by Sharon | Dec 6, 2018
I haven’t been adding real ghost stories to this website for awhile … mainly due to a personal experience that still bothers me. I won’t be writing about it any time soon. I don’t know about you, but there are times a paranormal experience does scare you so seriously that you have to take a break for awhile. That is the reason for my absence …
Since it has been raining, I thought the atmosphere was right to once again tell you a real ghost story. This one happened to me when I was young visiting my great-aunt.
I remember reading a fictional story about a fireplace that was haunted. Then I saw this really great Halloween project of a skeleton in a fireplace.
Then I remembered my own personal experience about seeing the ghost of a woman standing near the fireplace from many years ago.
I love sitting near a roaring fire, listening to music or reading a good book. It’s fun to sit by the fire with family and friends and tell ghost stories, too . . . or just chat.
I suppose the most memorial experiences are those that happen to us as children. That seems true for me.
I was at my great aunt’s house and it was really cold in the house. The heat was on, but the living room seemed uncommonly cold. My father suggested making a fire in the fireplace, but she adamantly refused.
We were bundled up in blankets and drinking hot chocolate.
I looked longingly at the fireplace and the stack of wood logs that set outside and a few inside that were waiting to be lit. Then, out of my peripheral vision a ghostly apparition of a young girl, no older than me, floated to the fireplace. She was wearing a nightgown from an era gone by. I watched silently.
When she turned around, I screamed.
The front of her nightgown was gone and her face and body had been burned. The flesh was red and raw hanging onto her bones.
It took awhile for my parents to calm me down. My great aunt may have seen her, too. She calmly explained it all to us.
“I’ve been having dreams since Martin and I first moved in here,” she began. “It was a little girl who was playing in the living room with her dolls.”
That’s how the dreams always began. Some would continue with her playing. As the months and years of having this same dream, the scene changed with a man walking in and throwing one of her dolls in the fireplace.
My great aunt could feel the sadness in the child upon being scolded and losing one of her cherished dolls.
More time passed, but the dreams continued and were expanded.
When the man left, the little girl went to the fireplace to retrieve her beloved doll.
I remember my great aunt telling us she awoke screaming, “No, don’t!”
From what I saw, the little girl, evidently, did retrieve her doll, but caught herself on fire in the process.
My great aunt was so disturbed by this that she never lit a fire in the fireplace since. It was a warning to her that she took to heart.
I remember my grandmother scoffing at her sister by saying, “You aren’t playing with dolls, my dear. There’s no reason for all of us to be freezing because of some silly dream about a child who once lived here.”
She walked over to the fireplace, lit a match and it went out. She lit another with the same result. I don’t know how many she lit before she gave up.
I didn’t see the ghostly child blow out the matches, but there was a part of me that was relieved my grandmother didn’t succeed in lighting the logs in the fireplace.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sharon
by Sharon | Nov 13, 2018
Lilly and Tom rushed into the coffee shop to tell me the latest about Brat Boy.
I find it always interesting to hear the ghostly experiences of others. This on-going saga with Lilly and Tom isn’t one where they have actually seen the ghost, but observed changes in the behavior of a neighborhood boy.
Lilly and Tom live in a section of town surrounded by older homes built in the late 1800’s to the 1940’s. Much remodeling had been done in the area over the years, but it remains a charming neighborhood.
Tom was particularly fond of an old military man who lived across the street. They would have long talks in the evening. He was interested in the stories, but it was an excuse to help out the elderly man. Lilly always sent some food along to make sure he was eating properly.
The sad day arrived when the old man died. His family put the house on the market immediately after his funeral.
It wasn’t long before a family moved into the neighborhood. The new neighbors were a woman with three children, a boy 16, a girl 12 and another boy 8 years old. With all the antics of the elder son, he soon got the reputation of being a brat. He would ride his skateboard in the street, tag a ride on passing cars, swear at his mother and beat up on his little brother.
The police were always at the house. He was gone for a few years for selling drugs.
Now he was back.
He was still a brat. His time in jail didn’t teach him any positive lessons. He didn’t go to school and he didn’t work. He’d have his friends over while his brother and sister were at school and their mother at work.
He graduated from a skate board to a motorcycle. His friends had motorcycles, too, and they’d race up and down the street. They acted as though they owned the road. It was a major problem for the other residents.
Then, he got into music. He and his friends would make all kinds of racket in the garage practicing.
The strange thing was that he and his band did get hired to play at various events. He did get a car, but there was an issue when his mother needed him to help her with errands and taking his siblings to lessons or practices.
“I just came home from getting groceries,” Lilly explained. “The neighborhood was quiet. No sign of Brat Boy and his friends.”
