When I was younger, around 5-6 I remember vividly an old woman in my room.She looked around 80ish years old. Thick curly grey hair,a high white gown and a big smile on her face! She would always sit on my bed and speak to me. She told me tales of her “younger years”. After she was done she’d go back into the closet.
After it happened a few times I told my mum, she looks confused and thought it was just an imaginary friend. This happened for maybe 2-3 weeks before I learned her name. This is the first time she’s ever said her name to me. “Annie” she said with a smile on her face. I was happy that my “friend” now had a name!!
When I was little and had nightmares, I wasn’t allowed to go to my mums bedroom due to my stepfather. Because of this I would go in the closet and speak to Annie, she would comfort me and would make me feel so much happier, my nanna died when I was 3 so I didn’t have a female older lady to look up to.
My mum thought I possibly conjured her up due to my nanna passing away but it wasn’t. I loved Annie like she WAS a nanna, we’d have a laugh, share secrets and play “pranks” on my mum (usually moving and hiding stuff” we thought it was funny!
I never really mentioned her to my stepdad because he never believed the stories and was saying I made it up, this made me sad because she felt real to me. We were in the house for almost 13 years, my mum loved this house and I loved being there and having my friend! Due to unforeseen circumstances I had to move away and I never saw and heard from Annie again.
Now I’m older, my mum told me she did some research into “Annie” as I had a memory of her and thought she was a literal old lady who looked after me! The person who lived in the house before we did was called Annie, she died a few years in said home before we moved in. I was shocked to find out that the woman I was talking to wasn’t just “imaginary” but a real woman who passed away in the house! I do miss Annie, I liked the conversations, I like to think that she WAS real and that she wasn’t imaginary.
We do drive passed the house sometimes hoping to catch a glimpse of her in a window, I haven’t seen her no matter how much we try. The house is completely different now and I wonder if she likes how the house looks? All these things running around my head. Whenever I’m afraid I always go back to Annie and how brave she made me.
I like to think she helped with my upbringing even though nobody believed me! Me mum believes me now and my step father doesn’t live with us anymore. I hope to see her one more time, just to relive the happy time of seeing her in my bedroom.