ann's story

I remember thinking I should roll over, but I was just too sleepy. I did lift my head to look at the clock. It was five in the morning, about two and a half hours before he usually came in. I really can't explain it any better than this, but all of a sudden, all the hairs on my head, neck and back stood straight up and I got this heavy rush of fear or nervousness.

I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, I was glued to the bed, on my side. I knew, I just KNEW that this was NOT my husband laying here. I was so scared, I could hear my heart beating in my ears. Believe it or not, my hand was still touching the hand on my arm! I couldn't seem to move it, and then all of a sudden, I got this huge chill that shook my whole body, and I screamed.

I jumped up and ran to the doorway, flipped on the light, screamed again, and ran downstairs, in my sleep shirt. My neighbor never even opened her door, when I screamed. I waited downstairs, by the doorway, till my husband got home. He was happy to see me there, till he found out why.

We lived there about five more months. I stopped sleeping at night, and stayed up pretty much till he got home and slept with him till we moved out.

I never felt the ghost again, but I will never forget him.

We went to our favorite spot to have some 'alone' time, and it happens to be right at the end of a cul-de-sac, between two houses by an empty lot. There is a woods behind the houses and when the weather is good, we like to go back there and mess around.

We went back there a few weeks ago, and were sitting on a blanket smoking a cigarette, when Casey heard a noise behind us. We both turned and decided it must be an animal. We ignored it and smoked the rest of our cigarettes, but we both heard it this time. I didn't think it was an animal, it almostsounded like it was saying something, like a word. I jumped up and hollered at it, "Go Away!! Leave us alone!!" Casey was already running for the open lot and she left me there with what ever it was!

I heard it again and the hair on the back of my neck and arms stood straight up. It sounded like a man, moaning something about, ' I'm lost' or something like that. But it was right in front of me. But I couldn't see it! I turned and ran straight out of there, Casey was at the car, I hit the 'Unlock' and we jumped in and drove off.

We don't go back there anymore.

Bruce and Lora live way out in the country, in an area known as Irish Hills, about maybe twenty minutes away from any big towns.

They are in a rather remote area, with lots of farmland surrounding them and plenty of space between them and their neighbors.

The house they live in is around eighty five years old, and although they have updated the interior of the first and second floors, the basement still retains all of the characteristics that display the age of the home, with the exception of the poured cement floor, laid down in the middle of the last century.

They are lucky enough to have extensive grounds about the home, namely, a lot that stretches back quite a distance, with a line of older trees that signals the end of their property. All in all, it is an area that has seen a lot of strange behavior on the part of the living and it only stands to reason that some of this should be reflected in the house and on the grounds after they have died.

This is their story.

Right after we moved in, we were busy every day and half the night, fixing things and setting things up, getting things in order so we could live there. The house was really old and falling apart in a lot of ways, and we really were wondering if we made a giant mistake. But, we kept at it, every night after work, all weekends. I was going to bed pretty late and exhausted, almost too tired

to sleep, but somehow, I would drift off.

Pretty soon, I started noticing a pattern of me waking up every night around 3am. I couldn't tell why, I just woke up and sometimes got a drink, went to the bathroom and went back to bed. About a week after this all started, while we were working on the bathroom, I got woke up by a hand on my shoulder, or by someone sitting on the bed next to me. For some reason, Lora never heard anything and managed to sleep right through the hand shaking me awake, and me yelling out.

I can't remember if I even tried to wake her up, I just remember looking at her in disbelief, that she could sleep through all this.

Later, I started seeing someone, an old lady with white hair, in old fashioned clothes, standing by the bed, just smiling at me, kind of like she knew me. She would stand there till I saw her. I know this, because sometimes I woke up, kind of on my own, real nervous about turning over, with the hair standing straight up on my head, and she would be there, looking at me and just nodding and smiling.

She showed up when we were redoing the big bathroom, and I was having a heck of a time, putting wallpaper up on the bathroom walls, which I thought was a huge mistake, cause it would be wet in there all the time. Lora doesn't usually get into patterns and stuff, she was like me at the time, just get it done and over with. But for some reason, she must have spent a month trying to find the paper she liked for the walls, she had to have the right paper. I just thought she was nuts.

