Grampa's Ghost
When I was a child, my mother's grandfather lived with us for quite a while. He was elderly, and his health was failing, but he was an interesting person and did a lot of stuff with me. He would take me berry picking, showed me how to find edible mushrooms, and even helped me learn to ride a bicycle. It was not a surprise, but I was rather sad when he passed away. About a week after he died, I awoke in the middle of the night. I needed to use the bathroom, which was downstairs. Grampa's room was between my room and the top of the stairs. From my bed I could see that the nightlight at the top of the stairs was turned on, and I got out of bed and went down the hall. When I reached Grampa's room I was surprised (but not scared) to see that his bedside light was on. I thought it was funny that the light from his room was not shining into the hallway as it normally would have. I glanced into the room, and noticed that there was a spot on the bed that looked as if someone had been sitting there. The covers were wrinkled and the pillow was a little smushed. This all seemed normal to me, and I just went on down the stairs. A little geography - the stairs went down into the playroom. I had to go straight through the playroom into the living room, around the corner into the dining room, around the corner through the kitchen to the bathroom. Grampa's chair was next to the dining room doorway, on my right as I moved through the room. When I stepped into the living room, I glanced over and saw Grampa sitting in his chair. He was wearing his nice suit and had his hat on his head (never went out without it), and his arms were resting on the arms of the chair. He looked at me and smiled and I said "Hi Grampa" just as I always did. He raised his hand a little and waved to me, still smiling. At this point I realized that I was seeing a ghost, but I wasn't at all frightened and it still felt normal. I went on through to the bathroom, and when I went back through the house he was gone. I went upstairs, and his bedroom light was off. I turned it on and looked at the bed, which was once again smoothly made, with the pillows plumped. The bulb in the lamp wasn't even warm (even at the old age of 8 I knew to check that - that was how my dad was able to call me down for reading in bed at night when I was supposed to be sleeping!). It was nice to see Grampa again, and it didn't bother me at all. I just went back to bed. Next day things were normal in the house. My family didn't believe me (they are close minded about this type of thing). I never saw Grampa again, but it was a great experience!
