Grand Dad?

2003 was a tough year for my family. My cousin, Daniel, died from cancer at the age of nine on June 23rd. A few months later, my grand dad also died on December 1st. I was very close to my cousin, as he was the same age of my little brother, and was like another brother to me. I was Grand dad's little girl.

My grand dad was slightly ill before he died with cancer also, but he actually died of a stroke. I have always felt that my grand dad just couldn't handle burying his nine-year-old grandson and gave up, in a way.

I have only one nice picture of my grand dad. It is a small one that sits just inside a big frame, and inside the frame is a picture of my sister, my brother and myself. My grand dad's picture is pushed into the frame firmly, as for three years it kept falling out.

The previous tenants of my house claimed it was "haunted". My family, though we are not skeptics, have found perfectly normal explanations for the noises, such as the boiler, and there was a gap underneath the back door which explained "eerie noises". However, since my grand dad 's picture stopping falling out, there have been some unexplained happenings and noises.

First was the stairs creaking. This could be explained perfectly as we have cats in the house, which could make the noise when they walk up and down the stairs. However, after a few months of hearing this every single night, I got out of bed, intent on picking up which ever cat it was and bringing them to my room to stop the noise. When I got to the top of the stairs, there was no cat in sight, yet the creaking noise was still going on! I was very tired that night and dismissed it, going back to bed and falling asleep. A few weeks later the noise on the stairs was very loud, so I got up again and, again, there was no cat on the stairs. There was a cat sitting at the bottom of the stairs in the hallway, just looking at the third step. I'm scared of Crane Flies (Daddy Long Legs) and since this was November, I though that it was one of them! I quickly went back to my room, shut my door and got into bed.

My sister and I spoke a few weeks after Christmas about the noises, and decided that it was just because the house wasn't built very well, and that the noises were because of that.

Now, I dream of my grand dad and cousin a lot. I was very close to them as I've said and dreaming of them is not unusual at all.

But one night, after I was woken by noises outside (my house is close to pubs) I could remember dreaming of my grand dad, though I couldn't remember what had happened in the dream. I felt a sudden urge to go downstairs into the living room where my grand dad 's photo was. I was stood near the window, which looks into the back garden, looking at my grand dad's picture and felt sad because he wasn't there. I felt tears come to my eyes and I brushed them away quickly. I didn't want my grand dad's photo to see me crying. He wouldn't have liked it.

I turned to the window and pulled open the curtains a little to see outside. I could just see two of my cats by the light from the window, playing in the grass. I smiled and was about to turn away when they both stopped playing, looked at me, and then both looked up, to where my bedroom window was. I thought they could see another cat on the windowsill and laughed. I went back upstairs to my room, and was shocked to find my curtains open. They are very heavy curtains so I couldn't see how the cats could have moved them. I went to the window, which was free from cats, and looked down. My two cats that had been playing were still looking up. I closed the curtains and went back to bed. I think I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing I knew I had four cats on my bed and they were all looking towards the door. I looked, too, there was nothing there. Then I heard the stairs again, and, I still don't know why, I felt really sad for my grand dad again and started crying.

Then I felt something touch my cheek, as though to wipe away my tears, and I smelt my grand dad's aftershave, Old Spice. My tears stopped at once.

I have never felt anything since that night, but I still hear the stairs creek and I have found my grand dad's picture on the floor at least once a week since.

Could it be that he was there? Or was my fear just making me silly?