The Ghostly Nanny

In April 1984 my ex-husband and I purchased a home, and this house was a true fixer-upper with only one inhabitable bedroom. We didn't see this as too much of a problem, though, because our son was only 6 weeks old and I was still nursing him. We just put his crib in our room.

When our son was about 3 months old, I awoke in the middle of the night to see a figure bent over his crib -- an old woman was tucking in his blanket around him. The sight of a stranger standing over my son terrified me, so I jumped up to confront her. She instantly disappeared, and I reached the crib to find my son tucked in snugly. He was such a restless sleeper, and it was impossible to keep a cover of any sort around him, but there he was, all swaddled and sound asleep.

The second time the old woman appeared, I tried to remain calm. She obviously wasn't trying to hurt my son as she was only tucking in his little blanket, so I took time to watch. The moon was shining in the window, and I got a good look at her face, despite the fact that it was nearly transparent. She became even more transparent as my eyes scanned down her body, and there were no signs of feet. She seemed to be floating. After a few moments she disappeared, and when I got up to check on the baby, he was neatly tucked in and sleeping sweetly.

My ex-husband bought our house at auction. It belonged to a widower that was going to live with his daughter, and the neighbors were his wife's family. A sister lived next door and another across the street next door to their brother. The sister across the street, Mrs. Walker, was a sweet old thing, and she came to visit me regularly. She was crazy about my son. According to her, the entire family was just crazy about babies.

One day Mrs. Walker came over for a visit and brought her photo album. While looking through it, I spotted my ghostly nanny. I asked her who it was, and she told me that it was her maiden aunt. Auntie was crazy about children, and she loved it when her nieces and nephews would come for a visit. Mrs. Walker said Auntie would be up and down several times during the night making sure everyone was tucked in and snug. I told her then about Auntie's visits to my son, and she wasn't the least bit surprised. That was when she told me that Auntie had passed away in the front bedroom while being cared for by her niece.

Sometime after that, I saw Auntie for the third time. She tucked in my son, and I sat up slowly and spoke softly to her. "Thank you for tucking him in, but I'll take good care of him, you know." She turned to look at me and then just disappeared before my eyes. I never saw her again.