Thinking back, the lady showed up when we were putting the paper up, we had a really hard time with it, it took us almost a week. The lady showed up every night that week, just to me.

When we were finally done with the bathroom, she never showed up again. I thought that was kind of weird, till a year ago when we needed to break through the wall to get to the pipes near the tub.

I was pulling the area of wall out, using my screwdriver to pry it out after I cut it, and as I pulled at it, a piece of the wallpaper got stuck and yanked up of the painted wall under it. I couldn't believe what was under it. It actually went like this--

Wall paper/pink paint/yellow paint/ugly pale green paper/ blue paint/ white paint and

then, wallpaper really close to the kind we had put on a couple years before, all the way down to the little flowers and lines --just like the one Lorahad worked so hard to find.

Very weird. I guess the lady was happy we were putting up the kind of paper she liked.

I used to work in a cemetery with my uncle a long time ago. I was about 15 and it was only one of about five different jobs I

had that summer. I was saving up for something special, which was the only reason I would ever have gotten up at the

crack of dawn to go to a cemetery in the first place.

We started working about 5 o'clock in the morning, to get done before the heat set in. I did mostly a lot of grass and weed stuff,

heavy, hard work that left me pretty sweated up. My uncle was a nice guy, let me take breaks when I needed them,

bought me pop once in a while. He did hate to see me smoking, though.

He wouldn't let me smoke when he was around, and we usually worked straight through from 5am to about 9:30 or 10am.

There was a small liquor store down the street and my uncle decided he would go get us a pop and have a little conversation with the lady inside. I knew he would be gone about a half hour. He told me to finish up bundling the kindling wood while he was gone.

I waited till he was out of sight, sat down, put my feet up and lit a smoke. I was setting back, enjoying life, when I heard footsteps on the gravel path. I dropped my feet and started to jump up, feeling guilty, and turned around, already thinking up excuses.

There was a barefooted man standing there, not my uncle, in a dark suitcoat, buttoned up, even though it was as hot as heck already. He never said a word, just stared at me with a glare, like he was angry about something. My cigarette started to burn my fingers and I dropped it, still staring at him. He smiled and nodded, then disappeared.

I'm ashamed to say it, but I know I screamed, because my uncle came tearing around the gate, his eyes bulging out, hollering, "What? What?" I told him I saw a ghost, and he nodded and said, "Were you smoking? Got an old man here who doesn't like it

any more than I do, and you are not the first smoker to see him...."

Needless to say, I dropped that job and picked up something else instead.

I always thought a ghost would be transparent or misty, but this man was so clear to me, I thought I could touch him.

THE END

Mom had been ill for only a little while when she died in the middle of the afternoon one summer about ten years ago.

We had thought she was doing much better, but she fooled us all.

About three or four months went by, her funeral came and went. We were pretty broken up, but my Dad was just plain heartbroken. He was so sad we thought for awhile he might die of a broken heart. I had heard of that happening before, but until Mom passed, I never really thought that could be true.

One day, about six months after she died, I went over to see Dad, and found him in the garden in the back yard, happy and whistling away. I was shocked, but pleased to see him finally getting on with living.

"Mom's back!" he greeted me, as he stood up, brushing his knees off and dropping his tools in the box next to him. I stared at him, thinking, "Oh no......Dad's lost it!..What do I do now?"

"Dad, why don't you come inside and I'll make us some ice tea... You look pretty hot. Garden looks good, though." I was just talking, saying anything I could, to take his mind off it, as I took him by the hand and up the steps into the back door. He smiled at me and shook his head. "You don't believe me, do you?" He was grinning at me, as he washed his hands in the sink.

"I know she's dead, but she's not gone, honey. " I couldn't help it, but I started to cry, because I kept thinking that he might die too now. You know how you hear about people seeing their loved ones just before they die? "Don't worry, honey. She just came back to tell me she is okay, she's happy and waiting for me. And I still got a lot of things I want to do first, so don't worry so much." Dad sat down and stretched out his legs and I thought to myself, I want to see her too.

So I asked Dad to ask her if she would let me know she was okay, too. "Ask her yourself, Donna." Dad smiled, "Ask your mom to come to you in a dream and show you a sign that could only come from her. I asked her to do that and she did. It works."

