“I know what your grandfather looked like from behind.”

My mum has told this story for years and still gets weird about it. When she was about 11 or 12, she woke up in the night because she heard somebody moving around in the kitchen. Their house was small, so she went to the top of the stairs and could see straight through to the back door.

She said my grandad was standing outside by the pear tree with his back to the house. She could tell it was him because of this striped dressing gown he always wore. She called “Dad?” a few times but he didn’t move at all.

Eventually she went into her parents’ room to wake my grandma up, and my grandad was literally asleep in the bed next to her 😭. My grandma went downstairs with her and there was nobody outside.

The bit my mum always adds is that in the morning my grandad was annoyed because the back door was unlocked, even though he was sure he’d locked it before bed. She never told him what she’d seen because she thought he’d go outside looking for whoever it was.

She still says, “I know what your grandfather looked like from behind.” 😭