My new roommate is a ghost…
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So, as y’all know, we here at wht love a good ghost story. Bonus points if it’s real. There is nothing scarier than hearing about personal experiences with the other side. Especially during this time of year, I think ghost stories are even scarier close to Halloween.
Now, I’m someone that has had a few experiences with things that go bump in the night before. When I was in high school, my parents moved us to an old Victorian home that was so creepy and haunted, it really traumatized me. I’m talking you could see ghosts, hear them, feel them, the whole gamut.
photo: by Gillian/Miss Quite Contrary via Etsy
I noticed a few months back that someone had bought the old place, flipped it, and was trying to sell it—they put “house has really good vibes” in the realtor description of the house. We all had a big laugh about that because A) Who puts that as a description of the house? And B) That house felt creepy the second you stepped foot in it. There wasn’t a single good vibe.
In any case, that experience was enough that I am very cautious about where I live. I do not like living with ghosts. That being said, I am a wee bit sensitive to these things. I definitely get “feelings” and “vibes” and I am usually fairly accurate about it. Typically, when I go into a house or a building, if there is something to “sense”, I usually pick up on it pretty quickly. I take pride in that. That little talent has never failed me…until now.
The hubby and I recently moved to a house in New England. It’s a quaint, little Cape Cod-style house, complete with shutters. The house isn’t that old—it was built in the 1960’s—and everything is brand new—the insides of the house were gutted and completely rebuilt this year. When we saw this place for the first time, I was so excited to see a house that didn’t have shag carpeting in the bathroom that I think maybe my spidey sense malfunctioned? We moved in, started the unpacking process, and then on the first day I was alone in the house, the weirdness began.
I made myself a sandwich for breakfast—and I’m lazy, so I left the deli drawer open and the fridge drawer open, made my sandwich, went to put everything away and the deli drawer was closed. I was sleep deprived, so I didn’t think too much about it…until lunchtime. I made myself another sandwich and I made sure to leave the deli drawer open. Again, the deli drawer was closed when I went to replace its contents. Throughout that same day and afterwards, I noticed that closets I’d left open because I was actively putting things away in had closed themselves. That sounds normal, right?
The following day, I was woken up to the radio on my alarm clock going off. I hadn’t set an alarm. It was at top volume and kept switching stations and between AM and FM, which were knob controls. It would not turn off, the volume would not turn down, and it really freaked me out. I unplugged the thing, counted to ten, then plugged it back in and heard total silence. A few hours later, I was downstairs unpacking boxes and heard my clock radio go off again. I heard the stations changing until it settled on an oldies station on the AM dial. I unplugged it and left it that way for a few days. Thankfully, my clock radio has stayed silent since then.
Increasing the spookiness, I saw a shadowy figure of an old woman standing in the hallway one night when I went to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night a few days after we moved in. I hadn’t been asleep for very long and I was wearing my glasses, so I’m sure I wasn’t just seeing things. She looked at me like “Who are you?” and then faded away into a corner near the guest room. I quickly closed myself in the bathroom, did my thing, came out and I couldn’t see her, but the hair at the back of my neck was tingling and I felt like I was being watched. Since then, I haven’t been able to see anything that defined, but every so often there is a shadow where it shouldn’t be and my dogs are constantly staring and barking at things I can’t see.
A few days after seeing the old woman, my youngest dog, Matilda, managed to get herself shut in a downstairs room that we keep the door closed at all times. A week later, my oldest dog, Bindhi, got herself shut in the same room. Both dogs managed to get closed into these rooms when I had gone upstairs, which is in itself odd because they are like stalkers, constantly following me.
I had ignored the ghost until then—I addressed it and told it not to mess with my dogs. Since that day, I’ve actively ignored whatever is here and I haven’t had any new occurrences. Fingers crossed I won’t have to bring out the exorcism equipment as Halloween night draws near…
So, in the interest of sharing, does anybody else have their own haunted house story? Let’s hear it!
If haunted houses creep you out, tune in next week for the first installment of the 2010 edition of my Scary Movie Series: Yep. Your house might be haunted…
Krista would like to believe she would survive a horror movie. She always checks in the back seat of her car before getting in, will never investigate a strange noise, pretty much assumes the call is coming from inside the house, won’t enter anything nicknamed “The Murder House”, avoids antique puzzle boxes at flea markets, doesn’t read books of the dead out loud, and refuses to live near a cemetery in case of a zombie apocalypse.
Eeee! This gave me goosebumps! The radio part creeped me out the most. Good luck with the ghost Krista!
Very interesting. Try talking to her, and tell her she is welcome to stay and be part of the family ONLY if she will be a kind and loving spirit. But if she will be a hateful spirit she must leave. And also ask her to be nice to your dogs.
You know what they say, renovations bring out the folks who choose to stay behind. ;) And from what you are writing about she doesn’t seem mean, just wants to be acknowlaged.
And like you, I can pick up on vibes from a place. This ability has served me well. I honor it when it doesn’t feel right.
I have a bit of a ghost story. My house was built in the 50’s and the house behind us had a in ground pool. Sadly one of the children drowned in it in the 70’s and the owners had it filled in.
