Living With Spirits

Witness: Cat
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date of Encounter: 1991 to present

My entire life I have know that I am not alone. I remember as a toddler being afraid of the "scary people" in my parent's home that not everyone could see. My sisters and my parents always saw them, spoke with them, my mother even fought with them at times when they became violent or aggressive with us. 1991 is the year that changed everything.

Every experience before that was scary and I always felt threatened. The day that my older brother died in 1991, the energy around me completely changed. I sat for hours talking to him. I couldn't see him, but I could smell him and I could hear him in my head. At first I thought it was just wishful thinking, but he wasn't saying what I wanted him to say. He was very upset. A bully who had been tormenting me at school called my home hysterical saying that my brother had called her at home that morning and she wanted to apologize to me. My brother had died the night before. I became very aware of what was around me that day. That night when I laid down to go to sleep, I heard the loudest, most shrill noise — like thick, heavy fabric ripping, and then I couldn't smell him anymore.

In the years since then, I have seen him on many occasions. I've also seen and spoken with my father (who died 20 years ago when I was too young to even remember him that well), I have seen and heard a little girl since 1994. She scares the heck out of my husband, but she has never scared me. I think she is just latching on to me for whatever reason. She cries sometimes. But if I talk to her she seems more calm. Both my kids have seen my brother and they have had a spirit boy that they see — his name is Jimmy. They have both said that they used to see the "red Angel" — she apparently was a woman with long hair and a red dress who would check on them at bedtime, and then she would float out the window. They say they only saw her in a particular house we lived in. We have since moved. None of these spirits ever scare me anymore. I feel no malice or ill will from any of them — not since the death of my brother.