My Aunty's birthday party
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:13 am
Over the years I have had a few unusual experiences. This one occurred about 40 years ago when I was just a young fella of about 8 or 9. It was my Aunty D's 40th birthday I believe at her house just a couple of hundred meters up the road from where I lived in a little town called Wingham just near Taree in N.S.W. Sometime during the party I noticed this old lady sitting on a chair in the corner. I hadn't noticed her previously, and didn't recognise her as anyone I knew, but there were a few people I didn't know at the party so It in itself was not unusual. She noticed me looking at her and beckoned me over. She asked who I was and if I enjoyed school and the usual kinds of things that an adults asks a child. We chatted briefly and then I ran off to play with my cousins.
I can't remember if she actually told me who she was or not, but there were a couple of unusual things about her that I remember. Firstly the way she was dressed. She was wearing what I now know as a 'Victorian' dress. It was black and went from floor to neck to wrist and had lots of small black buttons down the front. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun which all made her look quite severe, but she had a big friendly smile which put me at ease.
It wasn't til maybe ten years later I was having a cuppa with Mum and looking through an old family photo album and I saw a picture of this lady. I asked who she was and mentioned that I had chatted with her at Aunty D's party. Mum gave me this weird look and said 'That's your great Grandma, She died several years before you were born' So I asked 'well who was the lady at Aunty's party who looked like her and was wearing the big black dress?' and Mum reckoned that there was no one like that at the party.
I would put it down to a case of mistaken identity and the fuzzy memories that time brings..... except that I also was visited by my Grandma after she passed away and there was no mistaking that as I knew her well.
I can't remember if she actually told me who she was or not, but there were a couple of unusual things about her that I remember. Firstly the way she was dressed. She was wearing what I now know as a 'Victorian' dress. It was black and went from floor to neck to wrist and had lots of small black buttons down the front. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun which all made her look quite severe, but she had a big friendly smile which put me at ease.
It wasn't til maybe ten years later I was having a cuppa with Mum and looking through an old family photo album and I saw a picture of this lady. I asked who she was and mentioned that I had chatted with her at Aunty D's party. Mum gave me this weird look and said 'That's your great Grandma, She died several years before you were born' So I asked 'well who was the lady at Aunty's party who looked like her and was wearing the big black dress?' and Mum reckoned that there was no one like that at the party.
I would put it down to a case of mistaken identity and the fuzzy memories that time brings..... except that I also was visited by my Grandma after she passed away and there was no mistaking that as I knew her well.