I asked him what kind of sign he asked for, but he just smiled at me and told me it was a secret between them. I went home and prayed for a while, asking her if she could come to me too and give me some kind of a sign that she was alright. I didn't really know what kind of sign I was looking for, just something that I would know wasn't a coincidence of some kind.

About a week went by and I actually forgot about the sign I was so eager to get from her. I was at work and taking a break, drinking a cup of coffee and trying to warm up, it was the middle of January and the snow was almost waist high. Yep, that's right. The snow was up to my waist because I was asleep in the break room, a definite no-no.

I saw my mom walking toward me on the snow drifts, actually walking on them with a big smile on her face, no boots, no coat, her feet barely touching the snow piles as she moved toward me. I stood there, in the snow, shocked and disbelieving, feeling the icy wind blowing on my face, watching her walk with the wind blowing all around her, not even ruffling her dress.

She smiled and reached her hand out to me when she was standing in front of me, and when I reached my hand out, I saw she was holding a thin gold chain with a something hanging off the end. I started to take it and snatched her hand back, laughing and shaking her head.

I laughed too, but I wasn't sure why. Then I heard her say, without moving her lips, "Look on your pillow, Donna." I started to say something, but she shook her head and put her finger up to her lips, shushing me.

The wind started blowing real cold again, and I started shivering, and it woke me up. I was laying with my head on my arms, directly in front of the windowbox air conditioner. It was the only place in the whole building that had an air conditioner, and I must have been exhausted from the heat.

When I went home that night, I was too tired to think about the dream, I had gotten reprimanded by the boss for sleeping and I wasn't feeling too good. I took a shower and went to bed. In the middle of the night, I woke up and reached out blindly in the dark, feeling the pillow to my left.

Nothing.

I was so disappointed, I had remembered what Mom had said while I was sleeping, and it had jolted me awake. I laid there for awhile, tears running down my cheeks and then I heard her voice. "I said, 'Your pillow', Donna..."

Sure enough, it had slid down the pillow to my shoulder and I grabbed it. It was a gold chain and locket, and when I opened it, there inside, was a tiny picture of my mother and father on one side, and a tiny picture of me on the other! Dad said later that Mom had lost the locket shortly after my fifth birthday and looked everywhere for it, but she never could find it.

I have no explanation for this at all, but I am extremely glad she found it at last,

the last gift from my Mom.

I was standing at the kitchen sink, daydreaming while I rinsed a huge pile of dishes to go in the dishwasher. I was watching our big german shepherd, Sherman, barking and pawing the ground in front of him. I was curious, because he seemed to be really rattled, which was unusual for him. That dog was absolutely fearless, so this was strange.

I called my husband, Paul, over to the window, just to show him before he went out to calm Sherm, to let him see there was no animals in the yard, no kids, nothing.

First, let me give you a little background on our 'Dream Home'. We raised two kids there, lived there 35 years, bought the house 30 years ago from my folks, who lived with us till they died. Up until 7 years ago, there was nothing around us, we were totally isolated, a real 'Country Home'. My kids rode their bikes on and played on the dirt gravel road out front, and our two acres of forest land out back, got picked up by schoolbuses at the front door, because they were so far out. We never heard of any incidents around us that had anything to do with death or murder or any such thing, and none of us ever saw any 'ghosts'.

I have personally never even given ghosts a second thought.

Ghosts are a Halloween thing,

and people who believed in them were off their rockers, and I steered clear of them, believe you me!

So there I am, watching my dog go nuts over nothing, and my husband is frowning and staring out into the 8 or 9-ish dusk,

and he's getting a little nervous.

"Sherman's found something we can't see, is all", I said to Paul as I go to the back door calling him. Sherman never even looked over at the door, and then he did the strangest thing. He started backing up!!

Now, I am getting a little scared, I mean this is a German Shepherd, and he is All Business, almost all the time, and he is

Backing Up!

Paul almost yelled at me, "Don't go out there!" I jumped and looked at him, "Oh, don't be silly" I said, as I opened the door and started to go out. Paul ran over to the door and ended up having to follow me outside, and we both stood there, watching as

a very grayish mist appeared, then formed into a woman, right in the middle of our back yard!

