This experience happened in May of 1979 when I was 15 years old. My maternal grandmother had passed, maybe a week or two before this event. I always loved going to her house as a child and spending the night, she was a wonderful grandma. She had moved to California after her last husband died in 1976, so I didn't get to see her for the last 3 years of her life.
I was a freshman in high school and in English class we were reading Romeo and Juliette. I had stayed up late that night while my parents slept (all three of my older brothers had already moved out of the house), to watch Romeo and Juliette on our local PBS station. So I was the only one awake at the time. I was laying on the floor of the living room with my pillow and blanket with only the television on, all the lights in the house were off. I'd never really had any odd things happen to me in our home and was quite comfortable being up alone with no lights.
A little explanation of how our house was laid out. The living room was in the front of the house with the dining room and kitchen directly behind the living room. The area between the living room and dining room is completely open, while the kitchen area is blocked from the living room by the wall for the stairs going to the basement. You could walk from the living room into the dining room, to the kitchen, into the front hallway which brings you back into the living room. Between the kitchen and front hallway is the basement stairs and if you go the other direction, it's a hallway to the three bedrooms and bathroom.
On with the story. I was on the floor with pillow and blanket watching the TV when I heard the sound of flip flop shoes come from the kitchen, into the dining room, and right up behind my dad's reclining chair (the back of it was towards the open dining room) that was a maybe three feet behind me. Now, my grandma always wore flip flops in the summer, it was a sound that I associated with her.
I've always loved the paranormal and accepted it as part of life. My mom had told me things that happened to her as a child and adult since I was little. But when I heard the flip flops, I was basically frozen in fear! I called out in a small voice, "Mom?" even though I knew it was not her. No answer, I knew she was sleeping and never wore those type of shoes or even owned a pair of them.
I can't even remember if I was brave enough to look behind the chair, I grabbed up my pillow and blanket, turned off the TV (dad would have yelled had I left it on) and ran like a frightened rabbit. I'm not sure how I navigated the first corner, it was completely dark in the house, but when I made the second turn to go into the hallway to the safety of my room, I miscalculated the turn and ran directly into the wall. Luckily I had my blanket draped over my arm, otherwise I might have broken it. When I hit the wall, all my mind could think, was that I ran into a person, most likely the ghost of my grandma! I was struck with crazy terror before I figured out it was just the wall and that I had made the turn too soon.
Into the safety of my room, lights on, door locked, and under my blanket, I slowly calmed myself down. I don't remember for sure, but I think I slept with the lights on that night.
I told my mom about it the next morning. She asked me why I was so scared, and made me realize that my grandma would never hurt me and that maybe she just wanted to see me one last time and/or say goodbye. That was so true, she wouldn't hurt me and as I've thought about it over the years, it's really very sweet that she came to me that night.
There's no way that anyone will ever convince me that this didn't happen. I was 100% awake at the time and it was most certainly my grandma. Years later when my first child, my daughter, was two... She came to me again and that time I really believe she saved my life. I'll save that story for another time.
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