Dad's Doppleganger

Name:            Dee Thornhill
Email:           thornhid@aol.com
Location:        multiple occuring in New Orleans
Type:            Ghost
Date:            Sunday, July 02, 2000
Time:            03:01 AM

Just found this archive, and thought I'd contribute my own experiences.

Starting from when I was fairly young (5 or so), and extending throughout my teenage years, both my mother and I would constantly have run-ins with what we used to call Dad's doppelganger. 

My first experiences began shortly after we moved to the home my parents live in now, when I was five. My father was a doctor, and always came home very late. About an hour before he actually came home, both my mother and I would hear a car drive up into the garage, shut off, door open and close, and footsteps walk up to the side door. No one was ever there. Almost exactly an hour later, Dad would drive up, home safe from the office. This became so frequent, that when we heard it, my mother and I would look at each other and comment, "Well, Dad's on his way home now!" Mom would get up, start his dinner and fresh coffee, and have it ready when he got home. The sound were always clear as a bell, and sounded nothing like a neighbor's car pulling up next door. And after the first few times, we discounted a perpetually lost person turning around in our driveway! Dad was really spooked by this and didn't want to hear about it after awhile. 

Another doppelganger experience occurred during a shopping trip to the local mall when I was about 10 or so. My family and I were all wandering around the men's clothing section of a big department store, and I got separated from my Dad. Short as I was then, once I realized this fact, I immediately began looking for the tweed hat my Dad wore that day. Spotting it, I headed for the man I assumed to be my father. He was standing in the aisle with his back to me when I came out from between the racks of clothes. I called out, "Dad...Dad, here I am, I just got lost for a second..." as I was walking up to him. This man turned around, looked me full in the face and asked me, "Who are you? I'm not your father!" I was stunned! He could've been my father's twin. He had on the same hat, the same mustache and beard, the same haircut (with a sort of cheesy wave dipping down in front over his eyes), and the same type of watch. But he was wearing totally different clothes!! I thought at first he had changed into something else (this WAS the men's department remember) and was teasing me. I thought that for about half a second, until I hear my real Dad calling my name from across by the shoes. I booked for the shoe section, found my dad (wearing the same clothes I had seen him in that morning) and excitedly told him what had just happened. We looked, but could not find the other man. When my mother joined us, she commented that several of Dad's patients had commented before that they had seen a man they could've sworn was my father in every physical respect, but refused to answer to his name. 

The sightings were all over the city, and one was even on the West Bank! These were all at times my father could not have been where his patients said he was. 

Creepy!