My husband and I got engaged at Longfellow's Wayside Inn, a famous inn outside of Boston (Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn" is based on it). I didn't know it was haunted but my husband did, and since he's fascinated by that kind of thing (I am not into it) he had reserved the oldest room in the inn, which is over the original dining rooms and used to be accessed by the smallest staircase I've ever seen; more like a ladder. You can still go in that way but there is now also a normal door on the other side of the room, from a modern addition. Anyway, Around 3 or 4 in the morning I woke up because there was a weird racket in the staircase--banging sounds, almost like pots being dropped, or chairs. I thought maybe it was the hotel staff but realized everyone had long since closed up for the night--that staircase only came to our room and wasn't used. The next day I told my husband about it and he told me about the ghost, Jerusha Howe, who supposedly haunts that part of the house! It turns out that people have been writing notes about their experiences in that room, as well as stories about their lives or wishes for the future, and tucking them in the cracks around the beams of that room, and in a secret compartment in the dresser, for decades. All very creepy.

I also have a friend who has had major ghost problems in two apartments in NYC--one of them in a converted hotel. That ghost would get into her bed; she'd feel the mattress compress next to her and it would stay like that until she said "go away." AGH.

A few days after moving into our new apartment, I looked up and noticed an elderly man walking through the apartment. It was strange, because he was transparent, and I knew that he was dead. Although I tried speaking to him several times, he never answered my questions. I told my neighbor, and described him. She informed me that he must have been the prior resident of my apartment. In the following years, he would often pace back and forth when I was alone in the apartment. One day after 6 1/2 years, I heard him running up and down the stairs, and I felt that he was somehow "lost". I pulled open the blinds in the dining room (the closest to the stairs) and left to go into my bedroom. He continued this incessent, frantic running up and down the stairs for a long time. I shouted to him to "Go to the light". It took him nearly an hour to 'understand', but eventually there was silence as I felt his presence leaving the apartment. I haven't seen him since. I believe he has found the peace he was searching for.

This "haunting" took place about 33 years ago, in the small town of Almeboda, Sweden, where I lived for 5 years with my son (then daughter) and second husband with 9 other people, including 4 children other than my own. We lived communal-style in a huge 13 room house with a large 2-story storefront attached and a row of barn-like "sheds" out back (including an out house, a room where we stored fire wood and a place for our goats).
One evening, sitting in front of one of the large "tile ovens" (cakkleovens, as they are called in Swedish- not sure of the spelling anymore), in one of the 2-room suites where the family with 4 children lived, I felt a "presence", for lack of a better word, just come out of the floor-to-ceiling tiled, cylindrical wood stove. Just before I felt this "blackness" (it seemed like black steam, or a black cloud) emerge, one of the men who lived in the house suddenly got up and said "Whoah! Im going to bed!!", as if he had been startled by something.
Right before I went to bed that evening, my husband made the statement "I wouldn't care if the house burned down tomorrow". I believe this statement was meant to show his non-attachment to material things.
The next morning we had a huge house fire that destroyed more than 75% of the house. We also found out that 200 years before, the storefront had been a shop, and the shopkeeper had hung himself in a mental institution. They say the spirit of people who take their own life is grounded (unable to transcend earthly planes) until something happens to release them. That night we saw a shooting star, and my friend said "A witch is dead". The next day, things began to change drastically, apparently initiated by the fire, but the changes extended far beyond what we could have imagined.
I have always believed that the blackness I felt, which chased my friend out of the room so suddenly, was the grounded spirit of the former shopkeeper. The spirit was released by the fire, which started in the wood stove from which the blackness emanated. The release of this spirit, also released the negativity in the house (constant stress and fighting), and things began to improve for several of the (now former) residents.

I lived in a modern day haunted house in the '80's with two teenage sons and a new husband. We think the ghost did not approve of him, since he was often the victim of her jokes. Examples were lights going off, but turning back on with stove burner dials, a dish cloth appearing in different places from where it was left. a shower curtain being flipped up high, twice, with no one home but the bather, a drink moving to edge of a dry table. The most amazing event was when a prized pipe with an elegant curved stem was found one day with the stem perfectly straight! During this time the younger boy contracted infectuous mononucleosis which hung on until he moved out of the house and in with his father. After that the ghost never bothered us again.

Years later I met the new owner of the house and gently asked if there had been odd occurences. There had!

We found out that a former owner had died there. She had an alcohoic husband and two wild teenage children who would run away (the girl) and vandalize the house ( the boy). A neighbor told me how much she loved her house. She did appear to my husband who is more "sensitive" to these things. He always felt her hostility in the kitchen area and once saw her sitting on the couch. He thinks she resented his own negative feelings about the house.

We lived in a 'haunted' house in London, England. We heard pictures falling off the wall - glass breaking - but couldn't find anything broken. Our dog would run up the stairs chasing something we couldn't see. Once I saw my daughter go up the front hall stairs but it turned out she was in the kitchen- no where near the stairs. And we had a set of bells in the kitchen - the owners would ring the bells for the servants, which bell rang in the kitchen told them where to go. They weren't connected, but would occasionally ring! And our son once had someone put a hand on his neck while he was sleeping..... At least it was a 'nice' ghost - he never did anything mean to us.

