Scary Ghost Stories

Odd Experiences

I have often heardpeople say they don't believe in ghosts because they have neverseen one themselves, well, I have. I have also had first handexperience with a harbringer phenominon, the sound of a breakingobject that heralded the death of family members, as well ashaving animals that knew of death in the family.

First, let me explain that my mother married my stepfather in1965. We moved to his home and I quickly learned that ghosts andhauntings were not unknown in my stepfathers family. His firstwife had died of cancer and he attributed his marriage to mymother to a visit paid to him by his deceased wife in which hefelt her touch him in the night, waking him from sleep, to hearher tell him that the woman he was dating at the time was not theone he should marry but her neighbor. My mother was the neighborin question and my stepfather did indeed start dating her andeventually married her. My stepfather also reported one otherghostly visitor to his home, his father. He told us that oneevening, this was before he married my mother, he came home fromwork late and sat down to rest in the chair by the fireplace inthe living room. While sitting there resting, he suddenly becameaware that his father, who had been dead for only a short time atthis time, had walked into the room and over to the fireplace. Itis neccessary to explain here that the fireplace was closed offwith a metal sheet and an electric heater had been placed infront of it. My stepfather said his dad then looked over at himand said quite clearly "You know, it is not so bad here son"to him. Then he reached down and picked up a poker and went tostir up the fire, at which time my stepfather reached out totouch him and he vanished. I myself often experienced sightingsin this house. There is a hallway leading from the living room tothe upstairs rooms. The doorway to my bedroom opened onto thishallway. I have seen a white, translucent figure that is human inform and size that comes down this hall from the direction of theupstairs bedrooms and vanishes when it reaches the living room. Ihave sen this figure from both the living room and my bedroom, atnight and in the daytime. I never heard the appirition speak tome however.

After my stepfather's mother died, in her room off the hallwayaforementioned, I was visited one morning by a figure much likethe one I had seen previously, but this one actually entered myroom and stood by my bed like it was looking at me. Again Ineither felt or heard anything however.

Sound did play a part in my next report though. Before mystepfather's mother moved into the house where we lived, shelived in her own house, right down the road from ours. Oneevening as we were visiting her, and some other relatives who hadcome to see her, I and everyone else in her living room heard asound like a big glass jar of some sort being smashed underneaththe house. I had no idea of what had happened and asked what hadbroken. My stepfather then said that someone in the family haddied or was soon to die. My mother and I asked him what he meantand he told us that whenever someone in his family died orsometimes before, a sound like a jar breaking had been heard athis mother's house. He said he had heard it before his father'sdeath and also at the death of his uncle and several of hiscousins. This particular time it turned out that one of his auntshad died that very evening. The next day my stepfather, one ofhis cousins and myself went under the house and searched for anysign of broken glass or pottery, but found none at all.

Animals are often credited in stories with having closer ties tothe paranormal than humans, and while I don't know that this isstrictly true, I do know that I have experienced first hand anincident, involving a cat and a dog I owned, that proved to mystepfather, my mother and myself that animals do indeed sometimesknow things that they have no way of knowing without someconnection with the supernatural existing. My experience was asfollows. One evening as my stepfather, my mother and I werereturning from a shopping trip we came in sight of our house onlyto see my dog and my cat sitting side by side in the drivewaylike they were waiting on us. I will never forget my stepfathersaying to my mother "Something has happened, they arewaiting to tell us that something has happended." Once wehad parked and gotten out of the car, both the dog and the catbegan to walk up to my stepfather and then move towards the houseof my stepbrother who lived next door to us. "They want usto go with them" my stepfather said, so as my mother carriedgroceries into the house he and I went to my stepbrothers houseonly to find that they had been trying to find us all evening. Itturned out that my aunt Thedna and her husband had been involvedin an auto accident that day and he was dead and they did notknow if she was going to live. My stepfather told his son that myanimals had known about this because they had waited to lead usto his house so we could find out what had happened.

One last mention of my stepfather's home, we had a poltergeist inthe house for a while. It liked to steal things. We often foundsmall objects missing in the house and like most families wewould fuss at each other and blame each other for misplacingstuff. However, when my stepfather had to replace the waterheater in the house we found a 'stash' of our belongings behindit. What surprised us most about this was the fact that some ofthe items were large enough that we could not see how they hadgotten where they were because there was just not enough roombetween the walls and the sides of the waterheater for them tohave been pushed behind it.

I still have a spirit or poltergeist living with me to this day.It is a benign presence that shows itself by the occasional soundof footsteps and by the rather annoying habit of unlocking myback doors. I have had this problem in four seperate homes atthis point and have gotten used to never taking on faith the backdoor being locked or closed. My current residence is a mobilehome. I found the rear door open or unlocked at least six timesin the period just before and after we moved in. I even placed achain on the door, to no avail. I found it unlatched soon afterinstalling it, so moved it to the top of the door and placed itso that the door does not open at all if the chain is on. Ithought this would stop the door opening but no, this was not tobe. Imagine my surprise the day I found the rear door standingwide open and the chain hanging down from the slide with thescrews still in the attachment plate. It was pulled right out ofthe door. I then tried supergluing it in place using a supergluegel that I have found holds everything I have ever used it on,even going so far as to fill the screw holes with it and beadingit along the edge of the attachment plate, except for the chainon my back door. This was found once more hanging as before,completly pulled out of the door.

So, I am here to tell you that ghosts and spirits do exist andthat yes, real live ordinary people do come in contact with themall the time. Now if I can just find a way to contact my ghostand let it know I like my back door locked!