I guess it was one of those "Oh Crap" moments for me. I actually thought I was going to faint, everything got kind of strange

for a moment, and Sherman was no longer growling, he was whining and coughing and still backing up, till he banged

right into my leg. Sherman was good, as soon as he hit me, he started growling again, and stood upright, leaning toward

the 'ghost'.

Me and Paul watched this 'ghost' go across the grass, over to the huge lilacs, through them and down across the big field that

separates us from the new subdivision. I really don't think she was from that sub, she had a long tight waisted dress that went down

to a few inches above the ground. She disappeared and we haven't seen her since, and believe me!, I have been looking!

By the way, I believe in ghosts now and so does my husband.

When I was a kid, me and my friends used to try to scare ourselves with stories about the old houses in the neighborhood, there were a lot of them. There was one house on the block, no one would go near. I think everybody had a house like that, wherever they grew up. Anyway, this house was so bad, no one would even go there at Halloween. We crossed the street to get away from it.

I never saw anything there, and I really don't think any of my friends saw anything there either, no matter what they said. Like I said, we were all a bunch of liars when it come to that. I never saw a ghost, never had any kind of

ghostly experience or anything like that.

So anyway, when I got out of high school, I left town and got a job in Chicago, working for an insurance company. How cut and dried was that? None of the people I worked with for the next fifteen years had any imagination at all, a lot different than the folks I knew.

So, I got laid off and I was tired of it anyway, so I went back home and got a new job, new apartment, new girl (from my old high school no less) and started over again.

A lot of my friends were still there, and a couple were working at the new company I got hired in at. I worked construction, and I liked it a lot better than insurance, still do.

So we were thinking and drinking one night, and we started talking about that old house, and a couple of the guys said they had seen strange things moving around the windows at night, when they were walking by. They said they still cross the street, and I laughed.

That made them mad, so they dared me to go inside the place. I'm 35 years old, but that dare made me mad too. I told

them I would, but it would have to be the next night, because I had to be at work at 7am.

You gotta understand, the house had been empty since I was in high school, and no one had ever seen anyone near it, no for sale signs ever went up, no one repaired it, or even boarded up windows--I mean, it was eerie, you know?

To make a long story short, the next night I went up to the house and tried to go in, but it was like my legs were frozen, I actually could not move. I didn't feel afraid, I don't think I did, but nothing on me would move. So there I am, standing on the front porch, like an idiot, staring at the doorknob, trying to see through the busted screen, while my buddies were jeering at me from the street.

Finally, I could move again so I reached up to open the door. Nothing strange there, it opened, and I walked in. I work construction, and sometimes I walk through buildings we have to tear down to rebuild, and I felt like this was one of them. So I walked

inside, and in the middle of the pitchblack livingroom, got sick to my stomach. Man. Then

I really got dizzy, like I was going to fall over but it was so dark, I couldn't see. No street lights, I didn't bring a flashlight.

So there I am, groping around the room, only now my eyes are adjusted and I can see the open front door. I was trying to get there

without killing myself, when the front door opened wider, all by itself.

I stopped and stared, my eyes popping out, and I heard a growling voice right in my left ear, "GET OUT"

I was aerodynamic when I left that place, and I didn't stop running till I got to my own front door.

I never thought it would happen to me, but it did, and I am a firm believer in ghosts now.

When my daughter was 5 years old, she got a beautiful all white cat as a present. Lisa really loved that cat, we all did. It was the most

loving cat I ever knew, never scratched or bit, loved to be petted and carried. That is what 5 year olds love to do most, is carry their kitties around. She named him Sammy and this cat never complained and ran away from Lisa. So we were all shocked and really,

Really sad when it got hit by a car out in

front of the house. Lisa was absolutely beside herself, no one could console her.

I was at my wits end, ready to take her to the nearest pet store to buy her an 'emergency' cat, LOL, please forgive me. Suddenly, Lisa was fine, she was smiling, happy, normal again. I was a little worried about the sudden change, believe me. I talked to my mom, but she said, "that's how

kids are, don't worry, they are a lot stronger than they look. "

But I gotta tell you, the change was weird. So, I started spying on her, you know, just following her around, listening to her play with her

imaginary friends. Then, I saw her bend down and act like she was picking something up. She held it and cuddled it, then put it down, and

picked it up again.

