You are here: Real Ghost Stories :: Haunted Places :: My First Experience With A Ghost

Real Ghost Stories

My First Experience With A Ghost

 

After my parents were married, they bought themselves a nice house in a small town outside of Johannesburg, where they soon had my brother and me. Growing up, my grandparents on my father's side and my mother were all very open to the possibility of the paranormal being real, so I often heard all sorts of stories about ghosts and learnt about the power of crystals and how to read auras and so on. However, I didn't really think all that much of it when I was young. That is, until the first time I came across what I believe was a ghost.

In this house that my parents bought, there was a really long hallway, which ended in an 'L' shape that led to the rest of the house. In the corner of the 'L' were mine and my brother's rooms, while my parents' room was right at the top of the 'L'. The main bathroom was just a little ways past the middle of the hallway, so if we wanted to go to the bathroom, we'd have to walk most of the way down the hallway to get there.

I remember when we were very young, my brother would come wake me up whenever he needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. This was because he didn't want to walk down the hallway alone since the light in the hallway never worked, which meant it was always too dark to see anything. At the time, I didn't know why the light never worked or why it bothered my brother since I never felt unsafe there. Later, I learned that everytime my father replaced the lightbulb in the hallway, it would just go out again within a few hours, and I realized that whenever we walked down the hallway at night, our hair would start rising as if there was static in the air. It always freaked my brother out to see his hair standing on end, while I just thought it looked funny.

Again, despite realizing all of this, I didn't take much notice of it at first. I just thought it was some weird quirk that came with our house. It wasn't until one night when I heard footsteps pacing up and down the hallway, that I fully comprehended that there might be something strange going on. I remember waking up thinking that my dad had gotten up to do something, but when the footsteps just kept going back and forth I got curious, so I got up to see what was going on. I opened my bedroom door and peeked out, ready to ask my dad what on earth he was doing, but I was shocked to find the hallway empty. The footsteps had even stopped once I'd looked out.

When I told my parents about it in the morning, my mum sat me down and explained that there was a ghost living in our house and that it liked to wander up and down the hallway at night. She explained that the ghost was the reason why our hair would always start floating, why the light never worked, and why there were always cracks on the walls no matter how many times they got plastered over. I remember very clearly the look my parents gave me when I told them; "I guess the old man's just lonely." They hadn't known what sort of person the ghost was, only that it was there.

A few months later, my mum came home one day looking very excited before she came in and told us all to gather around. As it turned out, my mum had gone and done some research on the house ever since I'd said it was an old man wandering down our hallway. Apparently, the very first owner of the house was a man whose wife died long before him, leaving him alone in the relatively large house. He had eventually passed away when he was well into his seventies, dying of a heart attack in his sleep, in the room my parents now occupied. I remember she congratulated me on being right, which I thought was strange at the time since I didn't realize that not everyone could tell it was an old man.

This was the first time I ever had any interaction with a ghost, but far from the last. I've lived in at least three haunted houses in my life, where I've come across several of what I believe to be ghosts, though the old man in that first house is still the one I love to talk about the most because (in my opinion) the story of the old man ended on a positive note:

When I was about six or so, my mother's best friend died. The same night that she died there had been a storm, which in South Africa are always a bit wild and usually with plenty of thunder and lightning. I don't personally remember much about the night itself, but I do remember that in the morning the house felt somehow emptier, as if something had gone missing during the storm. After that night with the storm, there were no footsteps, no one's hair would rise when they walked down the hallway, my dad could replace the light without worrying that it would just burst, and the cracks on the wall could be plastered over without trouble.

It is my family's belief that when my mother's best friend died, she came to our house during the storm and she took the old man's spirit with her to wherever she ended up. We believe that she helped him finally move onto somewhere, where he wasn't alone and could reunite with his wife.