"The Apartment Spirit"

(This is an actual account of real events that happened to me and my wife in the early 1990’s in an apartment in Addison, Tx. I can’t really explain it, but it really happened, believe or not.)

I am a skeptic. Its not that I don't believe in paranormal things such as UFO's, Bigfoot, and ghosts in haunted houses. Its just that I believe that the vast majority of these things aren't looked at objectively by those who've experienced them first hand. Shouldn't we try to find a natural, scientific explanation for strange happenings before we assume the most far out, out of this world answers to these mysteries? I've never seen any of these things, but I have experienced......something. Let me explain.
Years ago, my wife Sandy and I moved into our first apartment together. It was a nice little one bedroom efficiency in Addison, Tx. It was comfortable, with a nice kitchen and a bar, and a spacious living room. As we were moving boxes in, I noticed bottles of Holy Water in each closet and pantry area, sort of hidden away, out of site. Later, I mentioned this to Chris, the head maintenance guy.
" What's up with the Holy Water?" I said jokingly. " The place isn't haunted?...Is it?"
Chris had paused, looked down, and said "Well......." and paused again.
I laughed out loud and said "WHAT???.....You’re kidding!.... You mean the place is possessed?"
" I wouldn't say possessed, necessarily." Chris said.
"OK" I said, " Tell me about it."
He proceeded to tell me how the previous tenant, a seminary student, had just moved out, after having lived there for only a few months. He apparently had confided in Chris that there was something mysterious and strange in the apartment. The student had moved out suddenly, and while cleaning the apartment, Chris had found the bottles of water, and decided to leave them there… just in case.
"Do you really believe that something is actually in there?” I asked Chris.
" I don't know for sure.....but the guy that moved out sure did."
I laughed it off, and put it out of my mind.
As the months went by, we enjoyed the comfortable apartment, the fireplace, being close to both our work places, close to several nice parks where we could walk our two dogs, Bandit and Barney.
The bottles of Holy Water soon disappeared, misplaced while we were cleaning probably, but we never saw anything strange.....at first.
Then one day, as I was walking by, an empty coffee cup flew off the kitchen bar, passed right in front of me, and fell to the living room floor.
" That's mysterious...." I thought to myself. I explained it away to myself as a wet counter, or something similar. Things just don't fly through the air by themselves. In the same week, Sandy had just left to go somewhere, and I was alone in the apartment, in the kitchen, when something, someone grabbed me and pulled me hard by the back of my sweatshirt. Thinking that a burglar had broken in, and was attacking me, I turned furiously, throwing a crushing backhand and a knockout straight left at.....nothing. No one was there. I felt a bit sheepish, thinking about my hilarious Inspector Clouseau like attack...on thin air.
But I know I didn't imagine it....
I never said a thing to Sandy, afraid that I might scare her, and after all she hadn't seen anything. I didn't want plant any weird suggestions in her mind.
Then one night, we were in bed, reading. Things were quiet, until suddenly, Sandy's makeup table, at the foot of the bed, was jarred suddenly, toppling everything onto the floor. We couldn't figure it out, until I looked over in the corner, and there was one of our dogs, Bandit, looking innocent over in the corner.
"Ah Ha...." I said " There's the culprit!"
I stacked everything neatly back onto the little table, and we went back to our books.
Within 10 minutes, the table jarred again, knocking everything to the floor.
"The dogs again" I said confidently.
"I don't think so..." Sandy laughed nervously. Both dogs were snuggled in between us on the bed, looking totally innocent, as if to say, "We told you so. It wasn't us the first time."
"Well, I'll pick it up tomorrow. I'm tired. It's getting late" I explained, and we pulled the covers over us, and went to sleep with the lights on, in case the dogs got nervous.
We talked about it the next day, and came up with no explanation, but we just shrugged it off, busy with life, and day to day concerns.....
A week or so later, we were asleep in our bed, about 3:00 AM, when I was awakened by a female voice. I thought I was dreaming at first, and the voice was only in my dream.
"Naaatttthhhhannn." the woman said again in a haunting, sing-song voice. And I realized that I was awake. I immediately opened my eyes and turned over to Sandy.
" Sandy....You're talking in your sleep"
“What?....What’s going on?” She said sleepily.
“You’re talking in your sleep.”
" No I'm not" she said tiredly....go back to sleep."
The voice hadn't sounded like her...maybe I was dreaming afterall.
I was still awake with my eyes closed, although drifting off, when....
I heard it again.
"Naaatttthhhhannnn.......Naaatttthhhhaaann" in the same feminine, sing, song voice.
I opened my eyes and looked over at Sandy laying on my right hand side. She was soundly asleep. What kind of trick was she playing on me? This wasn't like her.
I decided to catch her the next time she tried it.
I turned over on my right side and was facing her, with my eyes open, staring at her. After a few minutes, I started making slight snoring noises, to try to trick her. It didn't work, so after a few minutes of this, I closed my eyes and gave up.
I was wide awake, when I heard the same melodious voice.
"Naaaatttthhhhaaaannnn” the voice sang softly.”Naaaaattttthhhhhaaaannnn"
Except this time, it was right next to my left ear, right next to the bed.
And now my eyes were wide open.......
"Naaaattttthhhhnnn" the voice was laughing softly now as she spoke. I pulled the covers over my head and the voice stopped.
I didn't sleep much that night, if at all.
Similar things happened again over the next few weeks. The cup again, doors opening by themselves, the dogs acting strangely.
On Halloween, Sandy was out of town, visiting a sick relative, and I was there in the apartment alone except for the two dogs, Bandit and Barney.
" Shouldn't be many trick or treaters tonight, not with the wind and rain blowing like that...." I thought to myself. And I was right. Not one kid came to the door that night. I laid down on the couch watching horror movies, eating bite sized chocolate candy bars, soaking up the Halloween atmosphere. About 5 till midnight, I heard a single loud “SMACK!” on the door. “Kind of late for kids” I thought. “Pranksters….I’ll bet. There’s probably egg all over my front door….”
I got out and looked out through the peephole……Something was blocking it. The light switch was on, and I couldn’t see a thing.
I looked out my front window and saw that my door light bulb was on, although I couldn’t see the outside doorstep from the window, the way the apartment was built. I looked through the peephole again. Still blocked. I shrugged it off, and went back to my horror movies. As long as whoever it was stayed outside, I was ok with that.
And then right at midnight……I was on the couch, the dogs next to me on to me on the living room floor. Suddenly the dogs sat up and looked intently but calmly to a certain spot, which happened to be right in front of me.
“ What’s going on , guys?” I said curiously.
They totally ignored me, and kept staring into the air curiously, as if they were seeing something.
This lasted about five minutes, all of us frozen where we were, not moving.
And then, both dogs, simultaneously, turned away and laid back down in their previous spot.
Really, really weird.
And then, as I looked right at it, a video tape flew off the top of the TV and onto the floor, a distance of about 8 feet.
“That’s it” I thought. “ This thing…whatever it is…..freaking me out”
I wasn’t really scared, but it just felt unnatural with this thing living here with us….
When I opened my front door the next morning, I found a still soaking wet newspaper plastered over the peephole. Could have been blown there by the wind last night.
Later that day, I got a letter-package from a local church. The small package held a tiny bottle of Holy Water. The pastor of the church advised the receiver of the letter to spread the water throughout their home in order to receive blessings for the inhabitants.
I know, it was a coincidence, but I decided that it couldn’t hurt, and that it might be a good idea.
Now I consider myself a pretty spiritual person, and I pray every day, but I’m not too much into ritual practices.
The day after that Halloween night, I spread the Holy Water throughout the apartment.
I never saw anything weird in the apartment afterward. Although I never got the feeling that whatever was there meant us any harm, I was glad it was gone. And I don’t feel like we forced it out with the Holy Water, although I could be wrong. I just feel like whatever it was came to feel it was not really welcome and left the premises.
I’m a bit more open minded about the paranormal now, but I’m still a skeptic. I’ve never actually seen a ghost, or an apparition, but the truth is I know we experienced something….
….something very strange, and something that didn’t belong in this natural world.

