Do you see dead people? I do... in my dreams

I'm totally stealing an idea I got from Vodka Mom.

There have been times throughout my life and the lives of those around me when in our dreams, or even in our waking states, our loved ones (and others) who have passed on before us have shown themselves to us. These are some of the stories.

My brother's wife, Pam, passed away in May 1995 from a cerebral hemorrhage. She was only 37 years old. In 1988 and again in 1991, she lost babies at birth. My brother had a tough time dealing with all this, but he had 2 other small children and an older daughter from a previous marriage and he had to get on with his life for his kids' sakes. One day, about a year after Pam passed away, Michael had a "waking dream". He swears he was awake when Pam appeared to him, dressed in a long white dress, sitting in a big rattan fan chair. On each knee she was holding a baby. She told Michael she was fine and she was taking care of MJ and Alex and he should get on with his life.

My mother appeared to my daughter in her room shortly after her death in 1999. Gina told me "Mama Gigi was in my room last night." I told Gina she was probably dreaming. Gina swears she was awake and my mother was playing with her hair. She told my mother to stop and mom went away. I don't know if my mom ever appeared to her again.

My mother-in-law and father-in-law have both been gone for many years (my MIL in 1971 and and my FIL in 1976). I never knew them. The summer of 1996 we went to Sea Isle City, NJ for a week for vacation. One afternoon, my then husband, Greg went back to the house with my daughter, Dani (could have been Gina... I can't remember for sure) for lunch. As he was waiting to cross the street, a woman rode past them on a bike. The woman looked at our daughter, looked at Greg, smiled and nodded as if giving her approval. He swears it was his mother.

My in-laws came to me in a dream some years ago. In the dream, they wanted to meet our kids, so they got permission to come down from heaven and spend the day with us. It didn't seem at all strange to me (but what does seem strange in a dream? everything makes perfect sense in the dream state)

I do dream about my mother and father, always separately in dreams. I have no details of the dreams I had, but I remember dreaming about them from time to time. My mother is always old and my father is always much younger. (my dad passed in 1980 and my mom in 1999)

My ex-husband and I owned a restaurant in Kutztown, PA from August 1997 to December 2002. The building was built in 1740 with an addition added on in the 1800s. The building is said to be haunted by Suzanna Levan Kemp. Suzanna was born in that house, lived there her entire life and died in the house. Her husband, George Kemp purchased the house from her father, Daniel Levan. The place was run as an Inn for generations. John Adams spent the night (this is documented) as well as Martha Washington (allegedly).

There were lots of weird things going on as we were doing renovations on the place prior to opening. My daughter, Gina swears she could smell lavender when she was upstairs reading (the building was musty from being closed up, so the smell of flowers would be odd). We had things moved from one room to another while we were gone from the building. Too many weird things happened to talk about in detail or this blog would be so long! Things settled down once we opened. One waitress, Dawn, swears Suzanna was standing outside the upstairs bathroom one day (but Dawn was a drunk and a liar so we never believed her LOL). But there were often times, I'd come out of the kitchen and walk down the hall past this one small room, aptly named the Suzanna Room and I swear I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a woman in a long blue dress standing in front of the fireplace. When I'd go back to check, the room would be empty.

There were a few times I had to spend the night at the restaurant (we had a sofa upstairs in the office for such emergencies) because of impending snowstorms, when I wouldn't be able to get there in the morning. I do admit, I was a bit freaked out each time, afraid Suzanna would make an appearance and I'd drop dead in horror, but thankfully she never did (maybe she knew this and didn't want company for all eternity). To settle my nerves, I'd get lock the place up tight, get ready for bed (usually in a sweatsuit), make a big blenderful of margaritas, grab a yummy dessert out of the fridge and watch tv in the bar until I was "medicated" enough to get some sleep.

So, does anyone have an good ghost stories to tell?