Granny's still here...or is she??
Jun 29 '04
The Bottom Line Maybe those that have passed away are not always quite ready to leave...
I decided, (after thinking about it for all of two minutes) to enter the Ghost Story Write-Off hosted by jps246 (Jeff).
Something happened to me many years ago. Although it was over 20 years ago, I never forgot it. It scared the living daylights out of me. Yes, it scared me that much!
I want to describe it as carefully as I can and to the best of my recollection so you can get the exact vivid picture of how it all happened.
We (my ex-husband and I) were temporarily staying with his grandmother. She had been a resident of a very old apartment building for over 40 years. This was a very large apartment, with five bedrooms. It was located as the second story in a building over a shoe repair store, an art shop and a health food restaurant. (I wondered how much rent she had paid to a landlord for over 40+ years?)
The apartment was so old that it was really outdated in many ways. It had a very old rickety stove, for example. The kitchen sink had no modern conveniences such as a disposal. The one and only toilet was located right off the kitchen. I say "toilet", because that is all it was. If you wanted to take a bath, that was located across the exterior hallway. No shower. Lightbulbs hung in the middle of every room by a long wire cord. There were only a couple of actual wall outlets in the place.
Granny had lived here as an immigrant and raised her 10 children in this apartment. She had lived here since the late 1930's. Her husband had died many years before. We moved there in 1980. A cousin and his friend also soon came to live with Granny and us in her apartment.
Granny couldn't see very well anymore, but she had lived here for so long, that she knew where everything was. Well, Granny's health was quickly deteriorating and before long she had to be placed in a nursing home, a decision made by one of her sons. The last time we went to visit her, Granny didn't recognize us anymore. Her death soon followed.
Shortly after her death, we began the job of cleaning out all of Granny's personal items. There were plenty of those because Granny had never thrown anything away; it was a lengthy process that took us several days.
But, it wasn't too long after that when strange things began to happen. These were things none of us could explain.
We threw some of her belongings away, donated other things and simply gave some away. My sister, for example took a brown bag filled with some clothing. She took it to her house and that very night she said that she woke up hearing the unmistakable sound of the brown bag being rustled. That spooked her enough so she took the items to the thrift store the very next day!
The next strange occurrence was when the cousin's friend was sleeping one night and said that he had been awakened by someone roughly kicking the side of the bed. At first he thought he had been dreaming, but it happened on two more occasions, as if someone wanted to wake him up. He told us about it and didn't sleep in that room after that.
Although I believed my sister and the friend and their stories, I thought it must be some sort of coincidence or dream on their part. I thought that, that is, until something happened to me.
One night I was sleeping in Granny's old bedroom. I was sleeping a bit restlessly, not quite sure why, but that was the case. I remember someone grabbing ahold of my calf near my ankle. I groggily started shaking the hand off of it and asked my husband to stop it. Needless to say, it was not him. He was sound asleep. I was, by now, wide awake and completely freaked out. Did I dream that or did it happen? I didn't know but felt I could still feel the imprint of the hand on my calf. I could no longer sleep that night.
The next time, I was alone in the apartment one evening. It was winter, but a fairly mild evening...not too cold, not too hot. There were no windows open, nor was the old noisy heater on. I was standing in the middle of Granny's old bedroom, when suddenly a brisk breeze went right by me, like when someone runs by you and you feel the breeze. Just when I thought I was losing it, in about the time it takes to realize that what happened to you a second ago was not a normal thing, it happened again. That was enough to convince me to get out. I ran outside down the stairs and had goosebumps all over my arms. The hair on the back of my neck was on end. I was so scared, but could not really explain why. I just knew I had to get out of there.
I believe that Granny never wanted to leave this home that she lived in for so many years. It was either that or she hadn't been quite ready to leave it. I still sometimes think about her and wonder if she ever visits her apartment anymore...only the people living there now know for sure!
That was my own experience and it's my own ghost story!
(We moved shortly after that, but until we moved, I made sure I was never alone in that apartment again!)
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it.
(c)gkm.
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