Get spooky in your own time and space, lady

Tomorrow I leave for my dreaded trip to Texas. There is much to do before I go, so why not give you a tale of horror and suspense for your Sunday driving pleasure? Get ready for the spookity spooky. The Creepy McCreeperton...

Last week was truly an emotional time for me. This week is slightly less intense but still emotional. I expect my trip to Texas to not disappoint in this regard. Needless to say, there has been an air of tension and woe in my home that we are not accustomed to. I suspect this tension may have ignited a paranormal experience in my very own abode.


(Turn off the lights, hug a pillow, and imagine Auntie Sarah with a flashlight under her chin...)


Last Thursday night, Phil and I had a very intense discussion. You might call it an argument. Perhaps you'd even go so far as to label it with words such as "shouting match," "bitch fest," or perhaps "boxing of ears." Well, maybe we didn't physically tussle, but we are quite good at stabbing each other with words. Whatever the case, it was a doozy. We went to bed on good terms, as we never just walk away with hurt feelings or hurt paws. Things seemed right in the world.

I had a difficult time sleeping, as usual. The bedroom was very cold. I kept thinking, "Why won't the heat come on?" The red letters of the clock read 2:30am, then 2:45am, then 3:00am... and I finally drifted off into a deep slumber. What happened next I can only relay to you as I remember, as facts are convoluted and not entirely trusted.

Here is what I know:


At 4:26am, I began screaming. It was a blood-curdling, guttural, visceral yelling that I don't think I've ever produced before in my life. Phil was scrambling to turn on the light and kept asking, "WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?!" Amos was crying at his highest decibel level possible. I remained in bed, staring at the wall.

Phil got up and soothed Amos. I remained in bed, frozen. He finally was able to coax me into speaking. This is what I told him.

All that I know is that in one moment I was in a deep, deep sleep. The next moment, I was awake. I looked over at the wall next to my side of the bed, the side where Amos sleeps in his Moses basket within arms reach of me. Between the closet and the painting on the wall, a bright figure of a woman was standing over Amos.

I could see her entire body clothed in a dress that resembled something out of "Little House on the Prairie." She wore a bonnet. The underdress (the best way I can describe it) was white. The frock over it was light blue with straps over her shoulders. Our walls, by the way, are green. I could tell that whatever she was wearing was distinctly not modern. I would put her dress to be somewhere in the 1800s. She was tall, pretty, and had straight, blonde hair. I estimate her age to be somewhere in her 20s to early 30s. She looked a bit like this, but with a bonnet.

She was gazing down at Amos in his basket.

As soon as I saw this apparition, I began screaming. She quickly turned to look at me and was quite alarmed (as were the rest of the occupants of the house). The look on her face was as if she had been startled. She stared directly at me, then disappeared.

All of this took about 5 to 10 seconds, at most, from the moment I woke up to when she disappeared. I'm still freaked out about it.

I have seen other things in my house, many in the same spot where this woman was standing. I have a theory that the way our house is built with a corridor of windows and doors all in a row is somehow allowing these spirits (or whatever they are) to show up. I don't think that our house is haunted. Rather, I think that this corridor of openings is somehow inviting random spirits to go through it. It sounds crazy, I know, but it's the best I can come up with. Where that woman stood is in this pathway of doors and windows. It also happens to be where Amos sleeps.

We thought we had solved the problem by blocking the windows and doors with window treatments and curtains. It seemed to be working, until last week. You may remember that Phil was complaining about our plumbing and that he had to knock holes into an old lathe and plaster wall in order to access the pipes. Our house was built in 1902. Some paranormal experts contend that home remodeling can cause disturbances. No kidding, brother.

I have the feeling that a combination of remodeling (or remuddling) along with the emotional tension in our house somehow encouraged or allowed this person into my home. I've also been praying a lot lately, prior to and after this incident. I'm grasping at whatever explanations I can come up with, because anything else makes me feel like I am losing my mind. Even though I have seen many apparitions in the past in different places and in my home, this one really freaked me out.

I think that I reacted the way that a mother would react when her child is in danger. Even though I didn't feel any malevolence from this woman, she triggered my primal instincts. Instincts of fear and of protection. After I told Phil what had happened, I said out loud in the room, "Leave this house. This is MY child. MY baby. He is NOT yours. It is time for you to go."

I have no idea if that worked or not. I also have no idea whether I am sane anymore. I know what I saw, but no one else saw her. I know that I completely freaked out my husband, my son, and my cat. I feel very bad about the way that I disturbed them.

By the way, after that, the bedroom was warm again. Our temperature control panel is in the living room, which is not near the bedroom. If I am to believe that temperatures can drop in a room where a spirit is present, then that is why my bedroom was so cold. It is also why only one room would be cold, thus it did not trigger the furnace to come on.

So, make of it what you will. This is just one of many stories I have to tell in this realm. It is, however, the one that really knocked me to my core.