Happy Holidays!
Can our loved ones visit us during the holidays>
Several contributions to our "Haunted Houses of Michigan would seem to indicate so.
In one case an "invisible" kitten played with the lower ornaments on a Christmas tree for several nights during the Christmas holidays. In another, a Christmas photo of a namesake Granddaughter showed something unusal after Grandma died.
Still another family "heard" a deceased Grandma's familiar steps in a bedroom during a holiday time as if she was checking a sleeping child.
All of these have been loving experiences and leave one with the sense that love does continue on into the "next" life.
If you have lost a loved one, consider lighting a candle at the holiday feast in memory of the loved one and saying a few words in loving memory. For more information about the sources of these stories, read on...
Hi, I'm The Rev.
I signed up to explore with you the world of the strange and curious.
If you have a true ghost story to share, share it here! If you have any unusual photos that you think might show ghosts or spirits, let us know! You can contact us at:
July 2000
"Just a Minute!"
My son has his room in the basement. A few days ago
I needed him to help me with something so I called down to him.
No answer. I called again, louder. No answer. I called down
agan-a lot louder. This time I got a reply. "Just a Minute!"
He sure sounded gruff and a lot farther back into the
basement. Maybe he was working on something, I thought, so I
didn't bother him again, and went on to other things.
About an hour later, he came in the front door. Confused, I asked where he had been. Downtown for the past couple hours, was
his reply. Then who was in the basement?
Nobody.
K.D.
The Minister's Visit
A lady minister at our church stayed over with us one night. She had the spare room. While we sat up until late, talking about the mundane and the spiritual there was a scratching noise in the corner of the room. It was quite energetic, sounding for all the world like a cat scratching in its box.
We have two cats and a dog, so I got up to check on their whereabouts. They were in other areas of the house. We visited awhile longer and the scratching began again. I got up and walked to within a foot of the noise. Nothing there, but the "cat" was "scratching" in its box from the sound of it!
My son had a room in the basement so I called down to him to check under our room to see if he could hear any Very Large mice up in the rafters under our room!
Nope. Nothing there.
The scratching continued off and on for a while, then quit.
We tried to continue the conversation, but it definitely took a new slant!
After the minister left, I mentioned the happenings to my teen daughter who often used the room for friends, TV viewing, etc.
"Oh, yes." She had heard it "about a third of the time I was in the room. I just ignored it."
It turns out that the previous owner did own a cat, long dead now.
I wonder if it stayed on?
UPDATE
The invisible cat is making itself at home. Several times recently, it has jumped up on our bed at night, walked around and over us, and snuggled down next to us. The bed vibrates to the movement and we can feel it...we just can't see it!
This photo was taken at Ellsworth, MI cemetery on Labor Day 1998. Just a few seconds prior to taking
the photo, I had backed up and tripped over a boulder tombstone, falling with a heavy thud-I am no
lighweight! Maybe I "woke" something up? (See "winged" figure on right rising out of the ground.)
Film
covers a wider range of vision than do our eyes, so it is possible to register things we cannot see ....
Little House on the Lake
A few years ago I visited with a lady who lived in a very strange house. It was in the north-central Michigan area, located at the edge of a small lake a few miles outside town. At the time, cottages were springing up around the lake, displacing the woodlands and even swamp area. Now it is fully developed into neighborhoods and the character of the area has totally changed. But, back then, there was still wild land and swamp areas. The house was quite old, and needed remodeling.
Many strange things happened to the lady and her family, from fogs forming in the living room to candle flames floating independently. Something even attacked a teenaged daughter.
For more information about this and other stories, read Haunted Houses of Michigan. I can vouch for the stories being true.
The Broach
Grandma died when I was nine. She had been sick for a long time from "dropsy." For the last couple years, she occupied my bedroom on the first floor and I moved upstairs. Mom waited on her hand and foot like a loving daughter should. It was also a time before nursing homes were easily available.
