My Older Brother

I'm one of 5 siblings. When my older brother Stephen was 4 years old he died of a pneumonia and my mother was completely heartbroken. A year later in 1993 I was born and was even named after my brother, his name being Stephen Michael and my name being Stephanie Michelle.

I remember this one night when I must have been turning 6 or 7 as it was about three in the morning on my birthday. I was asleep on the couch with a severe cold and my mom slept on the other side of the couch with me. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I happened to look in front of me at my mom sleeping and there was a little boy with blonde hair and blue striped overalls looking down at her with the most sad look in his eyes.

I continued to stare at him for what seemed like minutes until he slowly turned his head my way and saw I was watching him. The boy looked startled and a little frightened that I was staring at him and slowly faded away until he was gone. I fell asleep quickly after, not feeling too alarmed as it seemed he was innocent enough.

When I woke the next morning I told my mom what I had seen and she told me maybe it was Stephen coming to see his mother and visit. I think she may be right.

When I grew older and saw more photos of Stephen from the few years he was alive, I was convinced that the boy I had seen at three in the morning was my long dead brother. He was identical to the little boy I had seen with the same blonde hair and it seemed around the same age as Stephen was when he had died. It's sad to think that if what I saw really was my brother that he was sad in the afterlife.