She heard the front door slam across the street. She turned and saw Brat Boy running from the house, barefoot and shirtless. He either tripped or dove into the rosebushes. He stayed there for awhile, then emerged with scratches on his arms, face and torso.
He limped across the street asking, “Ma’am, may I use your telephone?”
Lilly wasn’t going to invite him in the house, so she handed him her cell phone. She did debate about doing so. She didn’t trust this kid, but his polite “ma’am” and simple request took her by surprise.
He called his mother, asking her to come home. He explained that something was in the house.
“It won’t let me alone, whatever it is. Things were flying off the walls and shelves in my room. It even flipped me out of bed. I was laying on the floor with the mattress on top of me.”
He paused, listening to his mother.
“But Mom, you don’t understand.”
He paused again.
“Yes, I understand. I’m sorry Mom, but I need you to come home. I’m not going into that house alone.”
Lilly got the last of her groceries into the house. When she returned, the young man handed her her phone thanking her.
“Having a rough day?” Lilly asked.
“Yes, ma’am. May I ask you something?”
Lilly nodded.
“Do you believe in ghosts?”
“Yes, Tom and I have had some experiences.”
“Well, we have one, too, but he leaves Mom, Kary and Brad alone.”
He told Lilly about some of the experiences.
- The hot water in the shower would suddenly turn off and he’d be forced to finish his shower with cold water.
- Every time he’d complain to his mother something would fly out of nowhere and hit him in the face.
- He wasn’t sure how many times he was tripped and fell down the stairs, but he admitted it was usually after he said something mean to his sister or brother.
- Lights would turn off in his room, but other lights were on in the house.
- When he took the remote control from his brother and changed the channel on the television, it turned off.
It was clear to Lilly that this ghost was disciplining him every time he misbehaved.
She truly believed it was their old neighbor, trying to teach Brat Boy there were consequences to his acting out inappropriately. She wasn’t sure if the pathetic young man before her was getting the message.
“Thanks for listening,” he said. “I guess I’ll go on home and wait for my mom.”
Lilly went inside after watching him cross the street. He sat down on the curb near the mailbox and the driveway.
Lilly was keeping an eye out the window, she felt sorry for the young man. She saw a car go into the driveway. The boy stood up, opened the car door and gave his mother a big hug. He got some things out of the back of the car and carried them into the house.
Tom finished up the story.
“You wouldn’t believe the difference in Brat Boy. He signed up for college, he took the GED (high school equivalency test) while he was incarcerated. His name is Tim and he’s turned into a decent kid.”
He no longer swore at his mother, beat up his little brother or made a nuisance of himself around the neighborhood. He was working part-time at Home Depot.
“I think old man Turner finally got Tim’s attention.”
I hope you enjoyed this Real Ghost Story. Thanks for stopping by!
Sharon
by Sharon | Nov 1, 2018
You really don’t need to venture far from home to encounter ghostly apparitions or orbs.
It doesn’t have to be late at night, it can be during the daylight hours. Granted, they are easier to see at night, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only time they are present.
You may not like hearing this, but there could be ghosts in your house. There could be ghosts walking down the street right along with you in your neighborhood, at the mall or downtown. It’s rare I don’t see one or two or more as I’m going about my normal routine.
You can either accept this, be skeptical, deny it’s true or be paranoid constantly looking over your shoulder and being scared senseless.
Most house hauntings have to do with the history of the house or what loved ones who have passed want to visit you from time to time. Depending upon the personality of the person in life, the behavior remains the same.
The reason it’s important to get some history about your house is to know if any horrific event occurred there or even in the neighborhood.
There was a violent assault down the street from me. I see her apparition occasionally. It’s not something you want to see. My dog is terrified of it and she usually is comfortable with spirits. Also is such cases, the spirit doesn’t know she’s dead. She’s unaware of the attack, so it remains an unsolved murder case.
All I want to say here is that it was a brutal attack and her face is unrecognizable as such. She does have an eye that is out of the socket, resting on what would be her cheek. I’m surprised the spirit is pacing in front of her old house, given the damage to the rest of her body. It is absolutely frightening.
And, of course, my neighbors don’t want to discuss it … but I’m sure they’re whisper among themselves as to how I know of the attack since it happened well before I moved into the neighborhood. Well … knowing what I’ve seen, I can understand it … but they don’t have to deny it ever happened.
I rarely walk on that side of the street.
You may think me heartless. The truth is a friend and I tried to help her. Not after the assault, but in her spirit state. She insists she needs a ride to her hairdresser. She can’t seem to find her car and she has a terrible headache.