A few days after her funeral, a visiting cousin and I were heading upstairs when we noticed something shiny on a step. It was a broach, silver and of an old-fashioned style. I took it to mother.
She was shocked. It turned out that the broach hadn't been seen since grandma's death. The last anyone had seen it was on grandma's dress-at her funeral!
We never did find out what happened, but like to think maybe it was a goodbye to me, her namesake.
Stacey's Story
When I was 12 years old, my Mama, and her finace Mike lived in a trailer park. I was used to staying up late, and one particular night was no exception.
The trailer was set up to where when you walked in the front door you would be in the living room, to the right was my room and bathroom, to the left of the living room was the kitchen, a small hallway with the laundry room, and then my mothers room.
I was using the bathroom, when I walked out to go to my bedroom, I felt something look at me......I turned around looking towards the hallway...and there it was.....a human shaped figure...nothing like what I heard a "ghost" looked like. It was staring at me...this yellowish glowing figure.
After a moment it turned and walked into the laundry room.
I was numb with fear. I couldn't sleep all night. The funny thing about it is, soon after, I found out my Granny had terminal cancer. My grandmother died 9 months after the incident.
Maybe it could have been a "warning". I described the ghost's height and my mother told me my great-grandmother
had been around that same height. I have never forgotton that
night.......I am now 20 years old.
The Funeral
LJ was about six when her mother had to make a duty call at a funeral of an elderly church member.
LJ was allowed to go along because she and her mom had been discussing the meaning of death and her mother figured going to see someone the little girl didn't know wouldn't be so traumatic as attending a funeral.
The child was eager to go and not the least bit reluctant to go up the church steps.
They signed in and approached the open coffin hand in hand. Mom lifted the girl up a bit so she could see in.
LJ looked solomnly at the still figure. Then she turned to her mother and whispered, "Let's go now!"
So they left.
As they got into the car, the child said, "I thought you said dead people don't move. That man sat up and looked at me! It was like there was two of him, the one lying down, and another one that sat up, except that I could see through him."
"Well," stammered mother, in shock, "Maybe he just came back to see who came to his funeral!"
This story happened at Ellsworth, Michigan about eight years ago.
Ghost dog
Our Ghost dog has put in another appearance. It's been about two years
since anything has happened. This time we were awakened by the sound of
loud scratching at the door to the stairs, as a dog would do to be let
up or down the stairs. We were soundly asleep and tried to ignore it,
but it kept on scratching. We thought at first it was our own dog, but
as with the other occurances, we got up to find our own dog sleeping
soundly at our feet. The ghost dog always seems to manifest when the
house (130 yr old Victorian) is being renovated, almost always on the
front stairs. (At this time we are restoring the back sevice stairs).
All of the occurances have been at night, almost always waking US out of
a sound sleep, but never bothering our own dog. As posted before, I'm
the only one to have SEEN anything (a small dark dog-shaped form out of
the corner of my eye that promply vanishes) but my wife and I both have
been awakened in the past by barking (and a few random howls) from the
stairs. The sounds always stop as soon as we are fully awake and get up
to investigate. It's not particularly scary, just kind of annoying. :)
This time, I checked for possible psysical evidence, but there were no
scratch marks on the door. I thought I would post, since this is the
first sign of the ghost dog in a long time. It seems to be somehow
related to us working on the house. It seems to make him restless. (I
don't know why I think it's a male dog) I'll post again if anything else
happens.
John Patrick Riley (-John7)
Halloween House
This is the house pictured above and it certainly fits its billing! Many strange things happened there, a few of which are in the book mentioned. The "scariest" thing was the atmosphere.
Some upstairs rooms were very spooky. One got the urge to run out of them. Most of the downstairs rooms were okay. People who have lived there in the past three decades tended to be those with large families and little money, so the house has been in need of TLC for a long time. Who knows, maybe if it gets it, the "atmosphere" will improve!
The full account of this story appears in a new book, 'Haunted Houses of Michigan".
For more information: contact:truth2@voyager.net
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