rich 1.0 In tonight's dead letter, listener Mothmaiden remembers a time when she was four years old and an only child in a neighborhood with no other kids, and she had an imaginary friend named Cindy Cora who looked exactly like Betty Rubble from The Flintstones. Then on a sunny afternoon, in her own bedroom with the light coming through the window, she saw an elderly woman with white and gray hair piled high on her head, sitting in a rocking chair, calm and gentle and completely solid. Were these things connected? Relevant Prior Episodes Abduction at Devil's Den (https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bhbUedzWT4Jw0FW4kWNP3) Devil's Den: The Reckoning Part 1 (https://open.spotify.com/episode/3YRLKZTD9kcc3YkgbvfnVc) Chris McKinnell and the Warren Legacy (https://open.spotify.com/episode/46JeiCBOZHzT1YkAo3ssrS) Dan, Susan, Micah Hanks and Missing Time (https://open.spotify.com/episode/1vGcmZAd8pEBzJtt1oaNlx) Links and Further Reading Two-thirds of school-age children have an imaginary companion by age 7, University of Washington (https://www.washington.edu/news/2004/12/06/two-thirds-of-school-age-children-have-an-imaginary-companion-by-age-7/) Note: We say about one in three for the invisible-only friends. In the study, about two thirds of kids have had an imaginary companion by age seven, and about one in three have one at the time they are asked. The psychological significance of play with imaginary companions in early childhood, Learning & Behavior (https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13420-017-0284-z) Childhood amnesia, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia) Ghosts and Apparitions in Psi Research, the Society for Psychical Research's Psi Encyclopedia (https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/ghosts-and-apparitions-psi-research-overview/) Phantasms of the Living (1886) by Gurney, Myers and Podmore, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/phantasmsoflivin02gurniala) Strange Intruders by David Weatherly (https://a.co/d/06Voa8e6) Devils Den: The Reckoning by Terry Lovelace (https://a.co/d/09Ce7lTi) Contact (1997), Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film)) Note: We say David Morse was one of the doctors on ER. He played Dr. Jack Morrison on St. Elsewhere. Sesame Street debuts, November 10, 1969, HISTORY (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-10/sesame-street-debuts) Wall Street crash of 1929, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_crash_of_1929) The History of Bettys in Pop Culture, Refinery29 (https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/05/9749757/what-is-betty-meaning-hbo-show-skate-kitchen-show) Natalie and Tara on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgLib_DNj3uS3wRC3PMGzhg) We're looking for more stories! Send your Dead Letter to deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com (mailto:deadletteroffice@astonishinglegends.com) ! Astonishing Legends https://audioboom.com/channels/4322549-astonishing-legends Audioboom https://audioboom.com 480 95 https://audioboom.com/i/43823622/600x600/c 600 600 <iframe width="100%" height="95" src="https://embeds.audioboom.com/posts/8949175/embed?v=202301" style="background-color: transparent; display: block; padding: 0; width: 100%" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="allowtransparency" scrolling="no" title="Audioboom player" allow="autoplay" sandbox="allow-downloads allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>