by Joanne of Bantay, Ilocos Sur, Philippines
I had a vivid dream of a man sitting on the edge of my bed. He was obviously sad, with his face buried in his hands, with no shirt on and wearing blue shorts.
In the dream, I kept hiding from him under my sheets, but everytime I would peek to see if he was still there, he would stand up and begin to turn around in my direction. Scared to see his face, I would then hide again under my sheets.
His figure kept growing each time I looked at him, and I grew more fearful of what he was going to do. I struggled to wake up, even trying to call out to my sister who was sleeping in the bed next to me at the time. I continued to cry out, and when I couldn't wake myself up, I began to panick in my dream. When I finally woke up, I was sitting up straight in my bed looking at my sister, who had woken me up from this nightmare. My sister and I are strong believers that the deceased visit us in our dreams, but never have I experienced such a vivid and haunting dream.
I didn't recognize the man at the edge of my bed, nor did he say what he was coming to me for. So, needless to say, the dream had shaken me up.
The next morning at breakfast, my sister had explained to the rest of my family what had happened the night before. When asked to describe what the man looked like, I mentioned his body type and face profile reminded me of my cousin Moi, that he wasn't wearing a shirt, and his shorts were blue.
I knew that my Uncle Romy, the father of Moi, had passed away almost 23 years ago, but what I didn't know was that his death anniversary and birthday all fell within a few days prior to my dream. My aunt had mentioned that very little was done to commemorate him this year, and upon describing what the man was wearing, my mother said that it was typical of Uncle Romy to dress like that in the hot, Philippine weather. Not to mention, he used to live next door to our home.
Whether or not it is was him, I'm still not sure. But in his memory, we held a prayer a few days later for his spirit and our other deceased relatives in our home.