I told my husband, who laughed and smirked at me, "See? Mom said 'Don't Worry", and she was right. Lisa just picked up another cat at the

Invisible Cat Store, and saved us a few dollars. Alright, Lisa!"

He was no help. I left Lisa alone a few days and let her do her thing. I sat on the couch one day, picked up my knitting, which I hadn't touched

since the cat died. There I am, knitting with my earpods on, listening to music, when I feel this familiar warm furry body against my leg, on

the couch. I reach down to pet the cat, and suddenly realize, HE"S DEAD!!!

WHAT AM I PETTING?

I jumped up and ran outside, I was so scared! Lisa came out and asked me what was wrong, but I couldn't tell her. Then I figured I'd better tell

her the truth.

She smiled, hugged me and said, "See? It's Okay, it's just Sammy. You don't have to be afraid. He's just a kitty."

Don't have to be, but I was. Holy Cow!

Hi! My name is Elisa Chiesa,I live in a small country near Milan,in Italy.

I love the ghost stories and I like to walk in the cemeteries to visit who is passed over. (Did you see "Ghost Whisperer" in America? It's beautiful!).

Every year,with my mom, my aunt and cousins, every 31 of October (Halloween) mades a sitting sèance to call our dad.

My dad is dead in 1980 when i was 29 days, my uncle in 1999, for a sudden death,leaving two young girls .

The last Halloween we organize all the equipment for the sitting seance at my aunt's house and I took my dad's old watch who was everyday on his wrist with me and took it on the table. It was stop by years and years.

So...suddenly me and my mom were freezed.my legs start to shake.I was cold,very cold in all my body. My mom took a coat and told us that she had a gooseflesh and all saw my dad's watch. It began to work!!! The hands was moving on after 26 years, no one had changed the battery!! Incredible!!!

OTHER STORY:

In our house there are lots of his pictures on the brackets and one evening me and my mom were in the kitchen and my cat Oliver was very troubled watching in the living room. My mom said me if there were the television switch on, but it wasn't because she felt a noise like a whistle.

I was afraid, very very much, but walked in our living room and for one very small second I saw an orb near my parents wedding photo that disappeared in a trail of light.

I was very frightened but also happy becase I knew that my dad, sometimes, is still with us.

My mom used to work for my Grandpa, he had an ambulance service just for taking disabled veterans from one V.A. hospital to another, for various therapies. Some of the people could not walk, and others were completely bedridden, and needed to be transported by ambulance. My mom did the phone calling, made appointments, did the billing, etc. She was on it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for quite a few years.

So, she had a phone set up in the livingroom and another one set up outside on the back of the house, in case she was in

the garden when it rang.

After so many long years, my Grandpa sold the business and my Mom had the backyard phone disconnected. It was

unhooked and disconnected for 15 years. She never took it down, I don't know why. I was married and had two kids by

this time, and I dropped by to visit.

My sister Joan and I were in the back yard, having coffee with Mom, and we were reminiscing about the past. We started talking about Grandpa and the DisVet Service, and Mom started going off, about being on call all the time, and how

much she hated it. She was really going to town about it, when all of a sudden, the phone on the

back of the house rang really REALLY loud.

I don't remember it ever being that loud before. Well, we shut up good and fast, I can tell you that.

We were staring at each other and then we had to laugh. Grandpa always knew how to shut us up.

Some things never change.

My husband and I lived in an apartment on the second floor in the older part of Wyandotte about twenty five years ago. We had just gotten married, we both worked, we had no kids yet. Plus, we ended up being on totally opposite work schedules, which was kind of upsetting, us being newlyweds and all.

We got to see each other for about an hour in the mornings, before he would conk right out, and I would be on my own till about 1:00, when I had to get ready for work. Well, we were both a little anxious about this arrangement, and arguing a bit about it.

I went to bed one night, upset, at about midnight. He had been at work for about an hour already, and I was feeling resentful and pouty.

I went to bed and went right to sleep. I woke up when I felt him get into bed with me. I was a bit groggy, but I remember smiling to myself and reached over to touch his hand, which was on my arm. It was pretty dark in the room, and I thought it was a bit early for him to be home, but I thought he came home early because of the fight we had.