Red Apparition And Other Odd Stories

These stories all occurred in my childhood home so I will group them together here.

One of my earliest paranormal memories was of me saying, "Mom, there is a man in the corner."

Just an average looking everyday man. Nothing too distinguishing. He was dark haired. Around 30 years old with a cigarette in his hand. Crouched down in black clothing. Half sitting half standing with his back against the wall.

We had just moved into this home. Our previous home was destroyed by fire. I was very young. I was around pre-school years so somewhere between 3-5 years old. I saw this man in the corner of the living room. He was kind of smirking with a mischievous grin. The impression I had of him was he wasn't that nice. He was very sarcastic looking.

My mom did and still does freak out at the idea of paranormal stuff so she told me to never say that again and if there was a man there it was bad and I shouldn't talk to it or look at it.

I was upset by mom's intense reaction so I closed myself off to seeing the man in the corner. I never saw him again.

A few years later...

My father worked night hours so I usually slept in my mom's bedroom. Their bed was bigger and more comfortable.

So, one morning I was laying in bed. My mom got up to get dressed and went to the bathroom. I was pretending to be asleep because I didn't want to get up and go to school. I peeked my eye open and saw my cat purring at me. Then I closed my eyes again to pretend I was sleeping. I started thinking about the cat and that it was time to get up and pet her and get her food. My cat kept meowing and I could tell she was walking to the other side of the room by the sound of her meows. I was thinking of petting her.

All of a sudden I hear my mom shouting, "Help me Jesus". She was standing in the doorway praying in a stressful tone. I didn't turn to look at her because my mom is a very religious person and it was common for her to always praying like that so I kind of ignored it. But I could tell she was getting upset. So, finally I turned over and said, "what is going on"? When I turned over, whatever was there went away. My mom said she saw "someone" in the room that looked just like me. In fact, it was me, but wasn't. I was laying in bed but I was also petting the cat on the other side of the room. There were two of me.  The other me who was standing by the cat looked right at her and then faded away. But, the fading away occurred as soon as the real me sat up in bed.

My thoughts are, if it was an out of body experience then why didn't I feel myself leaving my body? Oddly, I was thinking about my cat when the spirit that looked like me was petting the cat. I was imaging very strongly petting the cat. I could see myself doing it in my mind's eye. I felt like I was petting the cat on my fingers. But I knew I was not. I knew I was laying in bed.

Possibly could it be a "doppelganger"? But do doppelgangers read your minds and do what you will them to do? Are they a connection to you?

Was it a separate entity that pretended to be me?

I'm not really sure what this was. All I know is there were two of me in the same room thinking/doing the same thing at the same time.

Around the same time frame, my mom's mom (my maternal grandma) died. She was a very cruel person. I don't say this lightly. She did many things in her life that were hurtful to my mom. I understand there were a lot of things out of my grandma's control and she probably did the best she could. But, instead of making amends in this life to my mom for the hurts, Grandma became a very bitter and cruel person. Out of respect for the dead though, I'd rather not elaborate further.

Anyway, she died suddenly of cancer when I was 8. It took over her body and metastasized quickly. There was only a few days knowledge of her impending death prior to it happening. I'm sure there were plenty of things left unsaid between my mom and her and not enough time for resolutions.

About three days after the funeral my mom woke up in the middle of the night screaming. I was again sleeping beside her and she woke me up by screaming. I looked up and my mom pointed to the end of the bed to the wall. She said, "It's my mother and she is in a ring of fire". I looked and indeed the image of grandma appeared to me as well. There standing, was my grandma, full body, with a very sad forlorn look on her face and she had a red glow and red ring all around her. Redness shot up and down twinkling around her. I didn't see actual fire or flames but there was a redness, like looking through red colored glasses at a person. It had a fluid texture that moved and waved. It didn't appear like a real full three dimensional person but rather like a hologram. The kind of image that was in Star Wars where Princess Leia was asking for help. It was flat and one dimensional as if someone was projecting her onto the wall with redness all around her.  My grandma's voice did say my mom's name but it wasn't coming from her mouth. It was being announced by another source. It called my mom: "Carol, Carol, Carol". Then the image blacked away like someone turned it off with a switch.

My mom sobbed herself back to sleep. Not knowing what to say, I went to sleep as well. We never really talked much about it because My mom interpreted it as Grandma being in hell. This is what she believes. She sobbed herself to sleep crying.

I didn't interpret it as such. I didn't think it was hell or a bad place but rather my grandma coming to say she was sorry for what she did to my mom over her life. The redness was her emotional state I felt rather than a place. Kind of like you're so upset that you get an aura around you. My mom never wanted to discuss this as it was and still is too upsetting to her.

My cousins and relatives came to help my mom clean out Grandma's apartment. Grandma's place was dark and heavy. I'd only been there a few other times. We really weren't much in her life. But the few times I had been there it was always the same. Dark and an oppressive feeling.

My mom only took a handful of things from the apartment and left the rest. One thing she took was a suitcase. We came home and the adults made dinner.

My cousins and I were playing with the "new" things. A few dresses, necklaces, knick knacks and the suitcase. For some reason, we sat inside the suitcase with the sides open and took photos with an old polaroid camera instant print we had. Just a bunch of goofy kids playing around. When the pictures developed out, every picture we took showed us smiling kids but each one had a weird reddish orange human like face in the background.  We all looked at it and thought it was a spirit or ghost of grandma. It didn't look nice. It didn't look like a double image of one of us goofy kids smiling. It was taller and longer and not smiling. It looked in pain. If anything it looked like a replica of The Scream painting face. We all suggested it was Grandma's face distorted by redness. Or some sort of scary version of grandma.

My mom dismissed it saying it was a double exposure of us kids' faces. The other adults thought the pictures were weird but couldn't explain them.

Hushing the concept of grandma's spirit, my mom threw the pictures away. I'm not sure she really believed it was a double exposure. She was just saying that.

I don't think it was a double exposure. It clearly looked like a face in the photos. A face in anguish and drawn into sadness. Plus, in some pictures it was in the corner. In others it was in the middle of us. Behind us. Etc. It was the same face in all the prints in different positions.

I believe some souls leave this world and do not rest in peace. I think my Grandma was one of those.