As I get older, I am realizing more and more that ghostly things to and around me all the time as this I just realized was a one of them. It's about the Gwrach y Rhibyn the harvester of the dead in Wales.
When I was young, I remember in the countryside of northern Wales near Blaenau Ffestiniog, someone was very old in our village and was expected not long to last.
One cold and foggy night after our harvest I went to bed. And very late at night I felt very cold and saw my breath inside the house, even though there was a fire going in my room. I heard footsteps outside like hard wooden shoes on the old stone road. So I looked out my window and saw an old woman clad in all black and a black wide brimmed hat passing my house and continuing down the street. I was curious because what would anyone be doing out at this time of night, especially and old frail woman. I was going down the steps to go out the door and ask the hag what she was out for when my older sister grabbed up and took me up stairs and locked the door, closed all the curtains and shutters and said to go to sleep. As I peeked out the window and shutters, I saw suddenly everyone else's shutters were suddenly closed and all locked up
The next morning the man had been found dead in his bed, expected to had died that night. I never wondered until now quite why my mum and sister hid me away and closed up in such haste, until now when I figured out it was the old Gwrach y Rhibyn come to collect the old and failing man in death.
Since then I have had more run-ins with this creature, but that folks is entirely different story.
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