My kids were quite young when we moved in (5, 3 and barely 1) and once we got settled I would catch movement out of the corner of my eye a lot. Usually at night when I was on the computer I would see something the size of my kids peaking out from the hallway door that leads to the bedrooms. I would get up and go check on the kids and all were sleeping deeply. (you know that crazy kid sleep, all over the bed, buns up in the air type thing that kiddos do)
No way could it have been my kids, I would have seen and heard them running back to their beds.
This happened so much that I told “the child” they may stay but only if they do not scare the kids, they are welcome”
This went on for quite a while and as they got older (they are now teens and a tween) the less it would happen. Now when my visitor is here, I can see them more clearly, eventhough they are trasparent, and tell them hello and say they are always welcome.
The child has become more playful now with me, things will disapear from my bathroom right after I have used it (like a beauty product) and I will ask it to please put it back, I still need to use it, and leave my bathroom (hall bathroom) and sure enough after a few minutes it will be back where I left it. Now it seems that the child is more centered around me.
It was heartbreaking to hear about the child’s death, but they say children attract energy and I think the child wanted to be near kids. My neighborhood is mostly older people with some families moving in, but at the time, I had the youngest kids on my block.
Another time, during a very stressful time in my life, I was in the grocery store parking lot, and it was right after a rain storm, things settled and there was a light breeze. I was surrounded by the scent of fresh cut flowers, the smell was quite strong, and I really thought that someone had sprayed air freshener outside to test it. I looked around and I was the only one around. No reason for me to smell the flowers at all. I believe it was my beloved Aunt letting me know that things would be okay. I have experianced this several times when I have needed her, and there was simply no reasonable explination for the strong flower scent to be present.
My Grandfather used to come visit me after he passed. He did so for about a year after he died. I would wake up while taking to him, and a depression would be on my bed where he sat. That stopped after a year, and I really wish he would come back to visit. I would love to have another chat with him :(
Thank you for sharing this, it was a wonderful read, and I always love to hear real accounts about ghosts.
@Krista – Nashua has a pretty active haunting it seems! A lot of people I know from there have experienced things. The Gibson Rd. Cemetery is another active site.
Growing up in Maine there were plenty of freaky things to occupy my time. Now I live in Manchester, NH and my current house is fine, but my last home… not so much!
One day I was feeling pretty cruddy, folding laundry in my bed room and sulking. My dogs leapt off the bed and raced down the stairs barking. I ran down stairs and they were standing in the middle of the dining room, looking up at the window (which was recessed into the wall) and barking. On the window ledge there was one lit candle that I did NOT light. I blew it out, called the dogs upstairs and went back to my laundry. Not even five minutes later it happened again! There it was, the same candle, burning again. Then my phone rang! It was my grandmother. She said, “What’s wrong Mandy? I keep getting a bad feeling about you.” It was pretty freaky.
The women in my family take “feelings” pretty seriously. My mother once called every woman in the family at about 6AM to tell us not to drive because she had a bad feeling about it. Well, most of us ignored her (I was already at work!) and my cousin was the one affected. She watched the car in front of her flip almost completely onto her car but managed to get out of it okay. Yeah, we listen to feelings now!
AHH! I’m home sick today and now I’m freaking myself out. You guys are amazing in how well you deal with all these occurances, I would have hollered and them passed out if I saw a shadowy figure!
@JoElla – you, like @krista, are one brave woman! I’m with @lyssachelle – I’d be running from the house…
I did tell @krista when she first told me this though, at least the ghost doesn’t like Top 40 music! And she’s protecting your lunch meat from spoiling. Could be worse!
Yeah, so I wrote this post about a month ago and one other thing has happened in that time–I have a couple of zip-front hoodies that I keep around so I could take the dogs out and I keep them in my closet on hangers. I just sling them on the hangers when I’m done. A few times over the last month, the hoodies will be partially zipped up onto the hanger. I don’t bother zipping my hoodies, so it must be my OCD ghost.
JoElla–I’m happy to hear you had such a positive experience with a ghost! That’s a sad story about the child drowning…
I don’t really want to talk to my ghost or address her more than necessary because that only gives them power and increases the spooky incidents that I want to avoid. I think we have an understanding: She doesn’t bother me, I don’t exorcise my house.
That’s awesome about your aunt and grandfather visiting you. When my PapPap (my mom’s dad) passed, I was only 3 and my parents chose not to tell me he’d passed because they thought I was too young to hear that news. I was put down for a nap in my room a few days after he’d died and I saw him in my drapes–from the shoulders up and he was wearing a hat (he’d had lung cancer and was bedridden for as long as I knew him, so he never wore hats because he never went anywhere) and he told me I wasn’t going to see him anymore and that it was okay and he’d look out for me. I screamed for my mom and told her PapPap was in my room and that he said I wasn’t going to see him anymore and that we had to go see him—and let me just say, that freaked her out. Years later, my mom was going through some pictures and I found one of him wearing the same hat from when I “saw” him–it apparently was his favorite.
