When I was younger I woke to find my Papa, who had died many years before, holding my foot at the bottom of the bed. I didn’t see him properly but knew it was him. I’ve often wondered if it was just a dream but it didn’t feel like one. I wasn’t scared despite things like this scaring me generally.
The only other time in my life of experiencing anything like this was when we moved in to our current house. From the of the bedrooms I glimpsed someone going down the stairs a few times and could also smell cigarette smoke at the same time.
My sister was with me one night and we were on the floor in the room (child’s bedroom so we were playing with DC) and she caught a glimpse of it too. I hadn’t mentioned it to her but noticed her glance round to the stairs as if someone was there, and she said she thought someone had gone downstairs.
It was just enough to make you look round. But then no one was there. First couple of times it happened to me I didn’t think anything of it, but then when it happened again I started to wonder.
We have a unit in front of the landing bannister now so can no longer see the stairs from there, and I’ve not sat on that floor for a few years.
House was incredibly filthy with tobacco / smoke when we moved in and we had to strip everything and repaint. It might be that the smell of smoke was just lingering somewhere but the only time I could smell it was when I thought someone was going down the stairs.
Previous owners were both very heavy smokers - the owners H dying had prompted her to sell up. Neighbours told us if you went to the door the smoke was so thick it used to blow out the door!