When two of my sisters were about eight and nine (older than the children discussed earlier) they had a sleepover with an elderly sister from the congregation. the sister had been ill and not able to attend meetings for sometime. our family used to regularly visit her.
Anyway my sisters asked to be allowed to sleep over this night. They shared a double bed in the spare room. the older sister woke in the night and saw a lady smiling at her from the dressing table mirror. the lady had on a bathrobe and was rubbing her wet hair with a towel.
my sister was petrified. she said she could not move, or speak to wake younger sis. she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, opening them a few times to see the figure still there. She was asking Jehovah to protect her. she said it was a very long night.
she told my parents about this after they collected her the next morning. they told her it was a nightmare. however some months later my mum was helping the elderly sister and went into her bedroom. she noticed that the mirror in that room had a tablecloth over it. She asked Aunt E. why there was a cover over the mirror and got an evasive answer about scots superstitions - "look in the mirror, and see a face that isn't yours", but she did not want to talk more.
another time, not specifically about children but still freaky:
my family were staying for a weekend with friends of my mothers family who lived a few hours drive from us. they were not witnesses. This was over ten years before the "mirror incident".
Anyway in the middle of the night my mum woke with the feeling that there was someone evil in the room. she said the room was freezing, she could not see anyone, but could sense it. she tried to turn on the light but it would not go on. She says she prayed and the feeling stopped, and she went to sleep. next morning she found the lightbulb from the bedside light sitting on the dressing table next to the praying hands ornament. our trip was cut short, mum said she was coming down with the flu.
When back home my mum went to the local library to look up some information on spirits. (you know I never realised until now that she probably wasn't doing the good JW thing by this action!) anyway she picked up a book and opened it right on a page which described the typical coldness of spirit presense, praying hands or similar iconography, and spirits loving pranks such as removing light bulbs..........
I never had an experience myself, although mum said that as a toddler I had two imaginary friends, (I am the oldest child), I remember her saying that she would get creeped out by some of my conversations with them.........
anyway it's all in the "too hard basket" for me, but as a health professional I do think that the two year old discussed in the beginning of this thread should be checked out medically. I noticed that this thread started some months ago and has been revived tonight. I wonder how the family is going now?.........
best wishes
D
