The Ghost Who Lives In My House

The owner of the house was a business acquaintance of mine, and she had hired me to dog sit for her while she went on vacation. The very first time I walked in the front door of my now haunted house, I told my friend that, when she wanted to sell, I wanted to buy it. Seven years later, she called me. That night, I owned my haunted house.

When I first moved into “this old house” I knew there were some renovations I wanted done immediately. After all, the kitchen of the old farmhouse was last remodeled around 1940 - probably when it was put into the house. The dining room was more of a family room for my friend as she had children. I knew I wanted the original dining room restored.

Shortly after some remodeling started, the fun begin.

We would frequently be eating in the dining room when unusual sounds of footsteps in the hallway upstairs would thump. A quick check would confirm that the 3 dogs we then had were all with us, minding their own business. There was no explanation for this noise upstairs.

We'd also hear interesting noises during the night, mostly coming from the hallway; the noises were exactly like a man's footsteps (heavyish), pacing to and fro. No matter that there was no reason for the footsteps, no logical thought that anyone could voice, I was still a skeptic about haunted houses and ghosts.

My folks used to come home to Maryland every summer when the heat drove them out of their retirement house in Arizona. Everyone here knew that Mom could be a bit superstitious so we purposefully didn’t want to alarm her about a spirit running around the upstairs hallway - we never spoke of the ghost in front of my Mom or Dad. 

We were having dinner in the dining room with friends one night when my friend mentioned the ghost. Everyone at the table froze, realizing that the proverbial cat had slipped out of the bag. I’ll never forget Mom though – she kept eating and just asked “Are you talking about the man who walks around the hallway upstairs?” My jaw dropped! What was this! WHAT?

I questioned her and here’s her story in her own words (mostly):

I was coming out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel when I saw a shadowy figure. There was no head, but I could make out the clothes. They were old-time farmer’s clothes, a light shirt and overalls. If he wasn’t already dead, seeing me in a towel would have killed him anyway. He turned and walked into the old section of the house.

And, that’s about all we know except that Dad got touched on his ankle one time which about killed him! Our ghost doesn’t appear very often any more but I’m just getting back to remodeling so we shall see what stirs up.

I was in my bedroom once, surrounded by my three sleeping dogs. Suddenly,  my very intelligent Australian Shepherd, Killian, awoke from a dead sleep (pun intended) and went on high alert as he “watched” someone or something walk across the bedroom to where we were.

Killian’s hackles were in full bloom, his intelligent eyes were following the movement as if he was peering into someone’s face, his teeth were bared. Needless to say, this freaked me out and, after a quick (and I mean quick!) check to make sure Killian was ok, I felt silly but I spoke aloud and said “You can have the hallway but please leave the bedroom alone.”

Killian continued to look directly into one spot which gave me the heebie-jeebies – so, I did what any sane woman would do and hit the road! I left the room. No, there was no haunted cold spot. No, I didn’t feel anything different as I crossed where this “thing” was.

20 minutes later, Killian came downstairs to return to my side where he’s always been. He is always following me, even if I get up from bed and go to the bathroom so, for him to remain upstairs was totally against normal.

We have absolutely no clue who the ghost in my house is but, this much we know - he has a very warm presence that is felt by those who feel these kind of things....I think, including me.