How would you make sense of this giant story?

I’d separate what the witness felt from what he could clearly see. The shaking and the distant shape may have been real experiences, while the figure’s size and human features were harder to judge through trees, especially in a frightening moment. That doesn’t prove a particular explanation, but it gives room for misperception without assuming anyone made the story up.

The account has some limits worth keeping in view: the main witness says the view was obstructed, and the other people’s descriptions aren’t identical. A few people sharing an experience can matter, but if they talked it over afterward, their memories may also have influenced one another. I’d treat it as an interesting report, not strong evidence that a giant creature was there.

There’s also a difference between respecting a family story and deciding what caused it. A spiritual reading may be meaningful to the family, but it can’t be confirmed from this account alone. I’d ask what the witness remembered seeing directly, what he inferred later, and whether anyone recorded their own version separately.