My 'ghost story' has a somewhat different twist - the spirit which seems to inhabit our house leaves physical objects for us!

My family moved into an old 1793 Vermont farmhouse over twenty-five years ago. While awaiting the movers in the completely empty, "swept clean" house, we camped out. Walking through the living room the first morning, my husband and I noticed a piece of paper on the floor that hadn't been there the night before. It turned out to be of no particular significance, but was a Bill of Indenture dating from 1814. The next morning a similar, very old paper appeared. It was almost as if the spirit, if there was one, was announcing his or her presence.

The years passed, and it became common to hear friends or family who had spent the night in our guest room say, "I had the most unusual dream last night..." Once when my husband had the flu, I slept there myself, and dreamed of a young girl, perhaps ten or so, with white dress and blond pony tail, walking into the room. In my dream, I thought, "So THAT'S our spirit", but had no doubt that it was a dream.

Eight years after we moved in, our youngest daughter, about to celebrate her twelfth birthday, very uncharacteristically and spontaneously cleaned the former guest room, now her room. She proudly showed off the results, and we went down to dinner. The meal finished, she went upstairs, but was back in a few minutes with a puzzled look on her face and a yellowed envelope in her hand. There was another folded envelope inside the outer one, and inside the second were beads, faux pearls, from a necklace that had come unstrung. The envelopes were postmarked 1918, and had had the stamps removed. It seemed as though the spirit had given her a birthday present.

Over the years there have been other small gifts, all of which we still have, the exception a rather large ledger from the still operating "Old Brick Store", which I gave to the town's historical society as it contained so many local family names.

Come to think of it, the ledger, which had been recycled as a child's scrapbook, was the last object left for us. Perhaps I was wrong to give away the gift, and there are now hurt feelings...