Reader Submission: The Little Old Lady

“When I was five or six, my mama and I lived in my gran’s council house with extended family. Decades before I was born, my gran and granddad lived there for years with nine children, and at times, a few grandchildren and my great-grandmother.

My great-grandmother had passed more than 10 years before I was born, when my mama was quite young. My mama and I shared a large back room which doubled up as a sitting room/playroom. One night, I was sleeping in my bed facing my toy cupboard which had no door but a really pretty sheet which mama had painted and nailed onto the frame of the cupboard.

I remember suddenly opening my eyes to see a little old lady in the doorway of my toy cupboard. I wasn’t scared (which in itself was slightly strange,) as i felt the old lady was familiar and safe. She just appeared to be a regular little old lady with slightly strange looking clothes. Without moving her mouth she said ‘It’s OK Pet, I’ve just come to see how you are. Go back to sleep.’ The words sounded clear in my head, and being five or six, I said OK and went back to sleep.

The next day, I was playing in the garden with mama and I told her about what I said was a dream. Mama, who was very close to her grandmother, asked me to describe the little old lady, so I did. Mama looked a little strange and then changed the subject

Years later, we were talking about family with my older cousin Jimmy who was living with mama and I at the time. Mama then told me that when I described that little old lady I had actually described my great-grandmother. Jimmy laughed and said when he stayed in the same bedroom, he’d seen our great-grandmother in the same place I’d seen her. There were only three differences: Jimmy knew our great grandmother before she passed (albeit, he was very young, but he remembered her well), it was in the middle of the day, and she just smiled at him without speaking.

I still wasn’t sure, so my mama got out a really old-looking family photo. Sure enough, in the middle of family members I knew, was the very same kindly looking little old lady.”

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