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I've been familiar with the UFO phenomenon since childhood. My father was passionate about the subject. He collected all the press clippings about alien and UFO encounters. At one point in his life, he even said he woke up in the middle of the night to find a large saucer with colored lights in the yard. But then, over the years, he started claiming he'd had a dream, then that he'd imagined something, and eventually he'd become drunk. Now he refuses to talk about it at all, won't say whether it's true or not, but won't say anything—he sits silently and gets very upset. He's over 70 years old now, and I can't get anything out of him. He only promised to look for that folder of clippings. I asked my mother about strange phenomena, if she remembers anything. But she claims nothing paranormal. Yes, she has dreams and they do come true (my grandmother, her mother, was a well-known fortune teller in several villages and used cards), but strange lights and UFOs – not.

Anyway, around the age of 6 or 7, I stole that folder of clippings and stared at the pictures, and when I learned to read, I was able to familiarize myself with the contents. My father didn't talk about it; he kept the folder hidden high on the loft; he didn't show it to me. He only told me about his experiences later. The folder mostly contained clippings about encounters of the First and Second Kind, but there was also a typical drawing of an alien, which didn't frighten or surprise me, because I'd seen such things before. I accepted it as normal. Just like tigers and elephants exist in the world. Nothing to wonder about.

My first memory is from the age of 2-3 (1978-79) when I was being taken from my crib by a figure who appeared next to it through a tunnel in the wall. He would take me somewhere that way and then put me back. But every child has an imaginary companion 😉The next incident occurred when I was perhaps 4 or 5 years old (1980-81). I woke up in the night, sat up in bed, and saw flashing lights through the glass in the closed door to the next room. I was sleeping in bed with my head toward the door, which was separated by a meter-long hallway from the next door to the next room. The glare was coming through the window of the second room. The light must have been so intense that it passed through both thick, frosted panes of glass in both doors. It was a pulsating blue-reddish-whitish light. I thought it must have been an ambulance or the police, because it reminded me of beacons on cars, but I couldn't hear any sirens. I don't remember anything else; I think I went to sleep.

Recently, I've been wondering if it really was an ambulance parked near the window, except... we lived on the third floor. If the car had been parked on the street, the light wouldn't have reached so high and refracted at an angle into the other room. Something must have been shining from the same level.

Later, a series of more public encounters (memory) followed. It began on Christmas Eve (I remember this very well), also around that same time in my life. I woke up in the night to lights appearing in the sky at high speed outside my window, approaching. There were two of them, maneuvering rapidly. I went to the window and saw, higher up, between my building and the other one, a flying "bus and tram" (as I called it then), both with glowing, changing lights all around them. I was very surprised that Santa Claus had flown to me, but a little disappointed that he hadn't flown in a sleigh with reindeer, but in a tram and a bus. I had no doubt it had to be him. I opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony. I was a little afraid because it was winter, and my mother didn't let me go without slippers or go out on the balcony alone. But I felt this inner urge to break the ban.