She repeats the same thing over and over again.
We did take her to her hairdresser once, but the next time we saw her she made the same request. We took her to the hospital, a local mortuary, even to the cemetery, but didn’t encounter any spirits that could connect with her to get her to crossover. We even tried to help her move on, but she is stuck in needing to go to her hairdresser.
I saw her in my house one morning and had to firmly tell her to leave, to go home and scare the living daylights out of the current resident of the house.
I’d held a séance for her, but she doesn’t understand what the psychic was talking about, plus she doesn’t believe in such nonsense. She has her priorities straight, get to the hairdresser.
I think it’s more interesting hearing the ghostly tales of others.
“I was at the local deli picking up a sandwich to take back to the office,” Ted explained. “I saw an old guy sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus. There was something odd about him, but I was in a hurry to get back to work.”
Just as he was finishing up the paperwork for his client, Ted saw this same man who was on the bench walk past his office and continue down the hall. He seemed to know where he was going, so Ted didn’t follow him.
Ted met with his client and when he opened the door, there stood the man he had seen earlier waiting. The odd thing was that the man was about half a foot off the ground. He was hovering there.
Ted’s client walked through the apparition and Ted stood in his office in utter shock.
“I don’t know how long I stood there like an idiot,” he admitted. “I couldn’t stop shaking and didn’t trust my legs to walk a few feet to a chair.”
The ghost eventually floated away after Ted got a good look at him. He knew the ghost had a reason or a message, but Ted wasn’t capable of thinking clearly at that moment.
When Ted was busy with another project, a book fell from the shelf.
Ted didn’t notice, he was in deep concentration.
“I remember smelling coffee and thought I’d go get a cup. That’s when I noticed the book on the floor.”
He picked it up, paying no particular attention to it and returned it to the shelf. He was focused on getting a cup of coffee.
He met Kim in the alcove that served as their beverage area. There was the coffee maker and a small refrigerator with sodas and water. Occasionally there would be snacks, but mostly beverages.
“I’ve had a strange feeling all day,” she began. “You know my grandfather founded this business. My father, brothers and uncles did most of the work here. Then when Granddaddy died, the place almost folded. My father worked night and day to set things right.”
Ted heard this story before. The uncles cashed out to get their retirement. Kim’s father and his brothers worked to keep things afloat, but soon realized there wasn’t enough revenue to support them all. They sought other employment.
“Come to my office, I want to show you something,” she said.
Ted followed, bringing his cup of coffee with him. He wasn’t about to refuse his boss.
“Do you believe in . . . ” she paused searching for the right word.
“Ghosts?” Ted said, trying to help.
“No, that’s not what I was thinking, deja vu, perhaps.”
Ted was working on one of the oldest accounts the firm had. It went way back to the beginning of the company. That was why he grabbed a quick sandwich and returned to the office.
“How did everything go with your meeting today?”
“Very well, young Flemming seemed pleased with the investments.”
“Well, it was right after that meeting on this date that Granddaddy was waiting for a bus when he was held up, robbed and murdered. Then, 24 years to the day, my father met with the family and that evening had a massive stroke.”
Kim didn’t handle that account believing it was cursed and she would be next.
“Are you warning me?” Ted asked trying to make a joke, but he was concerned. He realized the man he saw on the bench was Kim’s grandfather. Was the old man trying to warn him?
“It’s been 24 years since my father’s death.”
The air was heavy. Both Kim and Ted sat quietly.
As it turned out, Kim and Ted were both fine. It was the young Mr. Flemming who hung himself in his office.
It was later revealed that the Flemming account had its ups and downs over the years. It was down 48 years ago when the elder Flemming had a verbal altercation with Kim’s grandfather and later robbed and killed him at the bus stop. The account was down 24 years ago when Kim’s father had a massive stroke and died caused by the altercation in the office that day and receiving threats through the night by telephone. It was when the doorbell rang that Kim’s father was at his wits end and suffered the stroke.
Ted’s meeting went quite well with the young Mr. Flemming. The accounts were up and a great profit was realized from the investments.
In a note left by Mr. Flemming to Kim or her heirs, he spelled out the details of his family’s involvement in her family’s deaths and the plans that were put in place in the event the accounts were down on that particular date.
As it turned out, Mr. Flemming didn’t call off the hit on Kim before he took his own life.
When Kim left the office that evening, she had a feeling her life was in danger. That made her hypervigilant. She left her car in the lot and rented one to drive home. She didn’t want to put her family in danger, but with a different car, she felt she wouldn’t be followed. Just to be on the safe side she hired armed security to protect her home.
