I found my son sitting upright on his bed, whispering softly into the dark as if someone were listening. For a split second, my heart jumped—children have a way of sensing things we overlook. But as I stepped closer, I realized he wasn’t scared. He looked calm… almost comforted.
He pointed toward the rocking chair in the corner.
“Mommy, the big man sits there,” he said quietly. “He sings.”
The chair was empty, but it gently swayed as if someone had just stood up.
The next morning, when the sun softened the mystery of the night, I asked him about the “big man.” My son described him with simple, certain details: kind… old… and wearing “a hat like the ones in Grandpa’s pictures.”
My breath caught in my throat.
My father had passed away before my son was born. He had always dreamed of meeting his grandchildren. And the hat my son mentioned? It was an old wide-brimmed one he wore in photos from decades before — pictures my son had never seen.
Still unsure, I pulled out an old family album and placed it in front of him without saying a word. He flipped through the pages with small, curious hands until he suddenly stopped. His finger tapped confidently on one picture.
“That’s him, Mommy. That’s the man who sings.”
It was my father — smiling under that familiar hat.
My son didn’t look frightened. He looked sure. Comforted, even — the way children instinctively relax around someone gentle and familiar.
That night, when I tucked him into bed, I felt something I hadn’t expected: peace. Whether it was imagination, memory, or something woven from the thin spaces between this world and the next, whatever he saw brought him warmth, not fear.
I kissed his forehead and whispered, “If someone is watching over you, then we’re lucky.”
For the first time in weeks, he slept deeply. No whispers. No stirring. Just quiet rest.
And the rocking chair stayed perfectly still.
