A friend's childhood story about a Ghostly communication

The following is an email I received (reprinted with permission) about a friend's encounter with an intelligent haunt (ghost) when she was a child. Fascinating story, and I appreciate her sharing it:
S wrote: This was when I was young, about 7 or 8 or so. Every Christmas my parents would take my sister and I to visit my paternal grandmother's family. They lived in a rather large house, very old. According to my great aunt it had been in their family since the Civil War. I didn't really like visiting that part of my family since they were very distant and I didn't really know them. So I used to go to one of the sparsely used parts of the house to read a book alone.
One Christmas while I was reading in one of the older rooms, a nice lady came in and sat down with me. The room was poorly lit (maybe the cause of my bad eyesight lol) so I never saw her clearly. All I could see was that she wore an old fashioned dress and her hair was dark colored. When she sat next to me I became very cold. She said that I should put on my jacket, which appeared right next to me when I know it wasn't there before.
We talked for a long time. She was nice, very friendly and I got the sense that she was lonely like me. I told her about my best friend, J., and she remarked that he was a part of my soul, and me him. She said that we should never let our friendship die. We had to stop when my mother called for me. I asked her name, which she said was "Maggie." I said that I was glad to have met here and that I was glad I had found a new friend. She looked very happy, and I think there were tears in her eyes.

I never saw her again after that. When I questioned my relatives, they said that there was no one called Maggie in the house. J. says that this was the first sign of my psychic abilities. We both agree with Maggie's assessment of our relationship. Still holding true to this day!
MY COMMENTS: Very interesting story, and totally understandable.
I absolutely believe that you saw a ghost in the house- a former resident. Obviously it was an "intelligent haunt" as the ghost was able to communicate with you and sense things about you and J.
I'm not sure if you have a way to research the past owners of the house, but I wouldn't be surprised if you learn of a woman named Margaret or Maggie, that lived there. - It may be in records in city hall. Let me know if you pursue that!
As children we have the ability to have open minds. As I mentioned in my book, open minds are necessary to see and sense ghosts and spirits. As we grow older, we learn to be logical and lose the ability to be open-minded. We also tend to become more pessimistic, which also acts as a barrier to the senses. Thanks for sharing your story. I love hearing about these events.