Lynn’s Recollections and Reflections #24 – The Ghost
Do You Believe in Ghosts?
I certainly did not until one was living with me in my house. I felt something unusual right away.
She never scared me but she was definitely there! It was a bit unnerving since I didn’t believe in ghosts but I never felt unsafe. In fact maybe just a little bit the opposite.
She?
The presence felt like a young woman to me and the longer we lived in the house, the more she revealed herself to us and the more we became comfortable with her.
What Did She Do?
For the most part, I could just honestly feel her. But here are some of the more unusual things:
- Many times when I was out, I would come home to a completely locked house. I would walk into the kitchen and the drawers and doors of a very old built-in cabinet in the kitchen were all completely open. These were very old drawers that were not easy to open.
- Several times when I left and I knew I closed and locked the door, I would come home and the door would not only be unlocked it was wide open. Nothing was touched in the house. I have no idea if she was just welcoming us back home but this didn’t sit well with me. I had a talk with her about how much I didn’t like that she did this and it stopped.
- We had a cat who was declawed and she was much more comfortable being outside than being in the house. She eventually couldn’t stand to be in the house at all and would get pretty vicious if we tried to bring her in. She was fine being outside. She lived on our back porch until a friend took her. We were both concerned with her being a declawed house cat living outside. She was perfectly fine at my friend’s house!!
- My brother’s dog misbehaved when they lived with me. He did crazy things he had never done before when he was living with us.
- I would see smoky apparitions moving around the upstairs hallway all the time. Again, she never scared me.
- Kenny would tell me that she sat on his bed in his room and kept him company at night. He was 5-7 years old when we lived in the house. I never told him I thought there was a ghost in the house, he told me about his “friend”.
- I had put a candle-type light in the attic window for Christmas one year and just left it until it burned out. Months after it went out, it suddenly started turning on when I was out at night. When I would come home, the light would be on and then would turn off when I was inside.
- The only time she did anything creepy was when we were moving, I went up into the attic to double-check that there was nothing left up there. I had been up there many times and this last time, right there by the scuttle hatch door was a hatchet. I had never owned or used a hatchet so I have no idea why it was just sitting there but I assume she wasn’t happy that we were leaving. I wasn’t either and maybe she knew that. Believe it or not, I took the hatchet with me.
Confirmation
After I had lived in the house for a while and had gotten to know my neighbors pretty well, I finally got the nerve to ask my neighbor across the street if anyone who lived in the house before me, mentioned a ghost.
Without hesitation, she said, “Yes, we called it Monica’s ghost”. Monica was the name of the pre-teen girl who lived there before me with her mom and dad. In their situation, it was just the daughter who purportedly was aware of the ghost.
That was enough for me to truly believe that all the things that were happening and that what I was feeling was real.
Questions?
I had never believed in ghosts before and I’ve never been anywhere that I’ve felt that again, even in places that supposedly have ghosts.
I had always wanted to do some more investigating about the house as it was a very old house that was moved from downtown to the street it sits on today. I wanted to try to figure out if someone had died in the house or the property. I never did do that as I was forced to sell the house to pay capital gains taxes.
It was one of the most devastating times of my life. I had finally gained my independence and had landed on my feet. I had poured my blood, sweat, and tears into this house and I never wanted to leave.
Have you ever experienced something that just doesn’t have answers? I would love to hear about it in the comments.
Peace & Love,
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- The Introduction
- My Parents and Their Friends in the 60s
- A Lonely Kid
- The Day I Ran Away TO Home
- The Tornado
- Moving Away from My Friends
- The Summer of 1975
- Living with the Devil
- After the Summer of 1975
- The Wedding
- Newlyweds and 2 New Houses
- A Baby
- Behind Closed Doors
- Living the Dream
- Four Tumultuous Years
- My Sister
- Fast Forward To Today
- The Divorce
- Do Your Homework
- Why Am I Doing This
- Living Through Abuse
- Fixer Upper
- Dating Single Mom
Meet Me
I’m an Interior Designer, Professional Organizer, and Party Planner who lives in the suburbs of Chicago in a 1,300 sq., ft., home with my “Handy” husband, Keith.
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Hi Lynn,
We lived in a house that was haunted but the funny thing is that it was a brand new house in a brand new sub. There was, however, a cemetery at the end of our street. The cemetery was definitely haunted. My husband, son and I would cut through the cemetery on our daily walks. One time we smelled a very strong odor of Old Spice cologne when not one other person was around. Another time, my son said he felt someone was watching us over by the gate. I looked up and saw a solid black figure of a man wearing a hat and a smirk walking away from the gate. I looked at my son and then back at the man but he was gone. My son walked to where he was walking and no one was there! That was the last time I walked in that cemetery. At our house, windows were opened, we heard 3 loud knocks on the wall next to where we were sitting and we heard loud clomping footsteps running up the stairs. The creepiest to me was one night our bathroom light kept turning on. My husband turned it off twice (he thought it was me). When he reached in to flip the light off, he yelled at me to come right away. I reached in and the bathroom was as hot as an oven. It actually made me jump back in the hall. The next night, I tried to recreate the scene by making sure the thermostat was exactly the same temp. It never came close to how hot it was the night before. I could write a book about all of our experiences. At times, I was freaked out, but never afraid!
Love hearing these stories. Typically it’s an old home but the fact that you were near a cemetery could be where your ghost came from. I always thought people who talked about ghosts were crazy until it happened to me! Are you still in the house?
No, we added on to our lake cottage 7 years ago and moved there. We downsized and are very happy, although it was pretty stressful having to let go of so many things. I love your home and how you have maxed out your space! As far as the hauntings go, everything is quiet in this house. Although, my husband saw what he described as a “monk with red eyes.” He was driving home at about 10 at night past a very small pioneer cemetery on our dirt road. He said it was a solid black figure with a hood and red eyes in the woods next to the cemetery. He hates when I tell people about this because he is a skeptic. I googled it and it sounds like it’s a Hat Man. It’s like what I saw. I agree with you about it coming from the cemetery. I actually consulted a psychic back in the day and she said there was an evil spirit in the cemetery. All this sounds so woo woo, but it happened!
You have a believer in me. As for the small space, I find that I have to purge a lot. I probably go to Goodwill a minimum of once a month to donate things. If I want something new in this small house, I have to get rid of something I don’t use or love.
Hi lynn
just read the ghost story! I love these stories and believe some homes have a presence.
My girlfriends and i did a haunted house story time in denver and my friend had some weird connections to the storyteller’s homes in an area in denver called wash park.
happy day
I certainly wasn’t a believer until it happened. Ghosts do make good content for storytelling.
We had 2 dogs, one a large breed the other a terrier. The terrier was sassy, the large dog mellow. The large dog slept at the foot of our bed, the terrier underneath our bed. When she would go under the bed she would bump the mattress frame. After the terrier passed, I would notice the big dog watching something cross the room but there was nothing there that I could see. Also, although my sassy terrier had died, she still bumped her way under the bed at night until we moved.
I believe she was letting you know she was still around! Don’t you wonder if she’s still in the house with the new owners?