"Folkloric" apparitions

[edgitarra]

I decided to share some memories that I got from my grandmother and also my grand-grand mother; they are quite interesting and they were some sort of initiation for me in the childhood, when i started to realize that world has more than just what we see.

My grandparents live in a countryside place called Cimpuri - Surduc(Surduc Fields), and it was the place where I used to go(still use to when I am visiting Romania) since I was a child, I enjoyed going in the forests, exploring wilderness, but I always had this feeling that something is extra there; so one time I went with my mom to the countryside, and usually after spending the day outside playing or helping my mom, we were settling in the house in the evening, having the dinner and me just listening my mom and my grandma talking all kinds of stories(from their childhood until the 80' 90', funny stories, life situations etc.). At one point I remember that they arrived to the subject of dead people not "resting in their grave", and strange apparitions(even though it seemed so natural for my grandma to talk about this, I think it is something normal for people at the countryside, as they might have encounters), and then my grandmother stops and she starts telling something that at that time scarred the begeez out of me: it happened several nights when she had to wake up and go to the toilet(the toilet is outside the house, very basic), but when she exits the room she sees in one of the corners of the corridor of the house a completely dark silhouette, just standing there not moving at all; at first she thought that it was her husband(which sleeps in a separate room). She calls it by his name but no answer. Being afraid of going closer she goes to the toilet and when she comes back, no more dark silhouette.

Another story which seems strikingly strange was told by my gran-gran mother who used to live about 15 kilometers from this place, about 2 villages further; her husband died 40 years ago, and she had to live completely alone(the place where she lived was kind of isolated and she had forests around; i think it is the only person i know that lived so much time alone), except she had a nephew coming from time to time and visit her, bringing her materials she needed for weaving etc.; it happened around 20-30 years ago(i do not know exactly)in the winter period; the surroundings are just incredible when it is snowing, she had a small folk style house and around groups of hay gathered in a conic form(like small mountains of hay). One day, close to the sunset she sees a man walking in her garden(where she has all the hay), this man was dressed in a very old fashioned clothes(like an noir detective from the 20' which was also strange for her to see), just going further in the garden; in the beginning she thought it was a joke that her nephew was doing, he used to do this kind of scenes, so she calls him, but no answer: that man was still going being ignorant to her calls; after a moment he disappears after a pile of hay, so she decides to run after him. Guess what: when she arrives at the pile of hay, the footsteps just end in front of the pile, like that man entered in it and simply vanished. No other footstep traces.
What I was thinking about this was that it might have been possible for her to slip into a parallel reality? Or that man to appear in this reality? Strange though.
She died at 92 years, and me and my uncle had to stay in the same house with the body in the coffin, and I remember how scared we were(we went in the room holding hands ), because the light in the room kept turning on.

 

[mkrnhr]

Very interresting. What I remarked is that these "encounters" happen more often that thought. They usually remain within the family boundaries or are forgotten after a while. The dark silhouette is quite common I think, and I've seen it with other persons and alone. One one occasion I followed one dark silhouette by night in my grandparent's house. In the dark, my grandmother grabbed my arm and told me: it's not dangerous but never follow it and go where it wants you to go.

 

[SeekinTruth]

Yeah, very interesting, indeed. I've actually had the dark silhouette experience several times when I was a child, starting around 4 years old. I think the first time was when I was sleeping over at my aunt's/uncle's/cousin's place. I woke up, looked, saw it just standing there about 5 meters away, and started screaming "the man, the man!" Then it happened several more times over a few years, most of the time in my own dwelling. And most of the time I was running a fever. Don't know what to think of it or how to explain it.

 

[Zadius Sky]

That's quite fascinating. I personally never experienced any of these "encounters" as a child, but I think that could be due to my family's rule of ignoring what's not normal (if any of my relatives ever had an experience, they were probably forgotten). It wasn't until college when I started investigating into the paranormal that I read about some of these things that were happening and how common they can be within the family, like mkrnhr said.

 

[edgitarra]

In my family everybody treats this apparitions like a part of life. Even my mom told me that she saw her grandmother right after she died(in the process of grieving for 3 days), standing in the window of the house she lived in, starring with a neutral face. Afterwards she got really sick, and had to spend a lot of time recovering. My father has this ability to recall possible previous lifes, and it happens usually when he meets a new person. Not all the persons trigger these sudden images, but there could be those ones which with he had a strong connection(he told me a story about him meeting his new classmate in school and of a sudden he started to have this strange feeling he already knew him and having flashes from a recent war period, this guy being his comrade).
As well an interesting symbol was the apparition of 2 twins dressed in wedding clothes, that my gran gran mother(or grandmother) saw when she was young, calling her in the garden, to go with them. In our folk tradition this is was the death call.

There are also other people from the countryside place that have seen all kinds of weird things, like giant(at least 1 meter in height) black dogs with red eyes in the middle of the night jumping over fences), or hearing pain screams in the forest or whispers(almost 100 years ago there was a fight between 2 villages and some people died as far as i know, might be just a story).

 

[Aoide]

I have a friend who told me of some strange occurrence at his home when he was a baby. His mother told him that she and grandmother saw a dark silhouette entering their home and approaching his cradle in which he was at that moment and his grandmother did something to protect him which resulted in retreating of that silhouette. He told me that his grandmother, along with some other women, was a part of practicing black magic through their life and that could explain it.
He is grown man now and sometimes, during his sleep in the middle of the night, he is awakened by a very heavy pressure on his chest and he sees that something is "sitting" on him, but he can't see the face of it so he take his rosary in hand (he can move only his hands at that moment) and pray to protect himself until morning comes and it's gone. His mother too sometimes has experience like this.