My Grandpa Is Still Awesome

This is my first story, YGS community! My first 2 stories will focus on unexplainable events related to the sudden and unexpected passing of my grandpa, Grandpa L, in September 1988. I'll split these experiences into 2 stories.

The first story here will be about paranormal events that occurred shortly after his passing. My 2nd story will focus on later experiences, including some that occurred after Grandma L passed away in June 2018. Some paranormal events I'll share are told to me by other family members, but I think it's important to share my family members' experiences to understand my own.

Out of respect for my grandparents and their story, this might be a little long. It's also important to summarize some of Grandma's life in order to understand why I think Grandpa visits us.

If you dare to venture into my lengthy world of bountiful prepositions and misplaced commas, read on! Otherwise, so long, friend!

Grandma and Grandpa's House Layout (I will refer back to this section in future stories.):

First floor:

Here's a layout of my grandparents' house. I'm putting it here, because I'll refer to it in future stories. Let's start at the front door. That makes sense. Walking into the house, you enter a 2-story foyer. The stairs to the 2nd level are on the left side of the foyer. The stairs are open to the foyer with a wrought iron banister. Straight forward is a small hallway with a large sliding door pantry on the left and bathroom on the right. If you continue to look forward past the pantry and bathroom, you'll see the informal dining area. To the right of the front door is a small hallway with a large closet on the right. If you take that right and walk past the closet, you enter the living room with windows looking out into the front yard. Take a left to enter the dining room area of the living room. The dining room windows look out into the backyard. Take a left through a doorway to enter the kitchen with windows that look out to the backyard. Continue through the kitchen to get to the informal dining table area. You have now successfully walked around the downstairs! Hooray! Look to your left to see the little hallway with the bathroom and pantry that I previously described thoroughly. You can see the front door past that! Magic! Don't turn left down that hall, you fool! We've been there already! Keep going forward through the informal dining table area. The informal dining area has sliding doors on the right that go to the backyard. The basement stairs are on the left. There's a basement down there, I promise. No need to explore that. Next on the left is the garage door. (Spoiler alert! There's a garage behind that door! Shocker.) Now keep walking past all those distracting doors on your left. You've now entered the family room, which is open to the informal dining area and kitchen. The family room is like the living room, but with a TV instead of a piano. My favorite. The family room has sliding doors that open into the backyard. There aren't front yard windows, because the garage is there. There used to be an open field with a valley beyond the backyard. Sometime around the late 1990's-early 2000's, fancy houses were built in this area. Boo to that.

Second floor:

Starting back at the front door and foyer, take the stairs on the left side of the foyer. The stairs run from the front of the house and head towards the back. Walk up about 4/5ths of the stairs. There's a small landing. Turn right. Head up a few more stairs to end up on the 2nd floor. To your left is my uncle's old bedroom with a window looking out into the backyard. To your right is the open foyer with the wrought iron banister. You can look down and wave at people coming in the front door. You can also throw things at people coming into your house from there, if you so choose. Don't do that right now. There's no time for that! Continue down the hall. On the left is a bathroom and on the right is my mom's old room with a window looking out into the front yard. Straight ahead is Grandma and Grandpa's room. In their room on the right is a window looking into the front yard. Straight ahead is a window looking at the neighbor's house. Walk into their room and take a left. Straight ahead is a sink with a vanity. If the mirror wasn't there, you'd have a window looking into the backyard. To the right is a big walk-in closet. To the left is a bathroom with a window looking into the backyard.

Their Story- Love Found in War (not paranormal section):

The way Grandma and Grandpa met could easily be part of a romantic drama movie script, which makes his young, sudden passing even more tragic. Grandma, her mother, her father, and her grandma survived the horrors of WWII in downtown Berlin, Germany, although her grandma lost everything in the bombings. Grandma L lived close to Tempelhof Airbase and became a translator for General Clay's office. Grandpa, an American flight mechanic, participated in the Berlin Airlift as part of the Army Air Force 53rd Troop Carrier Squadron.

One day, Grandpa L went to a local tailor to spruce up his uniform. It just so happened that the seamstress was also Grandma's English teacher. The two met, and it was instantly love... For my Grandpa. Ha! I just have to give him a hard time for that. Grandma was a tough cookie, but eventually fell for this American gentleman. They loved each other very much. They married in Berlin on July 4th, 1948. Several military members evacuated their wives from war-devastated Germany on August 27th, 1948, and Grandma arrived in the United States on August 28th, 1948. She was lovingly accepted into Grandpa's family in Wisconsin. In March, she gave birth to twin daughters, my mother (we'll call her Mom) and Ginny.

My Grandma suffered a tremendous amount of tragedy in her life. In 1950, Grandma's grandma in Berlin passed away, never getting to see the reconstruction of the city. In 1953, Ginny (Mom's twin) had scarlet fever and passed away after receiving too much aspirin at a hospital in Wisconsin. In 1959, my #1 favorite uncle was born in Wisconsin. I guess this is a highlight and not a tragedy. (He's my only uncle. #1 by default. Let's call him Uncle P. He's a good guy!) In 1968, Grandma's father passed away in Germany. Finally, another family highlight - Mom met her husband (let's call him Dad) and had my sister (we'll call her "my sister") in 1983. In another spectacular move, they had me (we'll call her "me") in 1985.

