The first experience I remember was that there were several of us family members in beds set up for the funeral/wake. Sometime during the night while we were all sleeping there was a large thud of something crashing. We all promptly awoke and investigated the noise from within the room and found that a LARGE hardbound book had fallen off a bookshelf. No books were teetering at this time and all the contents of the bookshelves were securely within the bookshelf. The house was not shaking and all of the family members sleeping in the room were mostly Baptist and not predisposed to any affinity towards the supernatural (as was myself at the time). There was no way for this heavy book to move on its own without some sort of action taken towards it.
I hadn’t known much death before this, so the wake and being in such close proximity towards a dead body was creepy to me. I’d loved my grandfather during life and even now, but I was just a kid.
In any case, the second experience was my mother ordering me to lay down for a nap as we were going to have a long day. The bedroom where I was to nap was against the wall where my grandfather’s casket was placed against. Although this caused me to be fearful, I made an unsuccessful attempt to nap.
As I was drifting off to sleep, I heard my name. ‘Mark.’ I awoke with a start but did not make a move. I was frightened but tried to rationalize my experience. ‘Mark.’ it said again, and it sounded louder somehow although now I realize the voice was probably telepathically sent to me instead of being auditory. There was no one within earshot that would have called my name, especially in a male voice. I laid there motionless, and again tried to pretend as if I didn’t hear.
The third ‘Mark!’ was now loud and almost a shout. I was frozen in fear. The door opened and our beloved housekeeper at the time entered the room with fresh towels and whatnot. In extreme terror I jumped up and jumped on her like a scared animal, almost sending us both crashing to the ground.
After explaining to her what had happened, she related to me without much fanfare that she wasn’t surprised in the slightest, as the night previous to this while she was cleaning the kitchen, she smelled the familiar scent of my grandfather’s cologne drift past the kitchen. She said that when he was among us on earth, he would often drop by the kitchen to check on her and the strong scent of his cologne would accompany him. Last night as she was cleaning the strong scent of his cologne again wafted by her and she knew he was there.