Our Family Ghosts II

In my last submission to this site I told the history of hauntings that have occurred around my families homestead. Since that story was written, there have been some interesting things happen surrounding those houses. After living there for nearly 50 years, my grandmother decided that she was going to sell our home and move to a smaller apartment that would be more easily manageable and require less maintenance for a woman in her mid seventies.

There was nothing much different about this time at the house and any other time until things started being moved out. One day, after a long and busy morning, grandma was taking a nap on the sofa when she was awakened to see my grandfather standing before her in a mist at the foot of the stairs. He had a look of complete anger and disgust on his face, “whats wrong” she asked saying his name, only to have him vanish.

It was only a short time thereafter, maybe a day or two, I was sitting outside across the street at my friends house. Grandma had backed into the back driveway, and had the back door to the house open. She had loaded a few small items into the car and was washing and hanging some throw rugs out to dry. Suddenly, and inexplicably, the car backed out of the driveway and swung to the right uphill, then proceeded to drive downhill, make another right into the yard backing right up to the house and not hitting it, and then take off straight across the street before it hit a fence and stopped.

Say what you will, you cannot take the key out of a 92 Oldsmobile unless its in park, and you cannot take it out of park without the key in it. The car had set there maybe a half hour before the episode, and grandma had the key in her purse. When the car took off without a driver, grandma ran after it and nearly got pulled under it trying to catch it. My friend and I thought for sure we were about to witness a disaster, but she wasn’t hurt. After having talked it over with people who know about the ghost stories, and the facts about the gear shift on that car, we are sure this was the act of a ghost who was angry because we were moving away.

As the story got out, it was made known that more than 30 years earlier the exact same thing happened to an old car my grandpa had parked back there, in the same pattern. You might be able to think of an explanation on a car from that period, but not a 1992 model.

After the incident with the car, all was quiet until the end at the old house, even as the last piece of what was being taken was moved out, and as the doors were locked by us for the last time. A couple in there late 30’s or early 40’s with a preteen daughter moved in the house within a couple weeks of us leaving as they had already bought it. They have lived at the house for about a year now, and they have made a lot of desperately needed repairs and improvements. The old house is in grand fashion.

I still visit my friends in the old neighborhood quite often. I always watch the new family as they mess around out in the yard, and I think to myself, they have had to seen or heard something there by now.I almost want to ask them, “have you ever seen anything strange here?” Meanwhile, I am almost positive that I have been visited on an occasion or two by something familiar. A girl was visiting me one day and told me she saw a little girl in my kitchen. Imagine that. Lastly, I’ll mention that the old abandoned house up on the hill, which was passed down since my great grandparents, the former church building with its forgotten graves in back, and it’s many ghost stories, after having set empty and wearing away for years is in the process of being repaired for new occupants. My first thought was, oh my god, those people have no idea what they are getting into.