Jimmy and Jacob's War Games

Witness: Linda Dix
Location: Toledo, Ohio
Date of Encounter: summer/fall of 1997

When my grandson Jacob was about 4 years old we had just returned from a trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania — one of our favorite haunts. We had bought him a set of Civil War plastic army men. He enjoyed setting up the Blue and the Grey men on the coffee table and would play for hours on end. 

As all little boys do, he would talk and make war sounds as he played and knock the soldiers down in mock battle. One evening as my husband J.R. and I were watching TV, Jacob set out his army men and prepared for another battle. He was at one end of the coffee table and appeared to be talking to someone at the other end of the table. We assumed it was imagination and continued to watch our program. However the movement on the coffee table caught our attention — we stared in wonder. As Jacob would move his men toward the opposite end of the table, the pieces at the other end would move in counter attack! Jacob kept talking to the other end of the table as if playing with someone we could not see. We sat there transfixed watching him in mock battle moving his pieces forward, some falling down as make believe cannons would go off, and then at the other end of the table the same process was occurring. Just as if someone was matching his war games with him. We looked at each other, finally admitting we were seeing the same thing, we asked Jacob who he was playing with. He answered, "The boy." We asked, "What boy?" Jacob turned around a little irritated with the two of us and answered, "The little boy right there!" As he pointed his finger to the other end of the table. He sighed, thinking grandpa and grandma were blind not to see the boy, and they continued to play their war games.

Ever since Jacob was about 18 months old, he would point and say the boy, but until this night we never saw anything move about on their own before. He would always be playing and talking with someone, but this was the first time we saw evidence that this was a spirit, not an imaginary friend. As he got older we found out the little boy's name was Jimmy, and like the other spirits in our home, he was attached to it.

Now that Jacob is 11, he remembers playing with Jimmy, but unfortunately he no longer can see him like he did when he was little. It is a shame that as we get older spirits gets more impossible to see.