While many do believe in some sort of life after death, not many have seen proof of this. When you grow up in a city with as much history as Charleston, South Carolina you hear countless stories of spooks and spirits. I never really believed any of it, just figured it was just a tourist gimmick, but seeing is believing. When I was around 13 years old, I saw something that can only be described as a ghost.

I was spending the night with my great-grandmother who has a very old house that’s been passed from generation to generation. When I was a child, I was terrified of the dark and had trouble falling asleep every night. On this particular night, I had a terrible fever from a concussion. I had fallen out of the tree earlier in the day and had been in and out all night.

I was sound asleep and suddenly awoke for seemingly no reason. I glanced around the room and saw a lady standing in the corner. At first, I thought it was just my grandmother and called to her. When she didn’t respond I sat up and looked at her more closely. I realized that even though the she looked a lot like my grandma, this lady was younger. This was basically my worst fear realized and surprisingly, I was completely unafraid. I’m not sure if it was because of

the pounding in my head, the fever, or because I was half asleep, but I felt completely calm and at ease. I asked her who she was, but she never said anything. She just smiled at me and stood there until I fell asleep. When I was drifting out of consciousness, I thought I felt someone push the hair out of my face, but I can’t be sure.

When I awoke the next day, I wasn’t sure if it had been a dream or just a hallucination because of my fever. I told my grandmother about it and at first, she said it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Then, I started describing the woman to her. I told her she was tall and very pretty, she wore her hair back in a bun, and had eyes that looked kind. And I told her the lady looked a lot like her. She had tears in her eyes by the time I’d finished. I just thought she was thinking I’d lost my mind, but then she went into a bedroom for a few minutes and came back out with a very old picture. It was cracked and in black and white, but I immediately recognized the woman. She told me that it was her mother, my great-great-grandmother and had died when my grandfather was just a child.

I had never seen this picture before and had only heard stories my grandma had told me about how kind her mother was and how much she missed her. I never saw her again and I’m still not sure why I saw her then. Maybe she just wanted to make sure I was well or maybe it was the fever. I know I’ll never know why, but I’m grateful I got the chance to meet her, at least in a sense.

 Back to True Ghost Stories...