The Twin Sister

Over the years, I experienced several encounters with entities who are not from this realm where we are living in. Some of those encounters I have shared on this site, there are others I am still reconsidering about sharing. This one, I don't think of as a ghost encounter but I can't deny the fact that the entity appeared before my family, is no longer in this world. I am the 2nd child of 6; 2 sons and 4 daughters. My elder brother passed away in 2002 and one of my sisters was stillborn and she's my first younger sister's identical twin.

This encounter that I am about to share, happened in 2010, at the wedding of my first younger sister. Our Javanese traditional wedding rituals are packed with mysticism and ancient belief; from the use of water from 7 spring water (or some said 7 wells) and Jasmine and roses for a procession called Siraman (where the bride and groom are made to wear cape made of strings of jasmine over batik cloth wrapped on their body, and then the elders of the family take turn in bathing them with the flower water). And then Midodareni where the bride is kept in the bride's room (in the past it was for 49 days, nowadays just between 1-7 days, mostly just 1 day and 1 night) said to make the bride glow even more on the wedding day. Then the wedding ritual itself with it's complicated and long processions.

On my sister's wedding, strange things started to occur on the evening after Siraman, which was the Midodareni. My sister was alone in her room and then a family friend's daughter, she was 3 years old back then, runs into her room and then goes to the corner and starts giggling and talking to someone. I didn't think much of it back then because the toddler's mother said that her daughter has imaginary friend.

Then, the next day, the wedding day, my sister was getting ready with her make-up and hairdo in her room for the Vow (in Islam we called it Akad Nikkah). The make up artist herself was a sweet old lady who is very by the book when it comes to do a traditional Javanese Make up for the bride (as I wrote before, Javanese is all about mysticism). She has my sister's room filled with roses, so much that the smell of roses is filling the room. Then she puts a cup of dark coffee, burning incense and a small plate of rose petals in the corner of the room (again it's the mysticism of Java). Then, she started doing my sister's make-up, a very traditional and intricate make-up. I was in the room, taking photos of my sister for her before and after make-up. I left the door slightly open to let the air out a little because the incense smoke is a little suffocating with 4 people in the room. This is when the friend's daughter, the toddler, peeks through the door and she giggles, waving at my sister but the little girl looks through my sister. I approached her and asked her what was she doing and she said; I was greeting little Aunty (she called my sister little Aunty). I asked her: little aunty is pretty, right? And she replied: not the pretty little aunty, the little aunty with messy hair back there. She pointed the space behind my sister and the make-up artist, I and the make-up artist's assistant turn and look at the blank space, stunned and speechless. Then the little girl waved and walked away from there.

Right before the Vow ceremony took place, the Make-up Artist approached me and asked me if my sister had a stillborn twin sister. I answered Yes. The old lady smiled and whispered to me: don't be scared, she was just visiting because she wants to take a part on her sister's happy day. She won't be a nuisance but at one time, she would like her family to acknowledge her presence. I was stunned, agape to hear what the make-up artist lady said. I didn't understand what she meant with what she just said.

But later on, I figured out what she meant by 'She would like her family to acknowledge her presence'.

After the vow is done, we moved to the reception. The long ritual of wedding reception started with 'Temu' or the Meeting.

Bridesmaids (we called Dayang dayang) carry a kembang mayang (more like small decoration made of banana stem and young coconut leaves similar to what you can find in Bali but this one only the lower part to symbolize the unification of two different people into one). One of the bridesmaids, let's call her 'E', is known to be a girl with high energy, quirky, talkative and very bubbly, and we made her carry Kembang Mayang from the bride's side. And while the exchange of Kembang Mayang took place, E suddenly collapsed out of nowhere. She was giggling and laughing during the kembang mayang exchange and one minute after that, she collapsed to the ground. She had cold sweat and her palms and bottom of her feet were all cold. The make-up Artist approached her and whispers something to E's ear and then rubs E's face with her right hand. Soon enough, E wakes up as if nothing happened and she's even confused on how she suddenly collapsed.

Later that day, the rest of the ritual went well, no glitch, no more distraction. At the end of the day, the Make-up artist lady approached me and says: Don't worry, your sister has left, she's happy enough to join the procession and be a part of her twin sister's happy day. She couldn't stay long because it was difficult to contain E's overwhelming energy. I was shocked and awed to hear what she said.

Looking back, my first younger sister always slept with a big giant teddy bear next to her ever since she started talking (about 2-3 years old) up until she turned 13. Before that, she did the same thing that the family friend's little daughter did; standing in the corner of her room and giggling as if talking to someone. After the reception over, I told my mother what the Make-up artist lady told me and my mother said; She's not a ghost, she's a family member. This is the reason why I hesitated on sharing this in this site; My stillborn sister isn't a ghost, she's a family member.