happened when you were 7, in 1981, and then at the end of the story, you said your grandmother had died when you were 7, in 1981... So she'd JUST died? How would your aunt know?
DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-11-10)
lochness: Interesting, and no doubt a frightening account to have witnessed! I find it strange that they lied to you about your Granfather dying when you were aged 2 when he really passed away 11 years later! What is that all about?
The movements you witnessed the woman doing are intriguing, you don't hear many actions like that. Interesting. 😊

Thanks for sharing.

Dan
123kerry (2 stories) (7 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-11-08)
Hi
It is interesting that you said it started when your father left. I can very much sympathise with you as my paranormal experiences first started when my parents first started having relationship problems. They have since divorced and with the depression I suffered as a result, the paranormal activity got worse. A very interesting story.
Kerry
BlueTurtle (3 stories) (176 posts)
 
13 years ago (2011-11-08)
This is a touching and fascinating story, although you were understandably frightened by this experience. It's nice that you are able to look back on this and have more knowledge regarding who the spirit might have been.
Prince's whining is a classic example of how animals are more sensitive to spirits than we are and seems to solidify your story, same thing with how cold the room suddenly became. A presence usually sucks the warmth out of the room because of the flux in energy, though it does not necessarily mean a bad presence. My friend has had this happen in her house all the time, even during the summer.
If you happen to remember, was the woman elderly in appearance? For some reason, the first impression I got was of a young woman, but that wouldn't make much sense if she was your grandmother. Just a thought.
Still, if it was your grandmother, it seems comforting that she came to visit you before or just after her death as a goodbye, of sorts.
Nysa (4 stories) (685 posts)
+1
13 years ago (2011-11-07)
You father lived with you until you were 7 but his parents were kept away from you (& you were even told they had died) well before that? I take it that means your father was not seeing his parents either? Do you have any idea why? I am just wondering because that is a strange way for your grandmother to show herself to you. Do you think your father or some member of his family might have been wishing you & your sister had known this grandmother, was thinking you guys should know she died? Perhaps they accidentally sent you this image by thinking so much about that.

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