For Realllllllll !!!! Cross my heart !!

My daughter has been reading my blog and she asks how come my ghost stories sound like those in Singapore Ghost Stories… I dunno, I never read them the Chinaman and Cleaver encounter is true.. But as I was driving this evening I remembered something else..

My mum and dad had had a huge fight.. magnified by the fact that I was perhaps only 5 or 6 at the time. It was a “ she said he said” thing which I now find perfectly normal to do with my husband . But like I said, parental fights to a 6 year older is like.. the sky falling down on chicken little.

I remember my mother crying and crawling into my bed. She told me that tomorrow we would pack our bags and go up to Klang to visit with her mother for a while. She said we would be going a long time and so I had to sleep well tonight and she would pack all my favourite things tomorrow. I asked her if we were going to drive Papa’s car up to Klang again and that’s when she said “ Your Papa is not coming. We are leaving him behind. I don’t know when we will see him again.”

Heart stopped. Jaw dropped. What’s this? We are leaving Papa at home alone? For how long? “ Sleep girl. Sleep .. tomorrow we take the train.” Sniffed my distraught mother.

That night it felt like the sky did fall down on chicken little. I had no idea what was going on, but even at 6 I knew this was no ordinary fight. As I tried to sleep I turned to face the table light next to my bed and that’s when I saw Him. I recognised Him instantly.. He was the Jesus in my Sunday school class.. the Jesus in my story books.. He looked like Jesus right down to the flowing white gown.

I stared at Him and blinked. I could’nt believe Jesus was sitting on my table next to my night light. I struggled to call my mum who was sniffling but apparently had fallen asleep.. it was just Him and me. I wanted to climb out of bed.. touch Him to see if He was real. He looked at me with kind eyes and said “ I shall never leave you nor forsake you..” then just like that He kinda vanished.

He will never leave me nor forsake me..I had no idea it was a verse from the bible at the time. It was many years later that I was to encounter Him again.. But since Jesus is Jesus.. I don’t count Him as a ghost.. so Yeah Michelle, the Chinaman and his cleaver was my first encounter with a ghost.. even if he was conjured by a frantic house help probably looking for a way to gain some extra vacation time from her Tow Kay Neo.

Hindsight and experience is a wonderful thing. In my more mature state I too have had maids who have pleaded to go home because some dead relative had come a calling in their sleep !