Great Grandmother Returns From the Grave to Say Goodbye

Spirit Returns After 7 Days to Wish Everyone Farewell.

There is an old Chinese belief that seven days after a loved one passes away, they shall return to say their last farewell.

I was 8 years old when my great grandmother passed away. My grandfather and grandmother were living in a double story semi-detached house at the time. It was a small two bedroom house, long and narrow, build just before WW2.

Seven days after my great grandmother passed, my grandfather called the family together and said there was an old family tradition that he wanted us to follow, he would tell us what it was after dinner.

I should probably describe my old home and a write a little bit about my great grandmother to you folks. First let me tell you a little bit about great granny, she was originally from China, at the time I thought she had exceptionally small feet, it was only later that I found out she had lotus feet, a barbaric practice that I am happy to say has died out. The reason I mention her feet will become evident later in the tale I am about to share.

Our home was an old precolonial building, double storied, one entrance at the front and an exit in the kitchen at the back. To the right there was an old wooden staircase that led to the first floor. It was a narrow stairway that creaked loudly once the slightest pressure was placed on it.

Let us return to the dinner table and hear the tale my grandfather had for us.

Grandfathers Tale.

After we ate, grandfather told us that great grandmothers spirit would be returning to say farewell, he asked us not to be afraid, and told us that everyone of our ancestors have made a tradition of being together so that it is easier for our beloved ones spirit to say goodbye, he hoped that we would all follow this tradition and stay asleep in one room of our house, it might be a little cramped he said, but it was only for one night.

Everyone agreed to stay overnight, and we all filed upstairs to watch TV and prepare for the long night ahead of us. As we followed up the creaky stairs, my grandfather was the last person to go up, he locked up the house and followed us up, as we stood at the top of the stairway, we saw grandpa carrying a bag of flour, he slowly walked up backwards and sprinkled a thick layer of flour on each stair, it looked like it had snowed.

Grandpa told us, no one was to go downstairs, he said that tomorrow we would know if great grandma had said her goodbyes. Needless to say, this pretty much spooked the heck out of all us kids, and we ran into the master bedroom with all the adults and huddled together. Discussing how creepy this all was. The adults were pretty much just humoring my grandpa. As the night wore on, one by one, people started to nod off, in chairs, on the bed and on blankets and pillows thrown on the floor, it was like a slumber party for adults and kids.

In the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of a muffled squeal, it was my aunt, she was sitting up staring at the bedroom door, as I looked around I saw everyone was up, all of us looking around confused. Then we heard it. The creaking of the stairs, a creak, then a pause of a few seconds, then another creak.

The hair on the back of my neck stood on ends, I felt a cold chill run through me, I quickly looked around the room to see if anyone was walking downstairs. But we were all in the room, my grandfather put a finger to his lips and quietly shushed everyone. So there we sat. Listening to the sounds of a person walking up our stairs. As the sound got closer, everyone waited with bated breath, then we smelt it, a strong aroma of lavender, my great grandmother always put lavender in her closet, she said that it kept the moths away.

After a few minutes the aroma of lavender dissipated and my grandfather told us that great grandma had said her goodbyes and that we should all leave if we wanted to or we could stay until morning, we all decided to stay.

Early the next morning my father woke us up and told us to have a look at something, so we rushed out of the bedroom, there lined up in a neat row was the whole family, looking down at the stairs, imprinted in the flour were footprints, but not normal sized feet, they were my great grandmothers footprints, the only person we knew who had lotus feet, her little shoe prints only pointed one way, they only came up to the top of the stairs. There were no prints going back down.

As I stood there looking at the footprints in the flour, every single hair on my arms stood straight up.

The Legend.

There is belief among the older generation, that a loved one who has passed away will return after 7 days to say farewell. In rare cases there have been sightings.