This is an experience I had in May, 1999 outside the small town of Roanoke, Indiana. My father was visiting from Texas as I had just given birth to my youngest daughter. It was warm enough, we were sitting outside on the patio. From my lawn chair I could see into my kitchen through the door that was open and also through the large window next to it. We were expecting my brother to arrive some time that day, and as we are good friends I knew he would just walk in the house and come out in the backyard when he got there.
While I was talking to my dad, still facing the kitchen, I saw who I thought must be my brother go through the kitchen. When he didn't come out, I thought maybe he was in the bathroom, didn't see us (although that was next to impossible), getting a drink, etc. I went inside to say hi and see what was up. No one was in the house. I was stunned and as I thought about what I really saw I got goose bumps, such as I am getting as I type this.
What I saw was black. Inky black, not transparent like a shadow. It was very tall with a slight stoop. The top of its "head" was flat, almost like a hat. The shoulders slanted down with no discernible outline after that. It was blotting out the top of the cupboards above the stove area. My brother is tall, 6'4", which is why I had the impression it was him. But when I thought about it, our ceilings are 9 feet tall. That means that thing was over 8 feet tall! The movement was so smooth the word glide is all that comes to mind.
I find it interesting that people say these things are imagination. The irony is my mind imagined it was my brother arriving as a way to try to explain away something that didn't make sense and yet could not be put off as imagination. I didn't say anything to anyone about this. Even getting up to see why my brother wasn't coming out, I just got up and excused myself from conversation without any words like "John's here! I'll be right back." During the whole 10 seconds or so I watched it, I was just sort of numb.
The next morning, my 10-year-old daughter asked me why Terry, my husband, was in her bedroom this morning. She said she woke up to see a very tall man (Terry is even taller than my brother) standing by her bedroom door. She had thought maybe Terry had come in to tell her goodbye, but she had fallen back asleep before speaking to him. I told her it must have been him, although I knew it wasn't because he was running late and barely had time to grab a cup of coffee and tell me goodbye.
After we moved out of that house and she was a little older, I told her the truth. And then she told me she knew it wasn't Terry in her bedroom. The thing was all in black like a silhouette. Neither of us saw it again after that weekend, although while hiking in Bryce Canyon in Southern Utah I took a photo looking up onto a cliff, and after developing the film there is the unmistakable figure of a very large, no-faced cloaked and top-hatted figure. Supposedly, the Native Americans won't go into the "canyon" area after nightfall because seeing these creatures is a common occurrence.
