My Ghost Story

Most of you have heard this story because when it happened I couldn't keep my mouth shut about it. I've always been one of those people. The people who feel that they have a close connection to the metaphysical world. I remember as a child seeing things that others couldn't. I remember a woman being in a room with me at my grandmothers house. She would often follow me around. But she didn't like me going in the downstairs bedroom. Whenever I would go in there I would feel anger and was scared out of my mind. Years later when I recounted the story and my feelings, turned out the bottom bedroom was where my great grandmother was bedridden the last few months of her life and where she died. Her mind was still sharp but she was a prisoner of osteoporosis. My guess is my great grandmother was my guide around the house and since she hated that prison cell of a room, she didn't want me in there either.

The night my grandfather died he came and sat on my bed with me. I knew it was him but as a 10 year old I was too scared to open my eyes, so I just remember smelling his cologne. When I was 14 I awoke during a thunderstorm and was paralyzed in my body but my mind was alert. That was the night God talked to me. I have no idea what he said but I was 100% aware that he was having a conversation with me and I couldn't move. I remember being terrified but calm all at the same time.

When I was in college I was driving down a highway between Austin and College Station. It was around 2am and was foggy. So foggy I was having a hard time driving. I was the only person on the road and I could hear my parents voices screaming in my head, "What the hell are you doing driving at this time of night!" All I wanted to do was get back home. I was rounding a curve when my headlights beamed straight onto a person who was standing in the middle of the road in a white t-shirt. It was a man around 25 years old and he had blood stains all over the t-shirt. I screamed in my car as I drove straight past him and he whizzed by my drivers side door. I picked up my cell phone and called 911 and told them what I had seen. I was afraid someone had been in a car accident in the fog and was hurt. The police called me the next day to tell me that they went out and looked and nothing was found. It took weeks to get the goosebumps off my neck.

So, moving into a house that was built in the 1930s was a bit scary for me. After we had moved all our stuff in here I walked around the house. I instantly knew I was in for some trouble. As I walked down the hall towards my son's bedroom a familiar feeling came over me. I knew that his bedroom belonged to someone else. Standing in the room, I felt like I was being watched.

A month after we had moved in things started happening. Toys that were on shelves were in the middle of the room in the morning. Pacifiers that were firmly planted in his mouth (before he could pull up) were balancing on the crib rail after naps. Each night as I held him, watching him drift off to sleep, it felt like there were 3 people in there. My cat refused to go in the room. If you tried to take her in there she would claw her way out. Then my son started waking up screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night. It was at such a high pitch and volume that it would jolt both of us out of bed. I'd go to get him and he would be covered in sweat and would quickly fall back to sleep in my arms. The height of my fear came at around 2am one night when I heard his scream again. I went in his room and gently patted his butt and back trying to get him to calm down and go back to sleep. As I draped myself over his crib rail I could feel someone behind me. First it was just a feeling, then I felt a tug on my shirt and a brush up against my side. I got my son back to sleep and quickly returned to my bedroom terrified out of my mind. Often I would go get my son from a nap and he would be balled up against the crib bumper and behind him would be an outline with his toys pushed up against the other side. It almost looked as if someone was laying in the crib with him.

Then one night it happened. I heard a cry and got up to go to him. As I got to my bedroom door and looked down the hall I saw her. She was a little girl and she ran into his bedroom. Now I was faced with a dilemma. Do I go into my crying son's room or run back under the covers and let him figure it out. Maternal instincts won and I forced my body to go into his room. I shoved a pacifier in his mouth, threw on a blanket and was thrilled that did the trick. I got back to my bed and cried. Was I going crazy? What am I supposed to do?

I contacted a friend of a friend who told me that this was a friendly ghost. But I couldn't just hope that Casper would go away I had to act. She told me to put salt on the window sills and around the door and ask her politely to please leave. I did just that. I felt like an idiot and I was waiting for my thesis committee to come in my front door and take away my PhD. I spoke very kindly to her and said that it was nice to meet her but it was time she moved on and to please leave our house. The next day, his room was brighter, it was warmer, he didn't wake up the following night, everything had changed. Now of course, if you ask my husband about any of this he will roll his eyes and draw a circle around his temple a few times, but I know what I saw and I know myself.

Myself is someone who just knows things. I connect in deep ways with people and have not ever been able to explain it. My husband said I can look at him in a way that sees straight through him and goes so deep he wants to hide. I had an ex-boyfriend said that from the moment he met me he felt like I was a person he couldn't hide from. I'm not sure if I can scare the living hell out of my friends too or not but I do hope my friendship is one of depth.

Now I realize almost all of this can be explained in other ways. An active childhood imagination, deep memory recollection, sensory overload, sleep paralysis and an over exhausted mother of twins, but I just know what I know.

After seeing the movie Paranormal Activity Sunday night, I didn't sleep a wink last night. I know nothing evil has ever come after me and in my own warped mind I think that is what God did to me that night long ago. Some of us are "sensitives" and probably need protection. Whether he gave it to me or not, I will blindly pretend I have his coat of armor on my soul.