Ghost Stories...

My parent's house is haunted:

** When I was little (about 6 or 7, I think) my bed was on the wall opposite from my bedroom door. I shared the room with my older sister, but her bed was on the door wall. We slept with the door open, so when I was laying in bed, I could see straight out the door to the landing at the top of the stairs. I distinctly remember (on many occasions) looking out to that spot and seeing a white, transparent figure standing there. I would blink, and it would be gone. It was a woman, one that I thought looked older, like a grandma. I was never afraid...I felt oddly safe when I would see her. She would look at me, smile, and then she's just vanish in the blink of an eye...literally. Now, as to whether it was an actual ghost, or a guardian angel, or maybe the spirit of my grandma Irene checking in on me, I don't know. But I was always, and am still convinced that it was real.

**Every Christmas, my family opens presents in our living room on Christmas Eve. We each have our own spots around the room. Well, my sister's spot was located in front of our TV. We ALWAYS made it a point to turn the TV off when we opened presents. And this was back in the day when you took pictures that had to get developed...so you had to wait to see how they turned out. Well, we picked up our pictures and started looking through them. We come across one of my sister opening gifts. The TV behind her is dark...except for one very menacing looking face in the screen. The man's face seems to be peering over her shoulder. It's VERY spooky. It's not long after that that we start hearing footsteps upstairs when no one's up there. We very often get that feeling that "someone's behind me", but when we turn around no one's there. There's this one spot in our kitchen floor that kind of bubbles up. We've had it fixed before, but the bubble comes back. ...... We're pretty sure there was some terrible accident there before the house was built. And that spot in the kitchen is right on top of where the body was. :)

The Lady of the Lake

Check out this link for some background info: www.sgha.net/tx/abilene/ftphantominvest1.html
Basically, Lake Fort Phantom is haunted by a woman, carrying a lantern in search of her long lost boyfriend/husband/lover...depending on the story.

**The summer after my senior year, there was an article in the Abilene newspaper about the legend of the Lady of the Lake. It gave the background story, as well as the steps that one should take to conjure her up. So, naturally, it seemed like THE thing to do for some good old fashioned family bonding: Mom, Dad, Jaime (my older sister), Josh (my little brother), me....and Kevin (my then boyfriend of 4 months). Great idea, right?! So, we do what the article tells us to do. We go out the the creepy old cemetery at the lake 3 nights in a row, just after midnight, and wait. Each night gets progressively creepier. The last night...the night she was supposed to appear, surrounded by a red haze, was by far the creepiest. It was, however, also the night that my mom decided to bring her holy water and rosary beads...just to be safe. So, we're out at the cemetery, waiting in silence when we start hearing a very eerie sound...it sounds like a mix between a howling dog and a baby crying. We figure it's got to be the coyotes in the area...but no ordinary coyote has ever sounded like this....and it sounds like it's getting louder...or maybe closer. Time goes on, and in addition to the "coyote" sound, there appears to be a red haze forming over the moon. "This is it! It's gonna happen!" We wait, but she never shows herself. Now, whether it's Mom's fault for bringing the holy water and rosaries, or because maybe deep down some of us didn't believe she would come, I don't know. But I do think she was there, somewhere...I could feel it.

Does that make me crazy? Maybe. But does it also make you all wish you were a part of my family? Definitely!

:)