The other idea I had for having Leia knowing Padme was her seeing her as a ghost when she was a little girl.

Think of it this way.

Anakin (the good guy) is still buried under all that hate and self loathing in Vader (the bad guy).

He subconsciously uses the Force to try and undo what he had done (we never know how he manage to make himself into a ghost in ROTJ or if indeed Luke did it so maybe he had this power all along but didn't know it).

Couple that with Leia's latent Force abilities and you have the possibility of a sweet little coda.

An unidentified little girl of about two or three (the age when memories form) looks up in her Alderaanian bedroom and sees a beautiful but sad ghost looking down on her protectively.

Not sure if there's enough footage out there to pull it off but if Luke can see dead people why not Leia?

That way Padme could still die (but of her injuries and not of 'a broken heart') and get a big emotional funeral scene.

Vader couldn't give a monkey's but Anakin could.

And we'd get a mystery, who is this little girl, why is Padme's ghost there?

People familiar with the OT would know but seeing as we think there is only one child it would be a hanging mystery for the first time viewer and the revelation that it's Leia would count for something in ROTJ.