Hello,

My name is Yana. I've never written to a new group before as I have not had much time to play around with this kind of thing. A friend of mine showed me this news group and occasionally I will find the time to read some of the postings. i have an interesting story that I would like to share.

When I was about 5 years old my family moved into a house on the Nourthwest side of Tulsa, Ok. The house was previously owned by an older widow. Her husband had died recently of a heart attack as he too was older and his body simply failed him.

I don't remember how long we had lived in the house when my father and I both had some strange experiences, but they were as follows. Once, my dad was up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. When he walked out into the hall way he saw an old man standing outside my room looking into the doorway. This was very upsetting for him because some strange person was in his house staring at his young child. He quickly saw that the old man looked lost and confused. He figured that the old man was sleep walking or senile and his key by chance had fit our lock. He walked up to the old man and physically moved him because when he tried to pass our visitor he just stood there. The old man looked right at my dad and said "son, don't forget to stake the tomatoes," as we had a vegetable garden in our back yard. My dad just looked at him and walked on by to check on me. I saw the entire thing take place, but I was playing possum when my father checked on me. I was just fine and he thought I was asleep. When he went back into the hall the old man was gone. My dad checked the house. Everthing was secure. He went into the kitchen, got a drink of water, thought to himself, 'that was a ghost,' and went on to bed.

Not too long after this happened I was up around two o'clock in the morning using the bathroom. When I came out of the bathroom I saw a clock on the wall that didn't belong there. [It had belonged to the family who lived there before mine, I believe.] I only saw it a couple of times in the middle of the night. Well, in the hall was this old man. I looked at him and thought a child's thought. 'This must be my grandpa.' I don't have a close extended family and all I knew was that there was an old white guy in the hall so it must be my father's father. I walked up to him and spoke to him. I said "Are you my grandpa?" He looked up at the ceiling as though he was thinking about what his response would be and then he nodded his head and said, "Yes honey, I'm your grandpa." I was very excited because I hadn't seen my grandpa in a long time. I told him that I wanted to play and I actually had thoughts about horse back rides and playing with by dolls with him. He said to me, "Now honey, its very late and I don't think your daddy would like it if he knew you were up playing instead of sleeping in bed." I thought about it and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right." He tucked me in and I went to sleep.

I woke up the next morning and went running into the kitchen hoping to see my grandpa at the breakfast table. I asked where grandpa was. I was thinking that he was old and maybe he was still asleep and that I would wait to play with him later. My dad explained that my grandpa was not visiting with us and that I must have been dreaming.

I had more visits form this kindly older man, but I don't remember them as well. Mostly I remember playing childrens games with him and showing him my toys. I remember my father scolding me for playing in the middle of the night while I was suppose to be sleeping. I told him I was playing with the nice old man.

My dad remembers all of this as well. He didn't discuss it with me until I was 10 yers old or so. He remembers me talking about my grandpa and the nice old man who told me not to be afraid of the dark. He had suspected that it was the same confused old man who had given him gardening tips in the hallway. I think it was too. We believe, after comparing descriptions of his appearance, that it was the old gentleman who died of a heart attack in that house.

The room I slept in was the room nearest to the hall heater as this was an older house without central heat and air. This also happened to be the room that his wife slept in after he died and before she sold the house so she could go live with her oldest child.

We think that originally he was just looking to visit his wife and maybe even check up on her. We're not really sure why he kept comming back. I think he may have liked me though. I was a little girl in real need of a friend. My mother wasn't a good person. I think my nightly friend understood this. He was always very nice to me and my father only saw him the one time. My mother saw him once, but she was afraid of him. I don't think he liked her, she was really mean.

I have some more stories, but its getting late. If it looks like anyone enjoyed this one I'll post more when I next have the time.