Ghostly Introduction

In October 1989, I separated from the U.S. Navy honorably, relocating back to my native Ohio from southern Virginia. Until I found employment and subsequent housing, the family - myself, my wife and 3 month old daughter - moved into my mother-in-law's home in a rural location southeast of Cleveland. The house is historically registered, and well over 100 years old. My wife and mother-in-law had told me stories of hauntings within the house - breathing in the walls, seeing people walk by when no one else was home, smelling perfume. As much as I believed in the paranormal, I chalked it up to their overactive imaginations.

One day at the house, everyone else was gone and I was alone. I had been sending out resumes and interviewing at a regular pace, but for some reason I ended up alone at the house that day. I recalled giving a guitar to my brother-in-law shortly after I entered the service, and as he still lived at home (he was in high school), I went into his room searching for my old instrument. I entered his room, and off his room was a full walk-in closet. I later learned from my wife that the closet was Ghost Central. It had once been a bedroom itself, and was a part of the original house. There was even a window in the "closet" that was boarded over due to a family room being added behind the original outside wall of the house. Once, my wife swears, some old guy walked up their driveway and knocked on their door, stating he had lived in the house as a boy. He knew enough about the structure to convince my then-future wife and mother-in-law to let him in. He specifically pointed out the "closet" off my brother-in-law's bedroom as his childhood bedroom. My wife said he had left rather abruptly, and when they went out to see him off, he was nowhere to be found. Needless to say, I didn't find my old guitar rummaging around that day, but I later found out I raised the ire of the unseen residents of that closet...

Later that night around 1 a.m., I lay semi-awake in a bedroom of the southwest corner of the house. The door was slightly ajar, and it creaked suddenly. I didn't think much of this as this was an old drafty farmhouse. I was lying on my back, with only a sheet on myself. I was still dozing when I felt something touching the thigh area of my legs lightly, almost tickling. As we had only been married 3 years, and sudden nighttime sexual escapades still happened frequently, I figured my wife was feeling frisky. I however, was pretty tired, so I took my right arm down by my legs in a sweeping motion to non-verbally let her know I wasn't in the mood tonight. To my surprise, I did not contact her arms or hands. I don't remember what happened next exactly, I believe there was a repeat of the same scenario, but suddenly and violently I was picked up from the bed about one foot and slammed back into the mattress. NOW I was instantly wide awake, but I kept my eyes shut, and just lay there breathing quickly, as my pulse rate had went through the roof. I don't remember if I felt any further touching that night, but eventually, I fell asleep.

The next morning, I tried to pick myself up from the bed, completely rigid and horizontal, and throw myself back into the mattress. I was unable to do this - it required I bend my back and use my hands - something that I had NOT done only a mere eight hours earlier. I told my wife what happened, and that's when she informed me that the closet was the main site of the hauntings that had been going on for years.

The next night, the wife and I lay in bed, and it was earlier, probably about 11 p.m. We were both awake when the bedroom door creaked noticeably. I asked her if that noise had been her. She replied no, she was in bed. I again felt something rubbing my legs, specifically in my thigh area, but this time, I did nothing. The ghost simply left, never to bother me again.

In retrospect, my wife said that the ghosts were merely curious. I was a new resident to the house, and I entered their private domain in the closet, and they simply wanted to get acquainted with me.

Shortly after this episode, my mother-in-law had re-married, and her new husband was working in the basement one day. Now, I was aware there was a semi-secret compartment down there once used, supposedly, as part of the underground railroad. Another brother-in-law had showed me where the cavity in the basement was, now mostly sealed off by river rock and mortar. My mother-in-law's new husband happened upon some bones in another area of the basement, which they gave a proper burial, although they were unable to determine if they were human or animal bones. As far as I know, the haunting has virtually ceased in the house since then, but I do know that hauntings run in cycles, and may need a female catalyst (both my wife and her younger sister) going through puberty on which energy they draw upon.

In summary, once, after my wife and I had been married only months and living in our apartment in southern Virginia, something odd happened. My wife immediately said, "They followed me." I thought at the time that she was taking the ghost stories a little too seriously. Years later, I found out she wasn't kidding. Regardless, this incident did shift my belief that paranormal activity happens with more regularity than I once believed.

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