Unexpected Tragedy (not paranormal section yet.):

Here's where I come in. Nine days after my 3rd birthday in September 1988, I was sitting at a round table near the front door at my parents' house playing in a manner that weird 3 year olds do. My sister was just 11 days shy of her 5th birthday. I'm sure she was doing something equally weird, because kids are weird. I don't remember Mom picking up the phone. I barely remember her running out the door that afternoon to go up to Grandma and Grandpa's house. She went there every day, since it was just across our small town. It wasn't out of the ordinary. In fact, I think she just returned from their house. I can't personally remember what transpired after that. A few years later, I was told details about that afternoon.

Grandpa was mowing the front lawn and collapsed. A neighbor ran to the house and told Grandma that Grandpa was laying on the ground in the front yard. In the first few seconds of this information, Grandma thought he must be napping or goofing off. He was relatively healthy and only 62, so there shouldn't be anything wrong. She couldn't believe what was happening. Quickly, neighbors ran to Grandpa, including a doctor that lived a few houses down. They began life saving measures, including CPR, until paramedics arrived. Thank God their neighborhood was so close-knit and had several people home at the time. There was nothing that could be done for Grandpa, but at least Grandma wasn't alone before Mom arrived. Mom arrived while they were still trying to save him. Grandpa died of a heart attack in the front yard of the house he built for Grandma. The man she left her family, friends and country for years ago was gone. A month later, Grandma's mother died in Germany.

Grandpa Still Loves Grandma (Paranormal Section. Thanks for waiting.)

Mom stayed with Grandma the night Grandpa died. They were both upstairs in their bedrooms. At some point in the night, they both heard footsteps walking through the downstairs. The footsteps were loud enough to wake Grandma. Mom can't remember if she was reading or sleeping when the footsteps started. They listened to the footsteps for several minutes as they moved through the downstairs. I heard this story several times; the foyer, informal dining area, and kitchen were always specifically mentioned, probably because they don't have carpet to dampen the sound.

Being brave women, they made their way downstairs, probably with Grandma's secret weapon hammer or another household item perfect for bludgeoning. (These women are tiny animals. Mom is 4'11" and Grandma was ~5'1", so this scene was probably funnier than it should have been.) They checked the entire downstairs and basement. No one. They both agreed the footsteps sounded like Grandpa's. I would think he was taking a last look around the house he built for his family, but he definitely stayed around a little longer than that night.

Within a week or so, Grandma began getting phone calls in the middle of the night. They were anywhere between 2:30-3:30 am. There was always a man on the other end of the call asking for Grandpa. It sounded like a party going on in the background. The man always asked where Grandpa was. Grandma would tell him that he isn't here and that he died. But the man would ask when Grandpa was coming. I assume Grandma hung up on him. The same 2:30-3:30 am call happened several times. I'm not sure if it was the same guy asking for Grandpa, but there was always a party going on in the background. It was 1989, so unfortunately there was no caller ID available. Grandma and Grandpa never received late night calls like that before. I wonder if it was deceased family or friends asking where Grandpa was, because he was still staying around the house for Grandma instead of crossing over.

I didn't find out about this story until I was about 32 years old. My birthday happens at the beginning of September and my sister's birthday is a few weeks later. I got lots of birthday attention when I turned 3 (before Grandpa died), and my sister was unsatisfied with this situation. Because she was upset, my Grandpa assured her that he'd make sure she'd have a great 5th birthday. Grandpa passed away before her birthday.

Fast forward a few weeks. Grandma, my parents, my sister, my dad's parents, and I were all hanging around the family room (the room with the TV) on my sister's 5th birthday. Almost 3 decades later, this is what my dad's mom said happened: Everyone was laughing about something and looking down at the kids. I probably did something super cute, but maybe my sister did something agreeable. My dad's mom was seated so she faced into the house looking through the family room, open informal dining room, and kitchen. Standing in the doorway from the informal dining room to the little hallway (with the bathroom and pantry) was Grandpa. He was pleasantly laughing like everyone else as he leaned against the door frame. My dad's mom remembers that he was wearing his checkered golf shorts and had his hand in his pocket. There was no mistaking it. It was Grandpa. My dad's mom isn't really open to paranormal discussion, so this was a complete surprise to hear. I think he was making sure my sister's birthday went well, because he promised her. Being an amazing family man, he was definitely going to keep that promise.

My next story will feature more current events that I experienced along with other members of my family.

I'd also like to say that I'm so glad to have found this wonderful site and community. I've been reading stories for years on here, but only commenting within the last few months. My comments are always meant to be respectful and helpful, and I hope that's how they've been received so far.