Neighbours

This is the first ghostly experience I had since I was but a small child, and let's face it, I can't really recall the earliest of them all. I can't say which one of those are real since as a child, I really didn't pay much attention to all things paranormal. So let's start my collection of experiences from here.

It was a sunny summer morning, year 2007. My sister and I had just spent the night at my best friend's house; we had one of our usual sleepovers. It was about 10AM and we were downstairs, getting ready to leave for home (my best friend lived right next door to us). While my sister and friend were chatting away happily, I (being bored as usual for them taking so long) glanced around the walls and such, trying to make the time less tedious.

And that's when I saw Him.

Right at the top of the stairs, where there's a landing between my friend's room and her little brother's, there walked a tall, lean figure of a young man. He walked with long, fast strides, but I still had enough time to see every little detail of him. I still remember the image vividly (thanks to my photographic memory, I guess). The sun was shining through my friend's brother's window behind the figure and then right through Him. It made the whole thing look yellow-ish, golden. He had a red-black-white farmer's shirt on, with apparently the usual blue jeans. His hair was medium light and little bit longer than the usual short cut. It was a beautiful yet shocking sight; Him walking there with light shining around him, in specs of sparkling dust.

For a good long second after the sight I just stood there, my mouth pretty surely hanging open, before I sprung into action. Turning around and facing my sister and friend, I pointed upstairs, asking if they saw it. Of course they didn't have the slightest clue what I was talking about. After I explained what I saw my friend turned a bit pale, since he walked right in the direction of her room.

When we got home, I asked my Mother if she knew about a young man as such I had seen ever living in that house. And she said, "Why yes". Then she told us that there once lived a young man named Juhani, when my mother was but a little girl, who got stabbed with a knife on his way back home. After being stabbed, he did get home, but died before the paramedics had time to save him. The room from which I saw him coming from was his room back in the day. And when I described what he was wearing to my Mom, she told us that yes, that was what he usually was seen wearing.

So there. That was my first encounter with a so called ghost that I can actually remember being something more than perhaps my imagination. And this encounter launched in action what is now a very active life with the paranormal.