This happened to me when I was a four-year-old. This is something I've always remembered.
Every night, my mom put me to bed. Just another normal night in the house. But every night when my mom left, I would wait for somebody. Someone I now call The White Woman (for a reason).
Every night I woke up, and my two brothers were sleeping across from me. But standing in front of me, was her. She didn't really scare me any. To me, she was normal. She would sit beside me on my bed. We sometimes talked. I don't remember anything we talked about.
A lot of times, I looked up at her. She would just be looking in front of herself. I never knew why. She was just like that.
Sometimes I wanted my brothers to wake up. I didn't want to make much noise, though. She one time slapped me on the leg because I was kind of doing that. It didn't really hurt. I could barely feel it. I didn't get upset or anything.
If I had to describe her, she was all white. A kind of glowing white. Her hair went over her shoulders (her hair was also white). I don't remember if she ever smiled. I don't recall her ever doing that.
Years later at the age of thirteen, I got into paranormal. That's when the memories came back to me.
I started to tell people. Sometimes they would say, "Maybe it was your mom." I know it wasn't my mom. That woman's hair was longer than my mom's was at the time.
My dad said maybe it was an angel. That's a bit confusing. There are no female angels from what I've heard. But they can be in disguise. I don't know if it was one or not.
I decided to find some pictures to see who The White Woman resembles the most. Out of all my relatives, I would say my dad's mom. She died before any of her grandchildren were born. She also kind of looked like her. She also never smiled much. (At least from what I've seen from my dad's pictures.) But she was still a nice person. Like the woman who visited me every night. That's pretty much it for my story.
If that was my grandma visiting me, I don't know what to think. This still bugs me to this day.
That could have been my deceased grandma, but I guess I'll never know. It will always be a life mystery to me.
From my experiences, ghosts are ghosts. They may be related to you, or they may just be in the same place as you. Guides or guardians are spirits who may or may not have ever been human. They don't seem to be relatives, either. At least not in the traditional sense.
Not saying no one has ever had a guide who was their dead relative, I just don't think that's how it happens. I have been told (by one of my guides!) that guides are assigned at birth. I assume the assignment is based on what your karma/destiny is in this lifetime. Just my thoughts based on a lifetime of spirit world encounters!