WE MAY HAVE A GHOST IN THE HOUSE - DO YOU?

          Things that go bump in the night doesn't always mean that a person from another long ago era or who has died as recently as yesterday have decided to take refuge in one's home, which was perhaps their own home that they lived in while they existed amongst the living, but recently I've begun to wonder, especially since I've heard some unusual sounds in the old farm house where we have been currently living for the past year.  Personally, I've never much believed in ghosts but there are countless mysteries that cannot be explained and indeed, having no answers for their existence, I do not discount their distinct possibilities.  I've heard about so called ghosts inhabiting castle towers, wandering through gardens, clanking about in attics or wading in mist covered lakes and like reading Casper the Friendly Ghost comic books, I've never really given them much thought other than their purely entertaining values.
          When I was living in Nanaimo, BC on my sailboat Dreamer II, which was moored at Newcastle Marina, I often walked the trails on Newcastle Island, which was about a five minute row away in my dinghy.  In the past, when Nanaimo was but a wee town tenaciously clinging to the rocky shores while miners toiled far beneath the surface of the land and sea chipping out chunks of coal, many people also lived on the island; abandoned coal shafts and remnants of old machinery, building sites and wharfs still apparent.  Native middens can be seen as well along the shoreline.  I have no idea how many times I walked the well-traveled trails and never thought anything other than how enjoyable it was, especially during the winter when I would hardly ever see another soul; only my little dog Misty, shy deer, bounding rabbits, flitting birds and the occasional bald eagle were my companions.  And then, on a trail that cut its way through the thick salal near the centre of the island, I encountered an eerie feeling that gave me the weebeejeebeeies.  As I remember, it was a hot summer day when I felt a sudden chill, which made the hairs on my body stand at attention and my skin tingle.  I never thought too much about it then except that I was somewhat hot and I was in a shaded area; tall, thin evergreen trees were growing all around the trail at this point.  However, after two or three times arriving at the same spot and getting the same feeling, I began to wonder if there was some sort of spirit lurking about.  I was so concerned about the odd sensations that occurred almost every time I walked this part of the forest I decided to poke about and see if I could find anything unusual, such as the grave of the man that had been hung at Kanaka Bay for murdering a family many years ago.  I envisioned the Hawaiian murderer's ghost perhaps creeping around in search of another victim but I never discovered anything unusual, plus the salal was so thick, I could hardly wade through it.
          Since moving to the old farm house at Golden Unicorn Farm in Fosterville, NB, I experienced that same feeling again while I was renovating the upstairs bedrooms and what really got to me, I thought I saw something whitish enter the first bedroom at the top of the stairs.  Thinking it was just a trick of the sunlight glinting through one of the windows, I never thought too much about it, other than to tease the kids we had a ghost living in the house with us.
          Because we ran out of money to complete the upstairs' renovations, we have yet to use the bedrooms.  However, the bathroom contains a large tub and because I often ache from building the barn and other chores, I often have a long soak in the evening before bed.  The bathroom is located directly across from the first bedroom at the top of the stairs and one night, while the tub was filling up with steaming hot water, I got that eerie feeling again; the hairs on my body felt so rigid, my skin not only tingled it seemed to burn.  Feeling somewhat alarmed, I reached for the door knob to shut the door and then I got really scared.  Instead of the door closing easily, it felt as if someone had a hold of the other side of the door knob and there was slight tug at the door.  Feeling very uneasy at this point, I slowly opened the door and reluctantly looked behind it to see if anyone was there but the space was empty.  Thinking I was just imagining it all, I went to shut the door once more and again it felt as if someone or something was holding on to the other side.  After not only looking behind the door and searching through all the rooms, satisfied the upstairs was empty, I shut the door tightly behind me and had a wonderful hot soak in the tub.
          I'm not sure if there is a ghost cohabiting our house or not but if there is, I pretty much decided it was at least friendly, even if it is somewhat of a prankster and likes to hold onto door knobs.  However, the other night, my wife Sarah woke me up and said, "Do you hear that?"  As I lay in the dark, rubbing my eyes, I clearly heard a very weird sound and it wasn't being made by a mouse or some other small varmint that might be living in the house.  And what really got to me, whatever it was, had long nails because I could distinctly hear what sounded like dragging footsteps coming towards our bed.  Half asleep and feeling kind of scared, I didn't know what to do, so I turned on the light that's situated next to my side of the bed.  The noises immediately stopped and we couldn't see anything, even though our eyes must have been bugging out of their sockets.  Sarah thought the noises were in the kitchen but I thought they were closer than that.  Reluctantly, being the man, the protector, I walked to each room and switched on the light but couldn't find or hear the sounds of an intruder; the house was as quiet as a tomb; the only sound I could hear was my bare feet padding on the floor and the pounding of my heart.  Sarah couldn't believe we just went back to sleep after that scary episode and said in the morning, since she seemed to hear the noises in the kitchen, "If there's a ghost in the house, at least they could have done the dishes!"

COMMENT: Ian
Hey Len, yikes! I'd be getting a dog that sleeps inside the house, lol. 

We encountered a ghost once too. We rented a townhouse in North Van when we were first married. It had a matching building right behind us with only a 4' pathway between and we could look right into the neighbours windows. There was always lots of arguing from the neighbours next door but thought nothing of it. One night the RCMP knocked on our door and asked about the neighbours, but we didn'have much to offer. The next day in the paper on the front page, a story about a mentally handicapped son that was so tired of being yelled at by his father, hit him over the head (which killed him). The son was so distraught and worried about the 'bad thing' he had just done, grapped an axe and chopped up his father and threw him in the fireplace. Bit messy. From that night on, we were woken up in the middle of the night by loud chopping sounds which we thought was ice forming on the flat roof and was cracking the beams. We called the landlord and he got up there with a ladder but there was no problem. We were so freaked out by the noise which would be one loud 'chop' every few nights, that we started sleeping downstairs in the living room and gave our 30 days notice. Outta there baby.

Well, maybe your ghost is Jimmy Stewarts old 6' rabbit Harvey :)  cheers!

COMMENT:  Len

Pretty scary Ian - no - more than scary!  I know of two people that lived here in the house and their bodies were laid out in the living room waiting for burial but I think that was a common thing when people lived way out in the country.  If indeed a ghost exists in our house, I'll be happy if it's a 6' rabbit named Harvey even if I have to call it "Sir" - cheers - eh!