This is not an experience that I personally witnessed, but one that my husband had, and shared with me.
On June 24th 2017, I received one of the worst knocks at my door, that I'll never be able to forget.
It was one of my uncles coming over to inform us that my Mamaw had just passed away that late evening. We suspect it was from a heartattack, that she must of had while taking her nightly bath.
It was a very hard time for me and my family during this time, as my Mamaw meant the world to all of us, and she was the glue to our family. I grew up living beside her, and considered her as a second mother to me.
I'd like to add that my Mamaw was full Japanese, and was from Okinawa Japan, which is where she lived when she had met my Papaw, back when he served in the Army, in Vietnam.
Unfortunately I don't really know much about my Mamaw's life when she lived there, as she apparently was a very secretive woman. So as far as knowing her religion and beliefs then, I'm at a lost. I do know that as she lived here in America, she considered herself to be a Christian woman.
Now onto the experience.
It had now been 2 days after my Mamaw had passed away, with it now being June 26th 2017.
I had yet again cried myself to sleep that night, at the foot of the bed, and my husband and 2 year old daughter were sleeping at the head of the bed. My husband said he was restless this night for some reason, and as he looked over at me, he noticed someone standing right above my head, looking down at me.
He started to feel uncomfortable, as he didn't know who he was looking at, and why they were in our room.
As he laid there in bed, with our daughter sleeping in his arms, he watched as this young woman he realized, reached her arm out to touch my head, and bent down to give me a kiss.
Shocked over what he's seeing at this time, he watches as this young woman looks over to him, and then starts to walk over to the side of the bed, where she reaches out to touch our daughter (my husband said at this point, he was holding onto our daughter tightly, not sure of what was happening), and bends over to give her a kiss on the head as well.
My husband feeling nervous by this point, over what he's seeing, said that after this woman kissed our daughter, she stood there and looked over at him, when all of a sudden he said he felt flooded with emotions, to the point of being in tears.
He said that he felt very emotional at this time, and didn't understand why he was feeling that way, as the woman then started to walk out of our room, and disappear past our door.
The next morning my husband was telling me about what he saw the night before, and described what the young woman looked like. I quickly searched on my phone to find an old picture I had of my Mamaw, when she was in her 20's, and showed it to him. He was so shocked to see that she was without a doubt, who he had saw last night.
After he told me what all he saw, I knew that it had to be my Mamaw coming to say goodbye to me and my kids one last time. I was very close to her, to where she always worried about me like a mother does her child. So I knew that it made sense that she would come see me one last time, to make sure that I'm ok.
As for the way my husband felt when she had looked over to him, I told him that I believe that it would have been her way of telling him to take care of me and our kids.
I went back over to visit with my Papaw afterwards, and noticed when I was walking through the yard, that there was a candle lit in the window of the living room. I asked one of my aunts about its purpose, and was speechless over what she told me.
Like I said, our family doesn't know what religion or faith my Mamaw had before moving to America, but apparently in some religion for Japanese people (I'm not 100% on the details of this religion, so please correct me if I'm wrong in any of it, as I'm very interested in knowing more about it) they do some kind of memorial type thing, for like 30 days, or maybe longer, where they place a candle in the window of the family's home, to be a light/beacon for the lost loved one, to find their way back home (again, I'm unsure of the details, so anyone that knows more on this, I hope you can let me know more on it). But during this time frame, I want to say that it's said to be when the dead is able to say their goodbyes to the family, and something about family not being able to travel anywhere during this time frame, as it is bad luck? There's more to their beliefs on this, but with me not being sure on the details, I rather not write more on what I'm not 100% sure of.
Granted we weren't sure what beliefs Mamaw had before moving to America, my aunt (her daughter) learned about this from one of our Japanese relatives (we don't really have that much contact with that side unfortunately), and said that though my Mamaw considered herself to be of Christian faith, choose to partake in this type of memorial when my brother past away, so my aunt wanted to light the same candle for her mother, that she lit for my brother.
My whole point on bringing this up this belief, was because I was told that this candle was put in the window last night, the same night my husband saw my Mamaw. It so happens that we live right next door to my grandparents, so in my head, hearing about this candle, made me think that somehow it helped guide my Mamaw to me that night. I'm sure I'm probably overthinking it, as I know others have lost loved ones who visit them without having a candle, but I just thought the timing of it was interesting.
Something that I did start to notice after my Mamaw passed, was how our bedroom lights would constantly flicker, to the point of cutting off and on a lot. It would do this on off throughout the day, at different times. We could never find a reason for it, and found it strange that it didn't happen until after my Mamaw had passed away. So I wondered if it was her checking in. But after a few months of this going on, it eventually stopped happening. We didn't change the light bulb, or do anything that should have changed anything, so it made me even more curious if it really was my Mamaw. Though I do not believe she's a ghost in anyway, just only popping in to check up on me.
I hope I didn't go too off topic with this submission, and hope that I wasn't way off on telling what I heard about the memorial (not sure what it's called exactly) some Japanese people do for their loved ones.
My Mamaw was truly a very amazing woman, who I'm blessed to have had help raise me. I hope y'all enjoy reading about this amazing experience, I only wish I was able to have witnessed.
Merry Christmas to everyone!
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