GHOST OF MY GRANDFATHER My grandfather and I were very close. That’s why when he passed from a terminal illness it was difficult for me. The pain, however, was lessened because I knew for so long he was going to die. The night of his death he was in a nursing home, and we had just cut off the IV. Around 3:30 is when he finally passed. At that time I was laying in bed, sleeping soundly, until suddenly I felt a strong jerk in my stomach. It was so terrible that I called my mother and she stayed up with me for hours. In no way did I connect the stomachache with him, until the next day I found out he had died at the same time I was having the pains. I found this ironic, but I really didn't think much of it. Maybe I should have realized it... The thing that affected me most about his death was the fact that he died three days before my birthday, and his funeral was the day of. This was extremely hard for me. When I would sit in bed at night for days after, I would think about how his spirit was probably in the room listening to my thoughts, and I was very paranoid. I didn't get much sleep for about two weeks. One night, around the time when I wasn't sleeping well, I finally dosed, but very late at night. I dreamed that he was alive; as if it was accepted he had come back form the dead. I dreamt that he was telling me about life on the other side, "life after death". When I woke, about 6:00, my heart was beating fast. And while I remember him telling me about heaven and such, I remembered almost nothing about heaven. Just that he had talked about it. Soon, I fell back asleep and eventually blamed the dream on thinking about him too much. The next day, I was backstage at the theater I was currently doing a play at, and my friend, a girl about 21 sat down next to me. I said, "I wonder why the piano keeps messing up tonight?" She replied something to the extent of "Other world being can control what happens in this world, and I can sense them here tonight” To myself I chuckled. She was one of those people who believed in witchcraft, and things of that sort. But then, the most unimaginable thing happened to me when I went on stage. I looked in the audience, and there, in the middle, in a chair, was my grandfather! I hadn't thought of him since the night before. I almost stopped in my tracks but snapped back into character. I couldn't help looking again but now I saw a regular woman. The image of my grandfather had disappeared. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that until his death, my grandfather hadn't missed a show of mine, and this would have been his first. Still, nothing was clicking with me and nothing fit together until I talked with my grandmother that day. She looked very disturbed and she was staring into space. I said "Maya (what I call my grandmother), what’s wrong?” She replied "Nothing, I just as thinking about a dream I had about your grandfather last night. I'm just shaky, know what I mean?" "What was it about" I asked. "Well..." she said, "It was as if your grandfather was here again and we were talking about heaven." Then she let out a small laugh. I didn't answer her, because I was in shock, literally. I didn't tell her about my identical dream, and all the ironic things, until a few days later. We decided it best not to let anyone know, and keep of our loved ones reoccurrences and personal information. The final disturbing thing that happened was that night when I was trying to go to sleep. I turned over in my bed and opened my eyes to see a quick flash of a man in a white robe smiling. But like my grandfathers image, after I blinked he was gone. I think that was a sign that everything was gong to be aright. I look back on those days as a picture of hope, and of a stronger force then ourselves, still undiscovered. I hope with the sharing of my story, it will encourage the world to look into spirits, and other world creatures. But the thing I hope everyone will do, is begin to believe. It doesn't matter what, but to just find a belief and ignite the human sprit to use to ignite the sole. I think that if we do, we can all have a better understanding on life. Contact me here: clueless0655@yahoo.com Submitted From: Hannah, Massachusetts, USA Name Here