Ghost Stories

Family Wolves

My family has longheld a reputation among ourselves for ghostly and mysticaloccurrences. There's been so many that I could literally fill abook with them! But today I'm going to focus on just one topic,and that's the wolves.

We have a lot of children in our family - my two older sistersand older brother all married young and had 3-4 children apiece.And my sisters' children are the ones who seem most "perceptive"as far as the paranormal.

The first time I remember hearing about "the wolves" isfrom my sister Diana. She was living down the street from us atthe time, in a small, two bedroom house. She was a single motherand her two children, Julia and James, lived with her. Julia wasabout 4 or 5 at this time, and James was just a baby (around 2).They shared a room directly across from their mother.

Diana came over one day, and told us that in the middle of thenight, she had gone to check on the children (she had beenwatching television and fallen asleep, and when she woke up shedecided to check the kids before crawling into bed), and foundJulia standing by her window, looking outside. She was a littlealarmed, wondering what her daughter could be seeing outside, andwhy she was out of bed. She went over and touched her and got herattention.

She asked Julia, "What's wrong? Why aren't you in bed?"and the little girl replied, "The wolf was howling and wokeme up."

Thinking that Julia must be alluding to the small dog herneighbor kept next door, she smiled and told her to go back tobed. She said not to worry, that it was just the neighbor's dogand next time not to go look out the window because she wouldn'tbe able to see it anyway. And Julia replied, "No mommy, Isaw the man with the big wolf looking in my window and I got upto see what he wanted."

That was frightening! Diana was worried and took a peek outsideherself, but saw nothing, of course. Julia didn't seem botheredat all about it, in fact, she seemed quite cheerful in her sleepystate. Diana asked her to describe the man and the wolf.

Julia said the wolf was large and grey, and stood beside this manwith dark hair and dark skin, with braids and feathers. She saidhe was dressed funny, and that they smiled when they saw her andwaved and told her to go back to bed now.

Sound like an indian to you? That's what we thought. Wolves arelong known to be "protective spirits" in manyAmerindian cultures, and my family has indian heritage, althoughdiluted in later generations. Perhaps Julia has a wolfy guardianangel!

This wasn't the last episode of the family wolves, either. Laterone time when my other sister's oldest son, Robert, was sittingon my mom's lap when they were visiting, he looked at her shirt (whichhad a wolf on it) and said in a sing-song voice, "Grandma,that looks just like my wolf-friend that visits me when I sleep!"

=) I believe in Guardian Spirits, do you?