“The Charming Old Gentleman”
We had just bought our first home, in Long Beach, CA and had our first baby, so it was some time in the late 1980s. I woke up, and saw a shadow in the hallway outside our bedroom door. A very tall, very thin man, wearing all dark, kind of wrinkled old clothing – long coat and baggy trousers, had his back pressed up against the wall just outside my door frame. He was so tall that he had to bend down to “pop” his head into the room. He was wearing a top hat of sorts. He kind of reminded me of Lincoln. So he “popped his head in, looked at me, then popped his head back out, did that twice, and that was that. He was gone. And I had no fear of this man in my hallway! That was the strangest part. No fear at all!
So I told my husband of course, and he wrote it off to a dream. And I told my younger sister.
A decade passed. My mom had cancer. My sister was at Mom’s place and called me “You have GOT to come over here right now! I asked if it was mom, but she said she was fine, “Just get here!!
I walk in and my sister says to my mom “Tell her what you just told me!” My mom says, “I was sleeping on the couch last night when all of a sudden I woke up and there was this really tall, charming old gentleman in the hallway! He had to “pop” his head down to look in the room at me. He was dressed in all dark, kind of frumpy, wrinkled clothing, with a long black coat and a top hat. I felt calm when I saw him, I was not afraid of him.”
Neither my sister nor I had ever told our mom my story before.
My mom passed away a few weeks later. I have never seen the hat man again.”