Picture of a Ghost

From: Rachel (roxy_monkey_05@yahoo.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Rockport, TX
Source: Form Submission

Every summer my family goes out to Rockport(south Texas)to stay with my grandparents. The house is really old and has been in the family for a few generations. So naturally in it lies history of the family.

One day my sisters and I were just walking about the house and talkng. My oldest sister had her camera and was just finding interesting stuff in the house to photograph. I was only about 8 so I found every thing in a room interesting. We were in the south room and my sister says,"This mirror is gorgeous. I'm gonna take a picture of it." She takes the picture and then starts to leave the room with my other sister but they stop when they realize I'm still standing in front of the mirror. "C'mon Rocky, let's go." They say. My oldest sister comes over to me and asks,"What are you staring at? There's nothing there." I shake my head and say,"Oh, nothing! I was just thinking about something." My sisters look at eachother and then look at me weird and then they just lead me out of the room.

The next week we came back to Austin and then got the pictures developed. My sisters and I were looking through the set and then my sister stops and looks at one picture with a frightened face. My middle sister asks her what is so worrying and she says to me,"That's what you were staring at isn't it?" She shows me the picture of the mirror in the south room, but there's a reflection in it. It's a reflection of a man, handsome and cleanshaven, but he's just staring into the mirror. In the south room there are two pictures hanging, one on the wall near the window, a picture of my great aunt Iris and her sister, and another of my great-grandmother and her sister. But there are no pictures of men in that room. This was my argument when my middle sister told me it was probably just a reflection of a picture. Plus the figure seemed life-sized and when I saw it it was only for a moment and then it disapeared.

We asked my grandmother about the man and she told us who he was and that he was seen frequently in the old house because of the fact that he had been a resident. That was only my first encounter with that spirit, I've had others with other people. I do not find these encounters frightening any longer because I know that any spirit in that house couldn't/wouldn't harm me because they are my family. I offten see that spirit roam the house and I know there are more.