Playmate
My five-year-old daughter was alone in her room, but she said she was playing with Eleonóra. She mentioned Eleonóra several times in the following months, but said she would "come down" soon. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I let it be. One day she announced that Eleonóra had come down. A few days later, I ran into the neighbors who were just bringing home their newborn baby. The baby's name was Eleonóra.
The Colors
My little girl didn’t climb on the playground equipment with the other children; instead, she just stood with her eyes closed, smiling, her face turned toward the sky. When I asked what she was doing, she said she was listening to the colors. She wouldn’t eat carrots because she said their color "shouts loudly at her."
She started playing piano very early and soon began composing her own songs. She played the instrument while happily staring at the blank wall: she said she sees the sounds as waves vibrating in every color of the rainbow. Doctors say this is synesthesia.
Little Brother
When my six-year-old son’s little brother was born, he said that they had been siblings once before and didn’t like each other then, but now he was happy to be brothers again because this time they would love each other.
Telepathy
I was looking for my daughter’s purple sweater—I thought she could wear it to grandma’s birthday—but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Then the child shouted down from upstairs, "Mom, it’s at the bottom left of the drawer cabinet, but I don’t want to wear that, I want my blue top!"
That was the first time she read my thoughts, and my blood ran cold. Since then, my husband and I have gotten used to our daughter sometimes answering questions we only think but don’t say aloud. We asked her not to do this with others, and as she grows up, it really happens less and less. I don’t know if she does it deliberately so as not to scare anyone, or if she’s starting to lose the ability, but I don’t want to ask her.
The Prediction
My son sometimes said that grandma or the neighbor uncle told him this or that, although both had already died, but we didn’t make a big deal out of it. We thought he was processing their deaths this way.
Then one day the class teacher called to say my son was scaring his classmates with ghosts. He told one little girl not to expect her dad because he wouldn’t be coming home anymore—and the man died that evening in a car accident.
I’m Going Home
My daughter was always a little old soul, thoughtful child. When she was eight, at bedtime, she whispered to me that she would soon have to go home. I told her she was home, but she said this was only a temporary place, soon someone would come for her and take her home. I asked who, but she closed her eyes and just said not to be sad because her home was very beautiful and we would meet again. The next day she fell into a coma and died two days later.
The Wheelchair
We were visiting my father in the hospital when we passed an empty wheelchair in the hallway. "I haven’t sat in one of these yet," said my four-year-old daughter. I told her she didn’t need it, but she looked at me and said, "After our accident, I will need it."
The Friends
My son regularly talked to his invisible friends. At home while playing, at the store, in the park, everywhere. We took him to a doctor and since he started taking medication, he says they have disappeared.
Mom
I was 11 when my mother died, and my daughter was born on the same day as her, June 23. One day while playing, my daughter told me that she is my mother. I told her that I am her mother, to which she shrugged and said yes, that’s true, but she is my mother.
My Name
My five-year-old son wanted to know what his name was "long ago." I told him his name was always Peti, but he insisted he wanted to know what his name was LONG AGO. When he was "old, had white hair, a beard, and lived alone in the forest." He was disappointed I couldn’t tell him because he liked that name but doesn’t remember it.
