My Grandma Is Still With Me

I'll never forget the evening of December 28, 2006 because it was the day that my grandma died. She had been living with my family in the upstairs apartment of our house for about twelve years after my grandpa had died and we'd grown considerably close. That evening, my parents went out and left me alone in the house when a call came in about five minutes later asking me to check upstairs because her bedroom light was still on. As I got to the stairs, I heard her bedroom television playing and feared the worst. Surely enough, I found her sitting up in bed, probably in that same position from the night before, deceased.

To add to this story, I must explain a little bit of my family's history. First of all, there was a great grandmother on my father's side who was believed to be a witch because of her extreme belief in superstition, ability to cure illness, and ability to talk to animals; she had also predicted the date of her death correctly. The most important events with this woman occurred however, after she had passed and it was said to have started when her sister passed away. The story goes that the night before her sister died, one of my father's cousins had a dream consisting of his grandmother and the soon to be deceased sister interacting together in the same room. In time, my father and his cousins found these dreamed predictions to result in exactly that for any relative involved: the next day that relative would die.

I have spent all of my life fully aware of this gift that my family has.

My grandma was on my mother's side of the family and in the weeks following her death, my dad would eventually inform us all that he had the dream the night before and declined telling us. Although he has this gift, my father is a very straight up man and refuses to acknowledge superstition or any kind of gift he may have; my mother's sister however, is probably the only family member who, like me, is sceptical. She lives in Florida and came up for the funeral but left shortly after the family went through my grandma's stuff and handled it accordingly; her death was unexpected and did not prompt the drafting of a will. It was my aunt who discovered, while sleeping in my grandma's apartment shortly after her death, that every clock in the apartment had surprisingly changed to read "10:10," or in analogue time, one hand pointing to the 10 and the other to the 2. The date of my grandpa's death had been October 2.

Shortly over a month had passed when I first dreamt of my grandmother. I saw her and myself in her bedroom looking through the bottom drawer of her dresser as if we had something to discover. I, unfortunately, awoke before we found anything.

Being fully aware of my family's history with dreams, I ventured up to her apartment the next day, which had been vacant for some time. I crept into her bedroom, which was unearthly cold, and pulled open the bottom drawer to discover only one thing. There were four photo albums, each of which contained the wedding photos for all four of her children. Unsure what this meant, my mind wandered and I decided it was a good time to grab the brand new television she had purchased shortly before she died and replace it with the old one in my bedroom. As I did this, something caught my eye; it was the small alarm clock she had kept in her room, which was the only clock that didn't read "10:10," I know because I checked. To my surprise, the time had changed to "10:10," and I grew somewhat scared. I grabbed the TV and brought it to my room.

After finishing the installation, I went back up to grab a cable wire and the remote for the TV when I was almost knocked off my feet at what I saw. When I got into the room, all four drawers in the dresser had been opened and I froze in absolute fear. I closed the drawers, grabbed what I needed, and left the apartment.

Later that day, I got a call from my aunt. "I went to a psychic today," she informed me, "she told me to tell you 'wedding photos.'" I could not believe what I had heard, nor could I understand what it meant. I told her everything and we could not figure it out.

The next thing happened the following morning after I had fallen asleep with the new TV on. I was awake in bed the following morning but I had my eyes closed when suddenly the TV turned off. I'd assumed there had been a timer set and when I opened my eyes to turn it back on, I caught a glimpse of my alarm clock. It was "10:10."

Lots of time had passed since her death and the upstairs was still vacant when the next occurrence happened. I had been using the free weights in my room while carrying on a conversation with my mother when all of a sudden the TV turned off. The TV would not turn itself back on until I finally looked down at the plug to discover that it had been pulled out of the wall.

There were no incidents at all for a very long time after that and even my brother had moved into the apartment. Soon enough, I went away to school and the experiences and dreams of my grandma dissipated into none at all. For the summer, I moved back home and everything continued as normal. I began to grow conscious of the sound of footsteps above my room in the morning and assumed that it was my mother doing something upstairs, since my brother works all morning. One day last week, I asked her "what were you doing upstairs?" to which she responded, "I wasn't."

I called in sick from work today and again heard the footsteps above me but didn't think to go up and check. Time later, I jumped into the shower upstairs because the downstairs one was occupied. As I stood under the water, I was barely able to see something through the water-stained shower glass. The only way I could describe it is as a flash of light that came randomly but was clear and very much so visible. I slid the door open and the only way to describe the room was, again, unearthly cold. There was no possible explanation for the light.

In the end, I am happy to say that my grandma is still with me. This was one of my earliest experiences with a ghost but since having lived in an apartment at school which I believe is haunted, and having heard a ghost talk to me, seeing the light today served more as a reminder than anything else. Having seen this light was a message, I believe, as was everything my grandma has done for us since her death; a message that she is watching over us and I cannot be more grateful.