JULY 26th, 2015
By LANA CARBON
Although not all of our stories involve the paranormal, that mysterious world does hold a huge interest for us (as you may be able to gather if you have seen any of our social media accounts). I have always found it fascinating to hear about the way people first become intrigued by those things that are unknown to us and I’m in the mindset that others feel the same. With that said, I thought I would share with you my first experience of which I am consciously aware.
When I was just a youngster of 7 or 8 years of age, my parents took my siblings and me to visit my maternal aunt and uncle. Now at that time, I wasn’t all that intrigued by the conversations of adults so I gathered up some of the toys that I had taken with me and proceeded to make my way to the finished basement where I wouldn’t be disturbed. I wasn’t totally alone however as my aunt and uncle’s German Shepherd Max came downstairs with me, lying protectively in front of the door. I stayed at the bottom of the stairs and started playing demolition derby with some of my dinky cars.
As things are prone to do when causing some exuberant smash ‘em up playtime, one of the cars got away from me. It rolled across the floor, coming to a stop very close to the wood stove. Being young and brash and really wanting that particular car back at that exact moment, I went after it fearlessly not once considering the heat bellowing out from the stove.
“Don’t touch!”
The voice was loud, sudden… and unfamiliar. As I began to turn my head I noticed that Max was looking over my shoulder with his ears perked up. He was quiet. Being a protective animal, normally he would have barked at the very least. I finished turning around to see who had yelled at me. Standing there, looking down at me was some woman that I didn’t know. She looked angry. In fact, at my age, this was the terrifying epitome of “Stranger Danger!” Who was this person? How did she get in?
I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, with Max hot on my heels, so I could tell everyone about the frightening event that had just happened. My older cousin went downstairs to look around but after only a few moments came back up saying that there was no one downstairs. I adamantly repeated the entire experience again just hoping they would believe me. I may have been young but I wasn’t crazy. I knew what I saw.
My cousin and brother both decided to look again, this time taking me with them. I showed them exactly where I had been, what had happened and where the lady had stood. We walked the whole basement, going into each and every room in turn. We looked high and low - anywhere that a person could hide. The last room we checked was my aunt and uncle’s bedroom. I had been taught to respect my elders and therefore had never been in there. My cousin was looking under the bed, my brother was checking the closet and I was starting to feel dejected knowing we weren’t going to find anyone.
That is when I saw it. Sitting on the dresser was an old photo. Could it be? Why would there be a picture of this intruder here? Who was this mean, scary lady? I grabbed the frame and went back up the main floor while the guys continue looking. I found my mom and aunt sitting at the dining room table. I gently laid the image on the table in front of them and told them this was the person who had yelled at me. I was 100% sure of it.
“Who was this?” I asked.
“Sweetie, it couldn’t have been…” my aunt began. I interrupted her. I started to cry. Why wouldn’t anyone believe me? They obviously knew her so why could it not be this woman?
They explained to me that the photo was of their mother…my grandmother who had passed away before I was born. I had never had the opportunity to see a picture of her since she didn’t like having her picture taken and my mother had all of her old photos packed away.
“Then how did I see her because that IS who I saw.”
Although my mother is quite a superstitious lady, she has never been one to share her beliefs about the spirit world (even to this day) but seeing I was becoming inconsolable, she said the only thing that allowed me to calm down and put the entire experience in a new perspective. She told me that if it was my Grandmother that I had seen then she was only there to protect me. The reason she yelled at me was to keep me away from the woodstove so I wouldn’t burn myself and get hurt. That was why Max didn’t bark at her, he could sense that she wasn’t there to hurt me, only to help. As a tear fell down her cheek, she let me know that my Grandmother would have loved me so much had she had the chance to meet me.
Well we DID meet that day and Grandma… if you can hear me… I love you too.
I wish I had a better picture of my Grandmother
