Was My House Haunted? -part 1

From: Ros (goldmint@hotmail.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Western Australia
Source: Form Submission

Back in 1984, I brought a run down old home in the southwest of Western Australia. The house had built in 1912 by one of the original families of the town, who now acted as the local real estate agent. Not long after I moved in with my then young son, the local real estate agent Hilton decided to visit me, and tell me a little story of how both his mother and father had died in my bedroom. and that the house was supposedly haunted by them.

Not one to give in easily to such stories, I replied with well at least Ill have some company then !

The old house was full of creeks and groans,not unlike any other old house, so I quickly became accustomed to its noises, with out any undue worry.

I had noticed that often during the night footsteps going down the hallway, then bedroom doors shutting, which again did not worry me unduly. and I also thought Id seen an old lady in a black and white checkered coat walking down the hallway, so again I just put it down to Hiltons probably dead parents checking up on us for the night.

Not long after I had moved in, a friend of mine had been involved in a car accident and needed plenty of rest for a badly injured spine. So I offered to let him stay at my house for a few weeks while he recouperated. Martin was a very decent sober minded englishmen and not easily given to wild stories or any other such nonsense. So down he came to stay with me, making the loungeroom his resting place, with the comfort of a fire place and TV he settled in very well. After a few days, he mentioned the fact that I seemed to enjoy walking down the hallway late at night, closing doors. To which I replied, that it could not have been me, as I only ever got up at night to attend to my young son if he called out ! I then went on to say, perhaps you heard a ghost. Being the sensible english man that he was, he pooh paahed me immediately and said rubbish there is no such thing as ghosts ! So with that another day went by with all household activities being the same.

Night time came and as my usuall practice I retired to my bedroom around 10.30pm. It was around 1am in the morning when I was awokened by a terrifying scream, emmitting from my lounge room. so I leapt out of bed and ran down to where Martin had been sleeping, fearing that he had some how injured himself. I was greeted with the very white fear ridden face of my friend Martin, who was rambling about ghosts ! what are you talking about I asked being unable to decipher his gibberish! I saw a ghost ! he replied, it was an old lady in a black and white checkered coat, she came to the door of the lounge room and closed it ! I thought she was going to get me ! Well with that I decided the best course of action was to try and clam Martin down, so I told him. Dont be silly youve obviously taken too much pain medication and hallucinated or had a bad dream. But Martin would not be pacified. And insisted on the light being left on till morning. As you can imagine Martin was not keen staying any longer after his fright, and decided to cut short his holiday in the country at my house, to go back home to safer habitations.

I never did confess up to Martin that what he saw may have been true, based on the fact I had seen the old lady myself. But as I knew the old lady was just making sure we were all be tucked in for the night. I never felt her presence to be evil, and contented myself with her company in a home we both obviously loved.