I have no memory of it, so I can't say this story is true. My grandpa died when I was 8.
I don't even remember Grandpa; all I remember of him is that he wouldn't allow Granny to give us a switch or a belt, and he was a quiet, gentle man.
I refused to sleep in my own room, so I would sleep with him after my mom went to work; she'd leave the house at 5 am, and I'd go crawl in bed with Grandpa. Granny and Grandpa had separate rooms; only one time did I ever hear him raise his voice or curse, and I wet the bed, and he jumped out of bed cussing.
I never wet any bed again.
Rumor has it that his mother was half and half-white father, a Native American mother.
Grandpa looked Native American, as did his brother.
We cannot say if that is true or not; a lot of people have tried to find proof that his mother existed, and there are no records of any kind about her: no birth records, no census records, no school records.
Until she came to Tennessee and gave birth at 17, she simply did not exist.
She always would say, if asked, that she was from one of those damn mean injun tribes from Illinois.
She claimed to have been born in 1887, which again may or may not be true; even her name is questionable as she went by three different names.
I mention this because we do have proof Grandpa's father's people came from Ireland, and if his Ma was actually Native American, then both of those have been known to be more sensitive to the paranormal.
Long, windy story, I know.
When I was 2 days old, I was found in the nursery not breathing and a dark, dusky purple-black color.
Somehow they brought me back.
I was a sickly child.
When I was 3-4 years old, they thought I had leukemia; luckily, it was only anemia.
When I was 6, I almost bled out during a tonsillectomy.
Until the day he died, Grandpa would tell my mom that at night he could hear the devil's children playing in the road and that he believed it meant that I would not live to become an adult.
Well, I turned 50 this year, and I'm still here.
In all the years I lived in that house, I can not ever remember hearing kids outside laughing and playing late at night; whatever he heard died with him.
As far as I know, no one else heard the devil's children, but we were always inside after dark.
I do not remember any of my family staying out past dark.
