This story took place in my household when my daughter was about four or five years of age, and it is a true story.
I used to put my daughter to bed by reading her a story and sitting in her room until she went to sleep, this allowed me to spend much-needed quality time with her after very long day’s on the job.
We started to notice that when we woke her up in the mornings to go to daycare she always complained of being tired. After a few weeks of her complaining to be tired and not wanting to get up for school, we started to question her. I knew for a fact that she was going to sleep because many of nights I had fallen asleep on her floor and upon wakening to take myself to bed; I would notice that she was sound asleep.
After some prompting and questioning her, this is the story that she told us. It seems that very late in the evening after we were all in bed asleep, she would be awakened by an old lady with a very colorful long dress that would tickle her feet and wake her up at night. My daughter exclaimed the lady never spoke just smiled, gave her a couple of tickles on her feet and just sat and watched over her until she fell back asleep.
This occurrence happened for over a month, and although I made it a point to spend the night in her room a couple of times just to confirm or debunk her claims, this apparition still came in the quite of the night after I was asleep and continued the ritual, despite the fact my large butt was laying on the floor. I never heard my daughter stir and never caught a glimpse of the old lady.
At one point my daughter happened to see a photo of a person wearing a colorful kimono, at which point she exclaimed that the lady that had been visiting her wore a colorful dress just like that, not the same one in the picture but similar. Now my daughter is half Japanese and at that point in her life she had never worn or seen anyone in a kimono, but she was dead set that this was similar dress to what the old lady wore upon entering her room and interacting with her.
After many discussions with my wife, we chalked it up to my wife’s Grandmother who may have been doing the visitations. My wife had been close to her Grandmother and was the first one at a very young age to find her grandmother deceased in the bathtub. Needless to say it was a traumatic experience for my wife who again was so very close to her grandmother. Prompting more of a description of the kindly old lady from my daughter as to what the lady looked like it was confirmed that it was my wife’s Grandmother visiting the grandchild she never got to see. We were overjoyed by this and yet broken up and wished we had the chance or ability to see her and express our love and thanks for looking over our daughter.
However as the month passed with my daughter being awaken every night and tired in the morning, with a heavy heart I went into my daughter’s room while everyone was out of the house and with the utmost respect and reverence asked Grandmother not to wake the baby anymore, she needed her rest for school and that we loved her and were happy she wanted to visit and see her Grandchild, but she could no longer wake her up or let her see her…truly it was one of the hardest and heartfelt things that I have done, but I knew it was right. The next evening my daughter had a sound sleep, when asked she told us the old lady had come to say good-bye and never showed herself again.
As I write this I am so thankful that from beyond the grave Grandmother wanted to see and meet her Granddaughter, and although we have never had another encounter with the Grandmother in the Kimono I know that she is still out there watching over our family.