Hauntings with similar titles

Find ghost hunters and paranormal investigators from South Africa

Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, Skattebol, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Skattebol (1 stories) (1 posts)
 
6 years ago (2018-01-24)
Hello! Thank you for the welcome 😊

I'm personally not entirely sure how it all works, though our family has had a history of being able to sense what we believe are spirits, or at the very least there are plenty of stories in the family of people who believe they saw or sensed something. I can't speak to spirits, or haven't been able to in my experience thus far. For me personally, identifying them as an old man, or something else, has always just been a feeling that I got. Do you ever sense who is around you without ever actually looking at them? Like, when someone is standing behind you and you know who it is before you hear or speak to them? That's what it's like for me.

I understand why some people might think that we are merely assuming things, and you may very well be right, but I grew up in a family that were very open about this so it never seemed like an impossible thing. However, I would like to say that my grandfather is a builder and he helped us build our old house, which meant that all the wiring and such was checked and double checked when they started failing.

Also, I have moved around over a dozen times, and I would like to think that it isn't my doing, given that I have only ever felt a presence at three of those houses.

Of course, everything that happened at the first house happened when I was still quite young, and we haven't gone out of our way to try to find evidence, so I would say that it will all have to be open to interpretation.

I will be posting other experiences sometime in the future, if you'd like to hear about the other haunted houses 😊
ajonverge (6 stories) (84 posts)
+1
6 years ago (2018-01-10)
I second Jubeele here. My thoughts exactly. Most probably wasn't a soul which would cause harm but a lost one indeed. If what u feel is true, may be it moved on somehow. Peace be upon him.
roylynx (guest)
 
6 years ago (2018-01-08)
Hey welcome!
Hmm... Interesting one. Did you talk to spirits? Or can you talk to the spirits? Thank you for sharing such a relieving ending of your story, but I got to ask, that is a belief and there is no evidence, am I right? Please do let us know if you still sense any presents. Nice ending but I felt a little misleaded...

Publicways, Hey there, I completely agree on you and you have very good points. Yes, most of the time things just happen to be "just something explainable and our mind is making us think that it is not".

Indeed, most stories might not be real spirits, (oh, by the way I don't like using the term "ghost" since 80% of people will misunderstand the "fact" behind their encounters when the word "ghost" is involved, difference of "ghost" and "spirit"? To just explain, there is no difference really, just the way we use words), there is a reason behind and we here sometimes will have to "debunk" things that the OP tell us, but at the same time we need to let them know what they are missing and try to understand them, just kicking them off, vowing them wrong would not help at all, that's is what I have concluded reading stories in this website. No, don't get me wrong I still respect your thoughts, really, that is very true.

Find a way to enjoy the stories here, it might change your thought just a little or just read them when you need to kill time, sometimes you need to read all the comments to understand the story more, most of those are interesting!

Sorry for being a little "pointy" this time... I just don't want stories like this to be misleading.
E.Lynx
publicways (32 posts)
-1
6 years ago (2018-01-08)
This is why I'm skeptical of paranormal stories. All of this could have been easily documented - the light bulb burning out instantly, the hair standing on end, the footsteps in the hall, the cracks in the wall - but it never was documented. Why? Faulty electrical wiring could explain the light bulb and hair standing on end - so why rush to assume it was a ghost?

Also, what are really the chances of living in three haunted houses in your life? At some point you need to consider that it may be YOU and not the houses.
Jubeele (25 stories) (882 posts)
 
6 years ago (2018-01-05)
Welcome Skattebol to YGS. I enjoyed reading your account because I'm partial to happy endings. It's nice to think that the spirit of that old man was finally able to move on and be reunited with his wife. Having peace restored at your home is a good thing for all of you too.

I'm curious as to how your gift works. How did you know it was an old man when no one could see anyone or anything? 😲

Thank you for sharing this with us. I look forward to reading about the other haunted houses you've experienced. 😊

To publish a comment or vote, you need to be logged in (use the login form at the top of the page). If you don't have an account, sign up, it's free!

Search this site: