The Guardian of Bergen Road

When my child, Ari, was three years old, he began seeing things. Presently, they weren't visualizations, but he is an otherworldly child and is profoundly intuitive. One day, in our brownstone in Brooklyn, Ari was trying to rest. He had trouble getting himself to bed and appeared distracted. He was looking in front of himself as if there was somebody or something standing there. I asked what he was looking at, and he said, "Ancient grandmother is here!" I asked if he meant his grandmother, and he answered, "No, ancient grandmother She's wearing dark and white and she visits me now and then." I quickly knew that he was looking at an apparition. I wasn't creeped out, since I believe in spirits and phantoms. I've never seen anything myself, but I know that my child is exceptionally connected.

I'm a natural person. I've studied tarot and believe in things that are "new age-y," so I wasn't shocked that my child acquired that quality. In addition to Ari seeing this "ancient grandmother" figure, I noticed a few interesting things about my house.

One of the things that happened during that time period is that when our house got messy, objects would drop on the ground arbitrarily and would frequently smash on the floor. For example, there was one occasion where there was a heap of papers on the table in the kitchen and a mug was on top of them. The mug wasn't in a dubious position, but I saw it drop on the floor and break. I knew that this was the result of a soul, and I associated it to the lady that Ari was seeing. I had my friend's mother come over and see if she identified any apparitions since she is Brazilian and comes from a background that encouraged her to believe in phantoms as well. I discovered that societies outside of the United States are more open to these things.

I decided to ask her if she'd check it out. There were two doors that led to my office. During the evening, the doors would unexpectedly slam closed. Sometimes, they'd do this during the day, but it was mostly at night. I asked my friend's mother if she'd take a look in the office. As soon as she approached the office, the doors slammed shut in her face and nearly hit her nose, I knew that something was up. The doors weren't closing because there was wind blowing or anything like that. They were arbitrarily closing, and I was greatly confused. My friend's mother said that this "ancient grandmother" figure was a Victorian woman, she suspected. Or maybe, I told her that I thought it was a Victorian lady since that's what I picked up on using my own instinct. Furthermore, I knew that the brownstone was ancient. My friend's mother talked to this "ancient grandmother" figure and found that she was there to protect my kids.

Upon finding this piece of information, I was not anxious about her. I still found it irritating that she'd knock things over and break them. Another thing is that she didn't need to leave our house. Ancient grandmother was disturbed when the house was messy and would break things regularly to express this to us. I asked my friend's mother what to do to settle this situation, and she said that the ancient lady was adamant. "Ancient grandmother" wouldn't leave... She needed to see after the kids, and for me to keep the house clean. I'm disorganized and chaotic; I have ADHD, so this is justifiable. My ex-husband was the cleaner of the relationship, so he took care of that more regularly than I did.

Old grandmother went to Ari for a long time. I used to ask him about ancient grandmother intermittently since I needed him to remember her. Now, he's ten years old. I asked him about her the other day to see if he remembered anything. He doesn't remember the story at all, which is curious. We've since moved out of Brooklyn, but I believe that "ancient grandmother" is still there, hanging out on the third floor of my ancient home on Bergen Road. If you're reading this, ancient grandmother, hi Thank you for impacting us to keep our house clean. The lesson that I need readers to take away from this is that if you're living with a ghost, you do not need to be perplexed. They may not be destructive. They might really be there to help you (or, in my case, remind you to clean.)