Some years back, my grandmother stayed for a few nights in her late nephew’s house at Tampines opposite the j.c. He was very sick and my grandmother & a few of her sisters & their husbands stayed to look after him.

My grandmother has this habit of waking up in the middle of the night or rather wee hours of the morning to go & relieve herself. She still does that now. Anyway, as she was walking past the balcony to get to the toilet, she felt uneasy. You know, the kind of feeling as if someone’s there wathing you.

Her instincts told her to turn and looked at the balcony. What she saw freaked her out completely that she just stood rooted to the ground! It was ‘her’. She was just floating about staring at my grandmother’s direction. My grandma went numb. She was speechless. She couldn’t even utter a word of prayer.

Lucky for her, her brother-in-law came out of the room too. Don’t know why. Maybe for the same reasons. Old folks…He saw how pale & shocked she looked & asked her why. My grandma just kept quiet & continued staring at that thing. Realising something is not quite right, he looked where she was looking & saw her too. Instantly, he muttered some prayers & shook my grandma. That thing vanished into the thin air & my grandma regained her composure.

A few days later, my grandma left for home. One night, she saw the same thing again floating at the foot of my bed staring down at us! Imagine the shock she had! And the shock I would have if I was awake! It actually followed her home. This time, her faith was stronger & she managed to utter a word of prayer. The next day she immediately told my father about the incident. My father burn incense, perform a short prayer & ‘clean’ every nook & corner of the house.

Ever since that day, the thing never return. Maybe it knew that the occupants in the house have very strong faith in God & it can’t frighten us. That is one reason why at least someone should perform prayers in the house so as to ward off these things.