This is my story of how I had the nudge I needed to become a first time homeowner. More importantly, it is the story of a woman claiming her home.
Believe what you will, but the following events are true. Living in a 150-year-old home was an experience I will never forget, but most of all, I will never forget her.
She didn’t make her presence known at first. I consider myself “sensitive” with the ability to have an intuition with these kinds of things, but my radar must have been off with this one.
The things we wish we knew….
The Move
My husband and I had just moved across the country from the Pacific Northwest, to a quaint village in Upstate New York. We had a goal of being homeowners someday, but we were comfortable renting for the time being.
After looking at FOURTEEN different rentals from Vermont to New York, we thought we had found the perfect spot. It was great at first, and had a certain charm. The area had reminders of the Revolutionary War nearby. It was perfect, a village with a rich history in a beautiful area.
The House
A classic Colonial-style home, like something out of a magazine. It was almost too good to be true. There was a small kitchen and breakfast nook, dining room, large living and laundry room divided by a staircase with a red patterned carpet runner. Otherwise; the floors were bare, wooden and creaky. The basement cellar was old with an iron latch handle on the door. The claw foot bathtub at the top of the stairs added a vintage appeal. The master bedroom and guest bedroom sat at opposite ends of the upstairs hallway and old heat registers supplied warmth during the cold winters. No air conditioning during hot humid summers kept the screened windows open and box fans in use.
Settled In
The first occurrence was pretty benign and could almost be explained away. We were eating pizza and watching TV in the living room. The quintessential settling-in and unpacking meal. What sounded like a ball rolling across the floor was directly over our heads. We looked at each other, chalked that one up to a mouse and moved on.
I mentioned the occurrence to my boss who was familiar with the house. She said, “oh yeah, it’s haunted”, like it was super common in the area. There were people before us who talked about seeing a woman in period clothing. That was a bit of surprising information, how did I not pick up on this?
A month or two went by, always having that inkling of someone watching. Again, watching TV in the living room, we heard and saw the cellar door handle latch move up and down as though someone was there with their thumb on it. Hmm, that’s odd, I thought, let’s see if it will happen again and went to challenge “it”. My husband was left speechless, asked me to let “it” be. We tried to explain it away, we couldn’t.
The Unexplained
Then more started to happen, a lot more. I came home from work one evening and found miscellaneous perfect puddles of water throughout the house. No leaks, no rain, I couldn’t figure it out. My two house cats were starting to become withdrawn, trying to tear window screens out to get outside, they had NEVER acted like this. All minor things until I found pieces of their fur pulled out and rolled into balls in the corner of the guest room. You can’t make this stuff up. Then I realized my pets were being tormented when one of my cats, with his claws, was literally thrown down the staircase. He shook it off, stood up and bristled as he looked at the top of the staircase. Not good.
It progressed to hearing water splash in the claw-foot tub at 2:00 in the morning, we would get up to see what was going on…no water in the tub. The box fans would change direction on their own in the summer as though someone was redirecting the air. Not scary at all when you’re home alone, getting ready to take a shower and see the box fan suddenly turn and face you. Maybe I needed an extra cool-off! Well that worked when I got goosebumps!
The list goes on to unexplained broken windows..from the inside! Moved objects, my cats were completely different. My husband resorted to sleeping on the couch with the TV on while I was away on business trips. It wasn’t a good feeling to know you weren’t alone.
And There She Was
It all became a startling reality when one night I awoke to the clasp of a hand on my leg. I opened my eyes and to my disbelief, there was a faint outline of a figure standing over me. The hand released and she was gone. I knew it was a woman, I could just sense it.
So far, we were the only ones experiencing these strange occurrences. Who was going to believe us? It wasn’t until we had house guests visiting that there were soon others to experience something even weirder.
My parents were visiting. It was August, and my dad (who doesn’t hear very well) came downstairs one morning and asked me if we had the furnace on. It was August and 90 degrees out..uh, no..the furnace is not on. He described leaning over near the furnace to get something out of his suitcase and the distinct sigh of a VERY irritated woman directly in his ear. He isn’t one to get too worked up about something like that, but he was convinced of what he had heard.
We eventually got to a point where we tried to ignore her. You might be thinking, why didn’t they get out sooner? I know, we were like the Eddy Murphy skit where a malevolent spirit is saying “GET OUT”, the walls are bleeding and we keep on hanging in there. But it was time to do something. We started looking for a home to buy. There was no way we were going to start a family in this house. Honestly, we didn’t know what she could do next.
Get Out
The time had come. We found the perfect starter home for us. We were officially moving out! The moving truck had already left with a majority of our belongings and my husband and I were doing the responsible renter duties of filling in any nail holes and touching up walls. I was DONE with her. I remember having a few choices words with her and said, “We’re leaving”! Well…I said it too soon.
As thunder clouds started to roll in, my husband said he needed to run to Home Depot for sanding blocks. Oh no! I probably just made her mad and I am now alone, during a thunderstorm, in an empty house…with her. I had one more thing to grab upstairs. As I stood at the top of the stairs, I knew she was directly behind me. I could feel her. It was then, the same irritated sigh hit my left ear and I felt my hair stand up. I ran down the stairs, outside in the rain and never set foot in the house again.
I guess you could say she was having her own WoMEnt defending her turf, but I had mine when I decided never again, will I ever, live in a haunted house.
Since we moved out, I did hear several renters moved in and quickly back out. I wonder why.
Great true- story telling, Lara! I felt like I was there with you! Good decision to find a new family home. One haunted-house experience would be enough for me, too!