Ghost Follow Us, It Seems

Name:            Emily DeFazio
Email:           tdelminar@yahoo.com
Location:        South Western Michigan
Type:            Ghost
Date:            Thursday, August 17, 2000
Time:            02:52 PM

[I prefer to be referred to "E" if anything at all. Thank you]

I grew up in Michigan, and my entire family has had strange and ghostly experiences. The few that stand out in my memory are varied in their scope, but odd nonetheless.

The first time I was around anything remotely "paranormal" I was about 7 or 8. We had gone to our next door neighbors' house to stay, as the ice storm that January had knocked out the power, and our neighbors had a wood burning stove. We only stayed a couple days, but that was enough for me. The first thing I heard was a knocking or banging coming from an empty room. I asked if something fell, as that was what it sounded like. My neighbors just said, "Oh, that's J's invisible rabbit. It does stuff like that sometimes." I looked at my parents and they shrugged. I found out later that this was news to them as well.

Later in our stay I went upstairs with R, our neighbor's daughter, as we were going to the crawlspace for blankets. We loaded up our arms, and headed back down the stairs. The door opened for us, rather like the electric doors in a market. Then I got goosebumps as it felt 20 F degrees in the room. R was cold too, I could see her shivering. We nearly fell down the stairs in our haste to escape, but being children, we were as curious as we were afraid. We stopped at the foot of the stairs and watched to see if anything was going to happen. Sure enough the door closed and we saw imprints of large feet ressing into the carpeting, walking toward us.

We ran for our parents who were in the family room. My dad and her's went to the stairs, and the foot prints were still there. They measured about sized 11 or 12 in men's shoes, and when I think back, I can see them as clearly as if they were imprinted into mud or plaster. Our fathers looked and listened for quite awhile and then forbade us to go upstairs until they could sort "this" out. We lived next door to them for about 5 more years, but I never went up those stairs again. I did find out later, however, that this had been the only time foot prints had been seen there, and the "rabbit" stopped breaking things shortly thereafter as well.

The second paranormal occurrence happened to my mother, as well as her sister, mother and brother. I can only recount what my Mother and grandmother told me they saw, as I don't know what the others saw. The phone ran for my grandmother, about 9 am her time, and before she could greet the caller she saw a vision, in colour and with sound. She saw her youngest son climbing a mountain face, slip and fall. She saw what he was wearing, and that he closed his eyes as naturally as if falling asleep in bed. The phone call was from the police to report that, indeed her son was dead from a fall.

My mother was drinking her morning coffee, while this was taking place. I sat down to my breakfast, but saw that she was upset. When I asked her, she said she had "seen" something. [In my family "seen" always refers to an unexplained vision, dream or perhaps a visitation. It's normal for us to speak of it this way, but I think it is done this way primarily to protect the little children in our family.] I asked her what she had seen, and before she could tell me, the telephone ran. She walked over to it, paused and said to me, "This is your grandma, C is dead." Then she picked up the phone, she heard the terrible news from my grandmother. Everyone accepted that seeing the event, just before being told about it was normal. And later, after the funeral I sat in the kitchen with everyone and when they corroborated thier stories with the police report, they saw him fall within 10 minutes before it happened (my aunt) to 30 minutes after (my uncle). My grandmother and mother saw it with in minutes of the police call.

I said that Ghosts follow us, and they do. I see them in every home I've lived in, and my mother dreams of them. It seems we can only live in a place that it haunted, overtly or subtly. There have been frightening hauntings, and strange ones. But they have never stopped, and if family stories are any indication, they never will. Blessed, or cursed? We don't know, this is just the way things are around here.