Ghost Stories

I'm sometimes asked what paranormal experiences I've had, here are a few...

When I was a teenager growing up, we had poltergeist phenomena- always in sixes. Six raps of the mirror against the wall, six back and forth twitches of the doorknob, or this 20 pound hand weight would rock back and forth (it was the hexagon shaped kind, so it really shouldn’t have moved)- six times. It freaked me out, but my mom assured me it was just my energy doing it. And she was right. It would only happen when I was alone, or if it was just me and my mom. I still have some issues with stuff moving when I get highly emotional, but usually I’m pretty good about reigning in my energy.

While living with my parents, in my early 20s, I saw an apparition of an old man standing at the kitchen table, facing the window, while I was facing the same way in the living room (an open doorway between us). I saw him in my peripheral vision (the light was on over the kitchen table, and he was there- plain as day. I ‘knew’ that this was the man that sold my parents the house years ago, and that he died. I don’t know how I knew that, but I did. I relayed that info to my mom, and she was only marginally interested, as she’s seen plenty of ghosts in her life. I moved out shortly after and the previous owners son had come to the door drunk and crying about the house being his house, etc. Well, after the previous owner had passed, we’d see him walk around the corner of the house- there were two windows on the corner of the living room, and we’d see him pass by. Not a shadow, but a person. The first time that happened, it was pretty late at night and I was talking with my mom in the living room- I saw it, and I tore out of the front door intent on scaring away whoever was going to try to break in on the side of the house (okay, probably not the smartest thing to do, but I wasn’t afraid at all). I came back in the house and my mom said, “So, you saw that too?” Turns out my dad had done the same thing the night before. It still happens, but it’s something we’ve gotten used to. Along with the heavy footsteps in the kitchen. HEAVY. In the middle of the day. It surprised us when we head what we thought was my granny walking into the kitchen –she’s a heavy walker- but no one was there. And sometimes things get knocked down, or the water turns on by itself, and the pots and pans clank noisily inside the cabinets, and so he CAN be a pain in the ass, but he doesn’t try to physically interact, so its cool. This past October I was sitting on a couch, my mom was sitting on a loveseat (they are put together like an L), and I kept seeing things in my peripheral, and then turning to look. My mom turns to me and says, “That was bugging me, so I moved over here- come sit by me.” Too funny. He’s definitely a presence in the house, but not scary.

Another experience I had in my early twenties happened while I was at a then-boyfriends house. We were both laying on our stomachs, on his waterbed, watching the X-files. Suddenly I felt a burning pain in my back, like on the skin. It hurt REALLY FREAKING BAD. I struggled to my knees and made him look at my back and I had deep welty scratches. DEEP. Now, that freaked me out, as I had always been told that ghosts and spirits couldn’t hurt you. A few weeks later, we were watching TV again, and the ceiling fan dropped right down on me and shattered. Ouch. My then bf and his father yelled at me to not move, as the shards of glass might pierce the waterbed. That might have been the beginning of the end of THAT relationship.

Well, I moved into a studio apartment in my early twenties, and the strange man that lived above me befriended me. I gave me plants, and kept trying to give me things. He was a little overfriendly, but not completely creepy. Anyway, about a year into living there, he passed away. And once again, I ‘knew’ it was him. And there was physical interaction- my ponytail being lifted up and tickling my neck, rubs against my side, hard bruising jabs when I was with my then-boyfriend, creepy shower feelings, etc. I ended up telling him off and he didn’t come back, so that was good. Though my then-boyfriend didn’t really understand.

Earlier in the year my husband and I moved into his parents' house. There’s something here, but it doesn’t really bother too much. It will stand near the bed on my husband’s side, and just kind of looks like a shadowy figure. Not really scary, or anything. The dog will sometimes bark at something in our bedroom, but that could just be the dog being random. The cat will stare at the area, too.