FAMILY VISITATIONS FROM BEYOND Firstly I'd like to say the following are true and did happen, and continue to happen with startling regularity, much to my discomfort. The first sighting was when I was 12 years old at my grandparents property at Bendemere in NSW. It was about 3am, I was lying in a single bed with a window to my immediate left, my mother and younger sister shared the bed parallel to mine, the doorway to the room was located centrally to the foot of the two beds we occupied,the door was open wide to the left, I could see into the narrow hallway, which led to the front door to the left,which when opened, the person opening it would be seen by me, also another fact was that this door was never ever used by anyone, being a country property everyone used the back door, In all my years of being there I had never seen the front door opened let alone used. So there I was lying in bed, asleep,when all of a sudden I was startled awake by the blind on the window to my immediate left, going up with an almighty bang and fluttering around the roller at the top,immediately awake and eyes like dinner plates I stared at the window, I remember a crawling sensation in the pit of my stomach, and I was scared speechless, so lying there breathing heavily, I was about to draw breath and scream when I caught movement in the hall out of the corner of my eye, I saw my great grandfather standing in the hall, Phewww I thought, and started to explain to him what happened in a quiet voice, after my explanation he just stood there smiling, Odd I thought, why doesn't he reply? Then I heard the creaking of hinges as though a front door had opened, although had he opened the front door I would have seen him move and also seen the edge of the door, just as my mouth was starting to form an "O" of surprise her raised a hand and casually waved then turned and dissapeared to the left as if he had opened and gone through the door. My brain took a second or two to process this information, and when I realised he had in fact disappeared, I started to panic, I wildly looked round the room and glanced out the window, and there standing in the vegetable garden out front was My Great grandfather, again, facing the house, this being all to much for me and with blood like ice, i let out a bloodcurdling yelp, My mother flew up out of the opposite bed, my sister started crying, and i gibbered and relayed to my mother what had happened. I'm sure parents think children dream such things..or perhaps they are scared too but all she did was hold me and say I had been having a dream, I began to think hmmmm....perhaps! till she said, anyway it can't have been Grandfather, you know he has been dead for 12 months. But I know I was awake and I know what I saw. To this day I see it all very clearly in detail and I am now 35 years old. The second thing that occured, was the death of my Great Grandmother, on my grandfathers side of the family, I was 14 years old and inconsolable, I was deeply distressed and unable to stop the tears, that night exhausted I lay on my bed, sobbing quietly in the dark.... At this point I'd like to state that I was indeed fully awake, my mother had just visited the room with a glass of water and some tissues, after a few soothing words she left me to my grief.. lying on my side curled up facing the wall,my sobs had subsided a little when I felt some pressure on the side of the bed as if someone had just sat down, a waft of 4711 perfume washed over me, the perfume my grandmother always wore,not that I made the connection till much later, I assumed my mother had re-entered the room quietly, and I felt what seemed to be a comforting hand on my shoulder,I turned to speak to Mum, when i saw there was no one there, but..I could still smell the perfume and feel the hand, I was about to scream when it was locked in my throat by a voice that said to me, softly yet distinctly "I am alright darling, don't cry anymore, I will be watching you." Immediately the pressure left my shoulder and the scent that had filled the air was gone so too was the pressure on the bed..gasping I lunged for the light, on the nightstand, I frantically searched the room my eyes roaming everywhere when they settled on the small depression on the edge of the bed...Now I screamed, because i knew My grandmother had come to visit, while I was terrified I was also strangely comforted and the tears stopped from that day on. The third happening is a little different, more out of body than ghostly I think but it has the bonus of being witnessed by two people, my sister and I. My sister and I had been laid low by a particularly nasty virus, we both had raging fevers, but thankfully they were on the decline,it was about 1am and as we were ill, and not sleeping well , my sister and I were talking softly to each other, her bed lay at right angles to the doorway, and mine parallel, so we both had quite different view points,so as said, we were chatting quietly when our mother appeared in the doorway, uh oh we thought, we will be in trouble for not resting and for chatting at that time of the night, my sister, mumbled something to Mum which I can't recall now, and mum just stood there in the moonlight, coming from the large bedroom window, I propped my self on one elbow, and said, Mum whats wrong? then my sister started gibbering rapidly, I asked her what on earth was the matter, still puzzled as to why mum hadn't uttered a sound, when I looked where my sister was pointing......Yahhhhhhh!!!!! my mothers feet were at least half a foot off the ground, both of us were shrieking like banshees when, the image vanished rapidly and..........MUM came running down the hall, in a half awake and panicked state.... My only theory on this I came to years later was that she had been so concerned for our welfare that she had somehow projected herself and was checking on us in her sleep. The fourth event involved a family pet, our beloved pet Sooty had been hit by a car that day, and we were all deeply saddened by the loss,my father had buried her out under a large tree in our backyard. After having had dinner we were all watching TV in the lounge room, with the occasional sniffle from my younger sister, when we heard a dog barking, not one of us but all of us heard it, not unusual you say, but you get to hear the bark of your own particular pet, much like you get to know the different sounds of the families cars as they pull into the drive, and we all immediately sat upright and looked at each other, my sister burst into a bout of fresh tears and my father stood up, my mother and I also stood and followed Dad to the back door, a million things run through your mind at a time like this, like, It cant be Sooty, she's dead! and, must be another dog!, anyway we headed to the back door, Dad stepped out, and we followed...the frantic barking abruptly stopped, just as we saw a large grey cat run from the spot where Sooty was buried, upon closer inspection, we noticed that the cat had been digging where our dog was buried, was Sooty trying to tell us that he was about to be defiled by the neighbors moggie? who know all I know is not much was said, Dad placed a few bricks over the grave, and not much else was mentioned. In closing there have been no less than 16 strange and unexplained occurrences, in my life to date and some I've no doubt forgotten, to recount them all here in this one post would make for a very long story, so I will post others periodically if castle of spirits will allow me to do so. Submitted From: Lisa, NSW, Australia