This week, I thought I’d add some spice to your week by sharing an event that happened to my grandmother when I lived in the Philippines.
My Grandmother’s Encounter with the Unknown
From Anna Maria Manalo, Author, “Portal: A Lifetime of Paranormal Experiences”, 2nd Edition, Beyond The Fray Publishing. (C) 2021 Anna Maria Manalo.
On AMAZON kindle and paperback.
Growing up in the Philippines, a series of islands that form a republic in the center of the Asian/Pacific rim, my native country was host to a myriad of strange, unusual and inexplicable events. This highly Latino country, host to Spain for 400 years before it’s independence, lies south of Japan and north of Indonesia, just a few scant miles from the deepest depth of the ocean, called the Marianas Trench.
The highly strange events left conclusive evidence by way of sheer numbers of accounts and in some cases, concrete proof.
I explain proof as that left behind by these encounters, such as photographs, hand or body prints, unexplained objects or materials that are tangible in three dimensions. Measurable, quantifiable and verifiable by experts.
In this particular case, the evidence was radiation in nature, brought about by a “close encounter of the second kind” in the vernacular of the UFOlogist – and it involved my own grandmother.
I was four. This encounter, among others supernatural, piqued my interest. It’s singularity among the supernatural events in my neighborhood, further raised my awareness of a greater reality that perplexes me to this day. It set the course of my lifetime fascination and exploration into the unknown.
My grandmother,who was affectionately called “Adeling” for Adelaida, attended dental school and at the time of my birth, had several children and lived in a large home in a small neighborhood.
Ending a usually-busy day replete with appointments and chores as she ran a house with a housekeeper and two maids, a busy husband and a large family was no easy task, she finally was glad to settle into bed at a late hour. As she was last to settle in, with the housekeeper retired to bed at 10 pm, it was close to midnight by the time she entered the bedroom she shared with her husband, a medical doctor who was away.
Adeling recollects finally lying in bed, beginning to doze off when she noted a strong brightness coming from the window above her head to the right. In fact, it was so bright that it lit up the entire bedroom all around. At first she surmised that the neighbor over the wall which divided their property had turned on a light of some sort.
Irritated, Adeling got up, feeling disrupted from her sleep. She proceeded to clamber up the deep window sill which was protected by wrought iron bars, decorated in filigree as was the fashion of Spanish homes at the time. There was no light from the neighbor’s home across the expanse between the two properties. Indeed, the house was pitch dark as all were in bed.
Adeling looked up over the long overhang of the house’s roof. She noted with some consternation that the light may be originating over the house. She felt heat, as if the sun had somehow come closer at midnight. As strained to see over the roofline, she climbed onto the sill and inclined her head so that it made contact with the iron bars, as she strained to see over the edge of the roof. Whatever it was was bright and hot.
She pulled away, puzzled and alarmed. She recalled it was eerie and silent. Whatever it was, was just THERE. Then, a few minutes later, the light decreased in brightness as if the source was moving away.
Then the light winked out. Adeling, exhausted and seeing stars from the brightness, as if she was staring directly at the sun. She stepped down from the window and recalled feeling tired and very sleepy. She laid in bed and it seemed to her that her next recollection was a firm knocking on the door. It was morning, and one of her daughters was calling out to her to awaken through the door.
It was later than usual for her as she noted everyone was up downstairs from the movements of the dining room chairs, the conversations and the sounds of dishes and cutlery. As she opened the bedroom door, Sonya, her oldest, gave a gasp as she saw her mother. “What happened to your face, Mama?” Why, she asked. “You’ve got a tan.” Adeling emerged from the room and beheld her face in the upstairs foyer mirror with her daughter looking on. “Did you garden at midday, Mama? You’ll need some lotion for that.”
My grandmother’s face was all tan so that when she touched it, it hurt. She became unsteady, dizzy and feeling ill. She told Sonya she may be right as she was feeling out of sorts. Sonya called the maid to help and they walked down the stairs together, supporting her on both sides. After a spell of what she described as vertigo, she had breakfast and was taken to the doctor, a colleague of my grandfather’s.
The physician examined her and indicated she should stay indoors and hydrated. He prodded her with questions about whether she was outside in the noonday sun, which is avoided due to the heat in the tropics and the UV exposure particularly in a hot climate like the Philippines where most people carried parasols to avoid being burned. She finally told him that she had been indoors most of the day, until the late night encounter. Her daughter who remained with her during the examination prodded her mother for details about the “midnight sun” as my grandmother named the brilliant light she encountered.
When they returned home, Adeling told her family about the strange light at the window and the doctor’s conclusion that she had first degree burns and even perhaps “sun poisoning”. Adeling spent the next few days drinking copious amounts of water, placing salves on her face, and had to go to the ophthalmologist to determine why her eyes were irritated.
She had to be seen by the specialist for iritis, an inflammation of the eye and was told to stay indoors and to keep the lights dim at night.
The ophthalmologist asked, perturbed: “Why were you looking at the sun directly?” It was a question my grandmother could not answer as the source of the light was a phenomenon she herself was at a loss to answer.
