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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Did You Have an "Imaginary" Friend as a Kid?

I did. Her name was Merriweather, and I didn't think she was imaginary at all because I could see her quite clearly, although no one else could except, perhaps, my sister Debbie who maybe saw her at least a couple of times when she was with me. Looking back with the eyes and experience of an adult, I know now she wasn't imaginary. "Seeing" things runs in our family. I think my sister, who was terribly shy as a child, just didn't want to be seen as strange by the other kids - there was a "mob" of us who went to St. Rose's grade school and we'd walk together every day. I had no such problem. I loudly declared what I saw and dared anyone to call me a liar! Merriweather was an "older" woman, but nearly anyone would be old to me at that time because I was in 4th grade, probably 8 years old. She was also "tall", again most any adult would have seemed tall to me at the time, because I was a small kid (I was only 5'1" at age 15 and did not reach my adult height of 5' 3-3/4" until my mid-20s). She wore her hair in an upswept do with curls in the front, and a long sleeved gown with a small "train" in the back, that would trail around behind her when she moved. I don't recall that she ever spoke to me, and she never frightened to me, so I'm thinking she was not what the following article calls an "NCC." I think now that Merriweather was a probably a "ghost," and from my recollection of her costume, perhaps from the late 19th or early 20th century. I only saw her in a certain location (a long-vacant store front that we passed every day on the way to school) - she didn't follow me around or appear in my room at night, for instance. Not sure now how I knew her name, since she didn't talk to me. Hmmm... What I like about this article is that it does not assume that children who "see" things are just "imagining" it! Invizikids: Imaginary Childhood Friends Maybe I wrote about this before? Seems familiar. If so, apologies!

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