When I finished college, my mom gave me a pair of earrings made from a pair of my grandfather’s cufflinks and I do feel like he’s with me when I’m wearing them. If I’m having a rough day, I’ll wear those earrings and I feel better–though that could just be in my head :)
@mandaleem – I always trust my feelings. They have always paid off. Note to self: Avoid the Gibson Rd. Cemetery. Got it.
@stef – Yeah, this ghost isn’t that scary. It’s just “there”. Unlike the creepy ones at that Old Victorian my family lived in. Once, after bedtime, I heard running at the foot of my stairs (my room was the attic), running up the stairs, walking across the room (there was a broken floorboard under the carpeting and it squeaked when someone walked on it), and then someone out of breath said “Krista”…I thought it was one of my siblings, so I, tucked in w/ my head covered said “What?”…”Krista…” “What???”…”Kristaaaa”. And I look up and it was a shadowy figure of a man. Not my siblings. Yeah, I didn’t sleep in my room for a month after that. I slept in my parent’s bed that night and my dad slept in my bed. He said there was nothing in my room, but he thought there might be birds nesting in the roof because the walls KNOCKED whenever he’d try to fall asleep. Birds don’t sound like a fist hitting the wall…
what an interesting story, do keep us updated. and tell us what happened to you in the old Victorian house you mentioned at the beginning of the story. I have a ghost story, too – my father’s business was in an old 1940s church he renovated. He turned it into..a machine shop of all things. From the beginning strange things happened there. They would hear crashes and things being drug around upstairs – even though the upstairs was completely empty because they hadn’t moved anything there yet. They would hear the wooden stairs creak as if someone was walking all the way up, then all the way down, over and over again. The chains they used to lift the heavy equipment would swing from side to side – for hours for no reason! If my mom brought her dog over, he would stare and growl and something she couldn’t see, just like you mentioned. And JoElla, the same thing with the perfume smell happened, too! Often my dad would walk into a room and it would smell like a woman’s perfume he said – and he could sometimes see a mist!! But, the scariest thing, happened when my dad was there late alone one night. He was bending down with a welding cap on, so he couldn’t see very well…when he heard footsteps, like someone in hard-heeled shoes, walk all the way across the room and stop directly behind him. He got so scared, he fled. The old building now…is falling apart. My dad hasn’t worked there in years, and the roof caved in and water got inside. Still, a couple bought it and are trying to renovate it to turn it back into a church. They don’t know it’s haunted!
Ashley D – check out our first ghost story post: https://weheartthis.com/2009/03/20/boo-a-wht-ghost-story/
Krista talks about her Victorian house in the comments (and there’s a whole bunch more spooky comments too!)
Spooky! I had a ghost experience years ago.
I was living in a condo and got a late night phone call. I answered the phone without getting out of bed or turning on the lights. I sat in the dark talking on the phone for about 20 minutes. Then all of the sudden, the light in the closet came on. The door of the closet was closed, but the light started shining out from under the door.
Immediately my pug (who was laying on the bed) started barking and growling while looking at the closet door. Totally freaked out, I got up to investigate, while keeping my friend on the phone. I threw open the door and no one was there. Since there was only one way in or out of the closet…I decided it must be a ghost.
A few days later, I told a friend who lived in a condo just 2 doors down, about my experience. She told me of a few similar experiences she’d had since moving there. I sold my condo shortly after that. It still kind of spooks me out when I think about it.
XO Piper
@krista, I have to ask, what song was playing on the oldies channel?
I love your creepy story and can’t imagine being as calm and cool as you are!
It phased from one song I couldn’t recognize to that Mamas and the Papas “Dedicated to the One I Love”…I actually like that song, but I was having none of it.
Eh, at least it wasn’t death metal or the dreaded TALK RADIO–that strikes fear into my lil’ heart.
I keep calm about the “little” things, but I’m not about seeing them–THAT freaks me out.
One word. Goosebumps!
@krista – I loved this story. Totally creepy, though you handled it with ease and such bravery! I’m the type of person that would break down and cry because I’m a baby. I can’t believe it shut your two dogs in, how rude! Glad to see you put her in her place :) Maybe she’ll be nice and help you around the house. Would love to hear more if anything happens.
Agreed, I hope the next time I encounter a ghost I can be calm and cool like @JoElla and @krista, – not run screaming from the room.
Then again, if the vibe or feeling is freaking you out – listen to it. I’m an “always go with your gut” type in situations like that.
But, many times, I think spirits or ghosts are just sad and/or lonely and not out to scare or hurt others. Good luck Krista – one reason I love my craftsman here in LA is that I’ve yet to have any creepiness. Hooray! That is always a worry for me in an “old” (1930’s is old for Southern California!) place.
Wow that is so creepy! I’ve never had an encounter with a ghost, and I’m really grateful for that. It would seriously freak me out.
My grandmother says that they used to live in a house that was haunted when my dad was little. He called it “ghostly powers” and it would do weird things like yank the covers off him at night. She also says that the house they currently live in used to have a ghost, but it left after the first time they encountered it. The ghost just seemed surprised to see them, said, “oh.” and left. My grandmother found out later that the woman who had lived there had died, and the rest of the family had moved. Maybe she had come back to see them?