Some of the most frequently reported ghost sightings involve apparitions of the dying or recently deceased. As well as breaking ties with the physical world, this type of encounter seems to be a final farewell.
In the 1700s, a young Englishman living in Boston named "M.A." wrote to a friend in England to inquire about the whereabouts of his brother back home. Three days earlier, the man had seen his brother's apparition in his bedroom looking deathly pale, with a bloodied napkin on his head. He felt that something terrible must have happened. Indeed it had; three days earlier M.A.'s brother had been hit over the head with a poker, and a fractured skull had caused his death. There was no other way that the Boston-based brother could have known about his brother's untimely death in England.
In certain villages in China, locals believe that a father will appear to his son 90 days after he dies. One son was so scared of his father's return that he decided to take a plane flight after the man's death, in the hope that it would stop the visitation. However, upon visiting the toilet, he allegedly noticed his father standing behind him for a few brief moments, in the mirror.
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