AMJ

I am sitting outside this morning drinking my coffee, thinking about everything I need to do. It seems like a good time to share the ghost story.

As everyone knows, I raised my children in a very old house. It’s about 100 years old. There are houses much older, but trust me that’s an old house. I dealt with difficult windows, coal dust that never quit settling from the cracks in the walls, and always wondering about the history of the house. Digging in the garden, sometimes a treasure would emerge, like a little part of a toy or an old coin.

Let me preface this story by saying that I am just stating facts. Things that happened. This is not about believing or not believing in ghosts. It’s just a very intriguing story that makes a person stop and think.

Thirty years ago, when my oldest was a baby, I was frequently home alone at night with just him. I was young and busy with being a mom. I was in a new area and a new-to-me house which ended up being my home for a long time!

My oldest, Daniel, was extremely intelligent. He was determined to do everything early. He walked at 8 months, after truly taking a step at 7 months! No kidding. He talked very early and was completing sentences very early. From the time he was about 3, he could verbalize just about anything. All of this is to say that he was able to tell of things he saw and was thinking.

At around the age of 4, Daniel began talking about someone who lived upstairs. It was terrifying the first time it happened — the first time he told me about someone being upstairs with him. We were home alone, I was downstairs in the kitchen, and it was probably past our bedtime as I was preparing lunches for the next day, washing dishes and getting everything ready for work the next day. Daniel came downstairs and announced, “He’s up there right now.”

“Who’s up there!?”

I whirled around and looked at Daniel. There shouldn’t have been anyone upstairs! By this time I had a second son, just a baby, but I knew Daniel was not talking about the baby.

Daniel then said, “It’s OK mama. He only wants to play.”

Now, I realize that children this age can have imaginary friends. It seems especially that intelligent children sometimes have imaginary friends. However, this went on for a while, past the age of 4, or even 5 and onward. Daniel saw things in the house way past the age of imaginary friends.

I could drag this part of the story out forever. But it happened over and over that Daniel would say someone was upstairs. As Daniel got older he would say that he saw a child peeking at him from around a corner in the house, especially around the staircase.

I went running upstairs that first night he told me someone was up there. After all, my baby was up there in his crib! Daniel pointed to a closet and said, “he’s in there.”

Do you know how terrifying that was! Of course there was nothing there but my nerves were shot.

Fast forward nearly three decades to when my ex-husband decided to sell the house. I had been long gone from the house, but had several visits from the realtors, so that I could hear details of the offers and so that I could sign paperwork.

One of the realtors representing a potential buyer came by to see me in my retail store so that I could sign some paperwork. She was telling the same story I heard from others involved in the house, that there was a very sweet personality to the garden and in certain parts of the house. This potential buyer had fallen in love with the house and was hoping to buy it, especially for the garden.

We chatted and she looked around the shop as I read the paperwork. She was asking questions about the house, I was telling her about many of the sweet memories that I had raising my children there, and I really only jokingly mentioned that we had had a ghost.

Honestly, the look on her face went completely blank — shocked, actually — and she stood there staring at me. She said, “Please tell me about that!”

I told her how my oldest always said there was a child living upstairs.

This is where I sort of got chills on the backs of my arms. After I shared a few details about Daniel’s claims, she told me that she had taken this potential buyer and a male friend into the house. They had looked at the house, every room, and they were standing in the kitchen which is right around from the base of the staircase. The house was completely empty except for them. That’s when they heard someone come down the stairs. She said they all stopped talking and listened to the steps creak. She said it sounded like a child to her. Light. Just as she was thinking that, the man with them said, “that sounds like a child.”

She said it was so real that she said out loud to everyone, “Certainly they didn’t leave a child in the house!”

She told me they went around and looked at the staircase and there was nothing there.

There were other little things that happened throughout the years. All of my children have different stories to tell. My youngest as well feels like there was someone in the house.

Again, this is not about whether or not I believe in ghosts. It’s not about whether they exist. It is just something that happened that falls into the category of your typical “ghost story.”

I hope I haven’t bored you too much by making this so long. I will try to come back and add some pictures to this post, when time allows!!

Enjoy this day!

Lynn