The brakes on her car had been tampered with. When the hit man noticed the car in the lot, he went to her house. He was able to avoid the armed security guards, but the tale he told about an old man who blocked his entry into the house and still stood his ground after being shot three times, the hit man was willing to give himself up to the armed guards and the police without incident.
Kim is a believer. She is sure her grandfather saved her life. I have to agree.
Thank you for stopping by!
I hope you enjoyed this real ghost story. It is one of my favorites — I like it when the truth comes out and justice is served.
Sharon
by Sharon | Oct 29, 2018
This has been some weekend with Halloween Parties . . . and All Hollows Eve is still a few days away …
I don’t know about trick-or-treat-ers running around the neighborhood.
I have noticed there are some strange things going on … last week and over the weekend … This is the reason for sharing this real ghost story with you.
And, I don’t have an explanation as to the strange paranormal experiences others are having … the veil must have lifted to a degree … or our imaginations are on overdrive …
Everyone has quirks. My friend Joan has a thing for leaving doors and cabinets half open.
Doors are to be either opened or closed. Cabinets, she prefers to have closed, drawers, too.
Everyday when she came home from work, doors were half open, cabinets half open, and drawers pulled out.
She decided she had a ghost that was messing with her.
A few days later, at work, she noticed her desk drawers were opened, the door to her office was half open and the filing cabinet drawers were opened and pulled out. She locked her office, desk and file cabinet before leaving. It was something she did every evening as did others in the office.
The janitorial service the company used would lock the doors of the offices. All the employees had separate keys to their desks and file cabinets.
Joan lived alone and no one had keys to her house.
When Joan’s sister, Holly, accepted her invitation to visit the following weekend, Joan asked her to bring her ghost hunting equipment with her.
Holly arrived with her ghost hunting team late that Friday night. Some were going to investigate the office and others Joan’s house.
Joan accompanied half the group to the office (three others) and Holly stayed at the house to investigate with the other half of the group (also three members).
At each location cameras were set up. They also had EMF sensors (also referred to as The Ghost Meter).
They both saw what they believed to be poltergeist activity opening doors and drawers. It appeared to be almost earthquake activity of doors swinging freely half opened or half closed and the drawers made jumping movements — not smooth openings. The kitchen cabinets swung open smoothly and adjusted to closing halfway.
It was all quite odd.
The group decided to do some research about both locations.
The strange thing was that both Joan’s house and the office building were once owned by the same man in the 1920’s. He was an attorney who was rumored to have poisoned his wife so he could marry his secretary. It does seem fitting that she would haunt both locations, but why Joan’s office and not the one used by her former husband?
With more research and consulting a psychic it was uncovered that the annoying ghost had once worked in the office Joan occupied before her marriage.
As has often been believed that poison is a woman’s means of murder, the psychic reasoned the annoying ghost was slowly poisoning her husband, but he discovered her putting cyanide in his food and drink and would switch plates and glasses with hers. So, in the end she poisoned herself.
It is a strange tale, but why was she taunting Joan who was not a relative and how did she know of Joan’s quirk of not liking doors, cabinets and drawers half or partly opened?
The simple answer is observation. This is how she decided to get Joan’s attention.
The annoying ghost didn’t stay with Joan much longer after the truth was uncovered. Did she want Joan to believe her husband poisoned her? Or to acknowledge that she actually poisoned herself?
Does the truth set one free?
Joan still lives in the same house and works in the same office. She thinks of the annoying spirit from time to time and wonders if she’ll return.
She’s relieved that the ghost only messed with her obsession and didn’t try to poison her.
I hope you enjoyed this real ghost story. I did. It had a happy ending … and gave us a bit of insight into the paranormal.
I’m always searching for answers or some insight into the realm of the paranormal … I’m not so much in getting the wits scared out of me … that has happened, but not something I seek …
I do hope this Halloween Season you and your family will be safe …
Thanks for stopping by!
Sharon
by Sharon | Oct 25, 2018
Cemeteries mean different things to different people.
Lori moved back home to live with her parents after a bitter divorce. She didn’t want to burden her parents with her sadness and bitterness, so everyday she went to the cemetery and just poured her heart out on the grave of someone she didn’t know.
She would go to the oldest session, knowing it was the quietest and least visited. There was the headstone of Rosemary who was born in 1823 and died in 1848 at the young age of 25.
Lori forgot about her sadness when she read the dates on the headstone.
“Excuse me Rosemary, but why was your life cut short?” she asked as she sat down. Then she apologized. “I’m sorry, where are my manners. I’m Lori and I’m 25. My husband divorced me and I’m now living with my parents.”
