ghost or guardian angels~

Once again, my friend Dee has made a post on her blog that has inspired me to post about something that has happened to me. Thanks Dee for rattling my brain cells... lol

This is a true story:

Back in 1988, after the death of my mother-in-law, Jean, the hubby and I bought the old farm house that his parents owned.  The house was originally built in the 1920's by Slim's Great Grandpa Henry R. and his Great Grandma Alta.  Besides his great grandparents living there his Great Uncle Fritz also lived there.

In 1977, after Great Grandpa Henry went into a nursing home, Great Grandma has already passed and Uncle Fritz was in a nursing home, Slim's parents, Punk and Jean bought the farm house.  They did extensive remodeling of it at the time of the rooms; but nothing with the actual structure of the home.  While we lived in the house from 1986 until we moved out in 1998 we did a bit of remodeling also, just updating it from the 70's look carpeting, wall coverings, sanding down the floors to their original beauty,etc... but we never did anything either as far as the major construction that the house needed.  It was starting to get into a bit of despair.  It needed a whole new foundation put under it.

The basement walls were made of stacked and motored stone ~ and they were crumbling.  It was nothing to be walking down the basement stairway and have a rock fall out of the wall on you.  Also, the main support beams under the floor and on the basement ceiling were nothing more than these big old tamarck poles, that we remember Grandpa telling us about ~ how they dragged them up out of the swamp with a horse and oxen.  These poles were rotting from moisture from the constant water that the basement kept filling up with.

Because of the major cost of repairs we got some estimates and found that we could build a new house for about the same cost of fixing up the old.  So this was the reason for our moving ~ plus... I was ready to leave the ghosts behind.

Anyways... on to the paranormal happenings ~ 

Between the time frame of 1977 and 1986 while Slim's parents were living at the house, Grandpa Henry and Uncle Fritz also passed away.  This was the beginning of my mother-in-laws paranormal experiences.  On several occasions she had mentioned to me that she thought the house was haunted.  Of course, I wanted to know why.  She would tell me stories of hearing footsteps on the upstairs stairwell, of chairs being moved from one place to another, of a rocking chair that would be rocking when she walked into a room, of the feeling that someone just walked past her.  She would also tell me stories about her putting her necklaces on a jewelry stand on her dresser in the evening when she'd go to bed and in the morning the necklace would be laying on her dresser ~ off the stand.  It was little things like this that would happen to her all the time, but the biggest thing that would occur would be the sound of music.

Jean would hear music playing in other rooms.  Most of the time she said it sounded like an old piano playing or the sound of a chord organ.  Whenever this would happen to her she was always alone in the house.  She would tell Punky about it; and he'd just laugh it off.  I didn't laugh it off... and neither did Jean.  She was dead serious when she'd tell me about these happenings.

I had asked her if she was scared when it happened.  Her answer to me was that it frightened her when it first started happening; then after awhile she thought that it was just Henry and Fritz playing games with her and it didn't bother her anymore.  What bothered her was the fact that it only happened to her and not her husband or kids. 

This might be a good time for you to go pee and refresh your cup of coffee or can of soda and come back to reading; because this post (I have a feeling) is going to be a long winded one.

You're back.  Okay...

Well...
After Jean had passed away in 1986 from melanoma cancer, at the young age of 48, Slim's dad, Punky, remarried two years later and moved into town.  This was when we bought the house from him.

When Punk moved out, he left behind much of the furnishings that were still left in the house after he and Jean had bought the place.  This is where many of the antique furnishings that I still have came from.  Jean wasn't into the antiques like I am; so all the stuff left behind from Great Grandpa and Grandma was just put into the upstairs attic and closets.

When we moved in our girls, Staci and Sara were ages 11 and 9.  We never talked about anything strange ever happening in the house in front of the girls.  We did not want to scare them.  In fact, when I would bring up the subject about strange happenings that Jean had told me about, Slim would laugh them off too, just like his dad did.

I have to admit, I was a little bit on edge when we first moved in because of the happening that Jean went through; but a whole year went by and nothing ever happened.  I never heard anything or felt anything abnormal at all.

Then in 1989, after the birth of our son Sam, things began to happen.  Staci and Sara began having a hard time sleeping through the night.  On many occasions, they would come downstairs from their upstairs bedrooms and wake me up saying they couldn't sleep.  When I'd ask why I would get these types of responses from them. "I feel like someones breathing on me." "The wall was moving." "I hear someone walking in the hallway." "Something touched my face."

Of course, I wasn't about to let the girls know that I believed them!  I would always just gently guide them back to bed or let them sleep downstairs on the living room couch telling them that they just had a bad dream.

Then things started happening to me.  I started to hear the music... but only after we were going through the attic one day and came across an old electric chord organ that was tucked away from when Slim and his brothers were little kids.  It was a gift from his Great Grandpa Henry when they were little.  We cleaned it up and plugged it in and it still worked.  So we set it up for the girls in their playroom at the top of the stairs.

