Grandpa's Chair

Informant: Male/30/mixed Asian ancestry
Location: Kapa'a, Kauai

The house we live in belonged to my mother-in-law's parents. They have long since passed, but most of their possessions remain, including the rocking chair in Grandpa's room, which is now my daughter's room.

I started to notice that my four-year-old would sometimes look like she was talking to someone, but I didn't really think much about it. One day when we went into her room, she pointed to the rocking chair in the corner and said "That's grandpa's chair." I asked her, "Grandpa who?" Again, she said "Grandpa. That's grandpa's chair," and she pointed to the rocking chair which was indeed the chair he sat in all the time.

There is an old family picture in the house, so I brought it to her and told her "Who is grandpa?" She looked at the picture and pointed to my mother-in-law's father, who is indeed the correct grandpa.

Grandpa died before she was born. She's never seen him. There's no way she would have known that room was his room, and there's no way she would know that he sat in that chair.