Lori didn’t expect an answer, but she was hoping for one. She imagined how great it would be for a ghost to come out of her grave and have a heart-to-heart talk with her.
She heard a whispered “Divorce?”
It did sound like a question, so Lori answered. “I married too young as my parents kept telling me. Ray’s parents said the same thing to him. We just graduated from high school. It seemed to be the right thing to do.”
Lori explained how she worked full-time in a little boutique owned by a woman who became ill and needed someone to manage the shop. “I loved my job and took some night classes to learn about managing a dress shop and about keeping the books and ordering merchandise.”
Ray was able to quit his part-time job and attend college full-time since Lori was working and making good money to support them.
The owner of the boutique passed and left the store to Lori.
“I was both scared and excited, but the stress of owning a store got to me.”
She worked night and day at the boutique. Ray was understanding at first. He’d bring take-out and they’d eat together and talk.
“Ray insisted I sell the boutique. He wanted to buy a house and begin a family after he graduated from college. He had a job waiting for him.”
Lori agreed to sell the boutique and to use the money to buy a house. The extra money was to get them through until Ray’s graduation and his employment. Things, unfortunately, didn’t go as planned.
She found out that she couldn’t have children and this was the deal breaker for Ray. He wanted a divorce.
Lori heard “No children.”
It was a statement. She felt Rosemary was interacting with her, but she didn’t know if it was just a response to what she had said or if Rosemary was trying to tell her something.
“Rosemary, were you married?”
“Almost,” was the reply.
Communicating with the dead was not at all how Lori imagined it to be. She needed to ask the right questions or do some research in the newspaper archives.
Lori decided to stay and try to get answers from Rosemary.
“Did you die on your wedding day?”
“Before.”
“Can you give me more than one word answers, Rosemary?” Lori asked frustrated.
“Murdered.”
This was getting interesting, but Lori was impatient.
Fortunately, someone passed by and asked, “Are you related to Rosemary?”
“No, I was just sitting here. Are you a relative?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. Rosemary had a tragic life. She was planning to get married, but she died before the wedding.”
“What happened?”
“No one knows.”
“Was she murdered?”
“What made you ask that!” The woman was so indignant that she walked away in a huff. Lori knew she had to solve this mystery. She knew it would take a long time trying to get at the truth with Rosemary, but she was determined to try.
Everyday Lori visited Rosemary’s gravesite. She’d ask questions, some days she’d receive cryptic responses and other days receive nothing at all.
After a month, Lori decided to consult a psychic.
She learned that the man Rosemary was planning to marry was named Jonathan Westlake. He had a wife and four children in another state. That was during the time he was courting Rosemary and asked her to marry him.
According to the psychic, Mrs. Westlake, Jonathan’s mother, came to put a stop to Jonathan’s adulterous affair by arranging the disappearance of Rosemary.
“But Rosemary told me she was murdered,” insisted Lori.
After several more sessions, Rosemary was able to communicate the actual facts of her death.
Yes, she did meet with Mrs. Westlake and learned of Jonathan’s wife and family. Rosemary was devastated by the news. She walked home to her parent’s house after the meeting.
Rosemary’s parents lived on a farm outside of town. She walked that lonely deserted road hundreds of times while growing up there to go to school and to visit with friends. It never bothered her. She enjoyed the exercise, but her mind focused on the betrayal. She plotted in her mind how she would ruin Jonathan Westlake. He sold farm equipment to the various farmers. That was his reason for being there. Her parents were well-known and influential in the town. It was because of her parents and the announcement of her marriage that persuaded other farmers to buy from Jonathan.
Evidently, the elder Mrs. Westlake and her son knew Rosemary could cause trouble for him. Rosemary had to die before she reached the farmhouse. And that was exactly what happened.
“I knew I was being followed,” Rosemary told the psychic. “I heard my name being called by Jonathan. I wasn’t about to stop. I never wanted to see him again. There was nothing he could say that would make this right. He used me!”
“I heard a loud buzzing in my head. It sounded like a swarm of hornets,” Rosemary said sadly.
Lori concluded that Jonathan shot Rosemary in the head. It was confirmed by the psychic.
Jonathan and his mother left that night never to return.
Lori still visits Rosemary’s gravesite. She still finds comfort at the cemetery. She no longer dwells on her failed marriage with Ray and all she gave up for him. She goes to learn what she can about the lives of the men, women and children buried in the old section of the cemetery.
I found this real ghost story interesting — not only to learn about Rosemary, but to learn how Lori’s life turned around. She began volunteering at the Historical Society and writing stories about the lives of those who lived, died and were buried in the local cemetery.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sharon