Now ~ if you're doing the math and looking at the dates are you saying... 'it took you how long to come across this chord organ?'  The attic and upstairs closets in that house had so much stuff in it you wouldn't believe!  They threw NOTHING away!! They were full of furniture, dishes, old receipts, medicine bottles, old makeup, purses, books, clothes, all the old dresser drawers were stuffed, they tossed nothing; everything that was ever bought into that house was still there ... right down to old gum wrappers.  Yes... it took me two years to get through it all.

Now on to my paranormal happenings ~

I can't begin to count how many times I would go upstairs to turn off the chord organ in the kids playroom.  I would always be standing downstairs and I would hear music.  Little tunes being played very quietly on the chord organ.  I would go upstairs, and it would be turned on ... the kids would be at school or in another room ... not even playing with it and it would be on.  I'd turn it off ... go back downstairs and  I'd hear it playing again.  Same routine... I'd go shut it off and it'd come back on.  This happened sooooooo many times to me.  A couple of times I would even go so far as to unplug it and I would still hear music! I'd go back upstairs and it would be plugged back in!!

I didn't want to freak the kids out about it; because they really liked playing with it so I didn't get rid of it.  I also started to hear footsteps on the stairwell.  I'd look... and of course, no one was ever there.  Also, like Jean would experience, I would see the rocking chair moving on several occasions.  Like her too, it frightened me at first, then I too just let myself believe that it was just Grandpa Henry and Uncle Fritz pulling pranks and not to let it scare me.

But...
What really scared me was the fact that the girls just couldn't sleep well at night and they too began telling me more and more about things happening to them... and yet I still kept quiet about the happenings because no one would believe me when I talked about them; and I didn't want the girls to know that I believed them and to be afraid of ghost.

Then the clincher...
One day the girls were upstairs playing in their bedrooms.  I heard the chord organ playing again.  I called up the stairs to them to turn off the chord organ if they were done playing with it.  They both said they weren't playing with it and that they couldn't shut it off.  I go upstairs to check this out.  What do you mean you can't shut it off?  Sure enough, when you'd hit the shut off button on it ... it wouldn't turn off.  Okay... enough of that business.  I unplugged it and took it downstairs and straight out to the garage.  It was going to the dump.

I was expecting the girls to put up a fuss about me throwing away one of their favorite toys; but quite the opposite.  Both girls were so happy to see me toss the chord organ out.  They both said they were tired of listening to it play all night long.  Okay... I'm freaked.

The next day, the girls are off to school ~ Slim is at work ... I'm standing in the kitchen which is right at the bottom of the stairway ... the house is quiet ... with just the background sound of the television in the living room and what do I hear? Yep... the chord organ music.

I've had it!!  I had a shout out with Great Grandpa and Uncle Fritz.
"I don't know if it's you two old codgers or not; but whoever you are this is war!"  "I live here now and if you want to keep freaking me out you go right ahead; but you leave my little babies alone!"

The music stopped.

That night when I went to bed I was laying there, just about to doze off when I saw a shadow in the doorway.  I thought to myself, oh great ... now they're pissed and coming to get me... but then I really looked hard at the shadow and I wasn't scared at all.  It was my mother-in-law Jean.  She was standing there in the doorway as clear as if she was standing in the room right next to me now.

She walked across the bedroom over towards the crib where Sam was sleeping then she turned and went towards the kitchen.  I got up out of bed and followed her.  She moved up the stairwell and I followed her.  She then went into Staci's room and bowed over her and kissed her on her forehead, then she went into Sara's room and kissed her forehead... and as silently as she appeared ... she was gone.

I can't even begin to tell you how I felt at that moment.  I know it was her... I know she was at that moment our guardian angel and she was here to let us know that she was looking out for us.  I was never frightened to live in that house again.

The next morning, I thought I would just keep quiet about what I saw and see if the girls would say anything.  Sure enough, Sara came downstairs that morning and said, "Momma, Grandma Jean kissed me last night."  I said, "I know."  That was the only thing we ever said about it.

Two weeks later, Staci came up to me and said she wanted to tell me something.  She said that she had a dream one night that Grandma Jean was in her room and kissed her.  I asked her if she was scared, and she said "no" and that was the end of that conversation.

So do I believe in ghost? yes ... and the chord organ music still continued; but only once in awhile ~ and the rocking chair still moved ... but did it scare me? no... it was just the old boys letting me know they were still around.  I just wish I could figure out why, whenever I was the one walking down to the basement, a rock would fall out of the wall. Was it Grandpa or Fritz showing me they were still there??

Do I believe in guardian angels? YES ... full heartedly!!!  We are being watched over.

Luke 4:10
For it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully

~~~~~

Note: after we sold our house five different families lived in it in  ... we heard rumor that the place is haunted.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel