My Story, a Personal Haunt

Boston Massachusetts. March 11, 1960. I was 3 months old and I was dead. I had a seizure and stopped breathing. I was lucky enough to have been in the hospital at the time and was almost instantly resuscitated. Long Beach California, same day March 11, 1960 my 19 year old Birth father "Freddy" had skidded into an oncoming car on his motorcycle and was killed instantly. We died within an hour of each other. This is where it all ended and where it all began. For both of us.

(Neither Freddy or my birth mother ever had custody of me, I was adopted at birth and raised by a family unrelated to me by blood but still the only family I have ever known) My first memory of any paranormal experience was in my grandparents beach house.

It all began at age 5 maybe even younger. The beach house had a lovely old staircase, it was painted and polished and always well lit. So...

There was no obvious reason for the terror I felt every time that I had to climb them! I was never able take those stairs in a normal or dignified manner until I was well into my teens. It seemed that by the time I got to the 2nd step I'd just be overwhelmed with an intense urge to run and run fast! One day I was running up that staircase so fast that I didn't see my grandmother and accidentally ran into her, she bellowed at me "you take those stairs like the devil himself was chasing you!" at the time it seemed an adequate description.

This "staircase" phenomena continued well into my thirties but only when I was alone in the house. This same house gave me an overpowering urge to try and move things with my mind, but I was always afraid to actually try it, (or put my mind to it) just in case it might work!

Later on when in my early 20's a friend from the city stayed overnight at the beach house with me. We had spent a Saturday morning with my young daughter watching cartoons. When it came time to get ready for the day my friend went halfway up the living room stairs when she stopped suddenly. She looked at her pocket book which she had forgotten at the foot of stairs and she kind of smiled, then she said "do you ever feel like you can move things with your mind when you are in this house?"

I realized right then that I was not the only one who got "feelings" from the beach house. (I've heard that this old friend of mine is now a working medium/psychic) Built by my grandfather and used just as a summer cottage for many years. The beach house was always packed to its human capacity every summer night from the early 20's until the mid 60's (when it was renovated and winterized and became their private home). During the beach house glory days, my grandparents rented out rooms to random circus acts who performed at the nearby amusement park. Poker games were played late into the night. Laughter and music abound until the wee morning hours.

As far as I know though, only my grandfather has actually died in the house. (from the natural causes of old age)

In the late 80's my 9 year old daughter and I began living, on a more permanent basis, at my (since deceased) grandparents beach house. I had broken my ankle a week before and had a cast on up to my knee.

Before taking a shower that evening I had sent my daughter downstairs to make us a couple of PB&J sandwiches for us to snack on while watching tv in my bedroom before bed.

My bedroom had once been my grandfathers room but he had died 2 years earlier. My parents had inherited the house and had completely refurbished it after gramps had passed. Tearing out all the walls and putting in new insulation and new windows. The furniture was also all brand new.

So there really was no explanation for what happened next.

I came out of the shower, limped into my bedroom, and was instantly surrounded by an intense odor of my grandfather! He used Aqua Velva but it wasn't just the smell of the aftershave, it was the way HE smelled wearing it! His own personal order was permeating the room!

I was instantly horrified, I couldn't breathe or move and I was rooted to that one spot as if glued into place! Worse yet I could hear my little daughter coming up the stairs and heading right for that very room! The last thing I wanted to do was to scare my child, but I just could not, for the life of me, summon up enough strength to so much as bat an eyelash! I tried to force my frozen face into smile as I saw her approaching, I knew how frightened she would be if she saw that I was afraid! It didn't matter.

She took one step into the room and the plate of sandwiches went flying up into the air as she screamed out loud "GRANPAPA" she flew out of that room at the very same moment I was released from my trap and able to follow her down the stairs hopping all the way! I actually bum bumped down the entire flight of stairs so fast that my rump hurt for weeks afterwards!

I called my big brother who worked right down the street at a local corner store, he came home right away but the smell was gone by the time he got there. I spent that night in my daughters bedroom and the next day I switched to another bedroom... For good.

Skip ahead two years... Same beach house. I was sitting in my recliner chair watching tv it was about 9 pm. Stretched out on the carpet at my feet was my ex-boyfriend also watching tv. All of a sudden he was in some sort of distress! He was desperately trying to move his body but it was obvious that something was holding him down! I could actually see an impression on his shirt while hanging above him was a dark wispy cloud!

I watched all of this as if I were in a trance, I didn't think or feel anything. I didn't make a move to help him, I just sat there as he continued to struggle, watching him as he grunted and writhed desperately fighting to move!

This was a man who had recently moved my Moms refrigerator up two flights of stairs all by himself and now he couldn't muster the strength to get up off the floor!

I have no idea how long this all lasted. But it seemed that just as suddenly he was free again, we both watched the dark shadowy cloud move toward the front door and disappear. When the cloud had disappeared we turned our heads in unison and continued watching the T.V., without saying a word, as if it had never happened!

A few weeks later while eating in a restaurant, as if on cue, we both remembered what had happened and then talked about it at great length. The fact that we both forgot about it for so long makes me wonder what other paranormal events have been erased from our memories over time?

A year later at the same house, late at night, I was in the living room alone, my daughter tucked in asleep upstairs, when several cars with lights on and music playing pulled up right outside the house.

I listened and cussed as I realized that a bunch of my buddies must be stopping by for a little late night party at my house and I wasn't going to be happy about it if they woke up my daughter!

As I was getting up and going to the front door I heard all the car doors closing maybe 4 or 5 cars I could tell they were all drunk by their laughter and the songs that they were singing (why else would my friends, the LED ZEPPLIN kids of the 1970's be singing "how much is that doggy in the window"?).

They moved across the porch and then opened up the outside screen door just as I threw open the inside door to reveal... You guessed it! Nothing and nobody there, just a shock of cold air on a hot summer night.

This happened to me 3 or 4 times after the original incident but I was always alone. Years later my daughter told me that she had heard people out on the porch partying and when she looked outside of course there was nobody there! She had also heard crying from the upstairs bathroom on many occasions when she had been small, she said she "just knew that it was my grandmother crying" My daughter was only 3 when Nana died and in no way could have remembered her.

I had two major experiences when I was 17. One of these experiences was my one and only full bodied apparition sighting ever. My first experience that year was shortly after my friends boyfriend died. He had been the only one involved in a drunk driving accident.

Only a few days later and my friend, still hugely distraught, sat at my kitchen table and cried out for her dead boyfriend to hear her! She then proceeded to tell him how much she loved him and would miss him and that she forgave him. I nearly fainted dead away as soon as she had finished speaking, I had never felt so cold, or lost and out of control in all my life! Suddenly six stacked dishes just flew off the shelf behind us! And just like that I instantly felt better.

Later that year I was home on a Saturday night with my little baby. A few of my girlfriends had gone out for the night and were partying at a pub in a nearby town. Shortly after last call at the bar, when I was nearly asleep at home, one of my friends called and said her car wouldn't start and would I come and get them all in my car please?

Believe me, I wasn't feeling it, but of course I got dressed, left my baby with my mom and went to pick up my girls. When I got to the bar it was closed and my three semi drunken friends were in the parking lot surrounded by, and partying with about 20, maybe more biker dudes! I wasn't very happy about this, I was tired and I wanted to get back home to my baby!

But I got out of my car and went toward the large group all the while yelling at my friends to get in my car now! As I got nearer to the group I heard a noise to my right and turned to see a State Trooper standing about 5 ft away from me.

He had on a different kind of state cop uniform than I'd ever seen before, but all I really needed to know was the he was a cop, in the back of mind I guess I figured that they must have gotten new uniforms. I didn't have to turn my head very far from the trooper to look at my friends, so I still had him in my peripherals. I remember saying something to my friends like "great! Now look at what you've done! The cops are here" as I was saying this the cop started to move from my sight so I turned my head toward him but just as I did POOF he was gone! Just like that! I learned later that the uniform was actually a 1950's style uniform. As I look back I remember thinking at the time that he was wearing knee high black boots. But now whenever I think of that moment I am not so sure that there was anything at all below his knees!

I never told anyone about this for a very long time. The people who were present were too loud and never heard me tell them the cops were there.

Years later, while in my late twenties, I married and moved away from the Beach House.

My husband is a no nonsense reality based sort of bloke wasn't (and still isn't) into the paranormal thing. He tells me that he will spend enough time convening with the dead when he joins them. I can't dispute his logic there.

And I couldn't deny my instincts either. But this being a solid marriage that has stood the test of time, we managed to work out the differences.

During the early days of our marriage, though, the paranormal rarely ever came up and I never shared with him the experiences that I had. Although I did have a few worth mentioning.

Two of which happened while I was sleeping. So even though my heart and mind tell me that these things were real and that I was actually awake at the time, I could never prove it to anyone else. As evidence these incidences would have to be rejected... But I know differently.

In May of 1994 I had finally decided to look up my birth father "Freddy" I had met my birth mother at the age of 24 and she had given me some info on Freddy but not very much. I found myself as a product of one night fling with not much info to go on. Now that my daughter was getting older I decided to look into him, of course I knew by then that he had died tragically at a very young age.

First I went to Freddy's old high school where I had gotten some black and white photos of him, I had even located a cousin who had lived with Freddy's family as a child. So I was well into getting to "know" to a limited extent of course, the man who had made me.

During this time I had what YOU might call a "dream", but what I call a stunning and wonderful reality.

I don't remember what day it was but it was early summer around 3 am or so.

I was awakened by a bright light emanating from the middle of my oversized bedroom (what was once a 3 bedroom upstairs was now just one huge room) As the light began to fade an image began to emerge and then become more clear. I could see that it was a young man. A young man in jeans and a black leather jacket with a shock of red hair that he kept slicked back. His eyes were the blue of the ocean, his smile was shy and wide. I did not hesitate, not even for a moment, when he beckoned for me to come closer.

Yes, I knew right away that this young man was Freddy. I was lying in my bed looking right at him and he was as real as you or me, just standing there waiting for me to cross the room.

I was 34 years old.

I had no fear as I gleefully hopped up and out of bed to go to him. When I hit the floor I felt younger, more alive, I felt like I had when I was in my twenties, As I continued to walk toward him I became aware that suddenly I was a teenager again, and then a young child about 8 years old, As I reached him I realized that I was now only a very young child, of 3 or maybe 4.

I stood before him and reached my arms up to him I was now only about as tall as his waist. He bent down and lovingly gathered me up in his arms and then he began to turn slowly. As he turned I felt myself getting smaller in his arms. I become younger, smaller, a toddler perhaps. When he completed the turn, though, I was a new born... An infant again.

Freddy cuddled me in his arms as we gazed lovingly at each other, blue eyes to blue eyes soaking up the love that we had never known. And yes I knew that I was now an infant. I was aware of it all. Everything as it was happening not a dream but so far out of reality...

It seemed like we stayed like that for hours locked into each other eyes, at the same time it I know it could only have been moments. Then Slowly he began to turn again in the opposite direction, and as he did I began to get bigger and older again. I felt so sad! I became frightened I didn't want to leave him! But he held me closely and I just knew everything would be alright.

When he let me down from his arms I was just 4 years old again. He then had to give me a gentle push to make me walk back towards my bed, I just didn't want to lose him again! But I went and as I was walking I began to age again I was 13, then 15, 20, then 25. I got back into bed, and pulled the blankets over my head once again I was a 34 year old and I was crying.

I woke up crying. Could I really have had such an imaginative dream? Or did Freddy really return to me, fueled by my sudden interest in him? Was this his way of telling me that he had been with me my entire life? I wish I knew. I do know one thing. If it was a dream it has never faded as dreams do. I hold dearly every moment of the entire experience as if it just happened yesterday.

The very next day I went to visit Freddy's grave for the first time. A huge old cemetery about 10 miles from my home I had never been there before. I went right to Freddy's grave. Right to it with no help at all. I had never done anything like that before but I do believe that given the right situation, I could maybe do it again.

April 22, 1996 around 1 am. I was so sick with allergies and bronchitis that I had been asleep for about 13 hours. Suddenly I sat straight up as I felt the (air, wind, presence? I don't know what) come rushing at me. I felt my MOM in a rush of the moment, she was in front of me and I was with her. And then she was in me and I became her (feeling thinking smelling knowing ALL that was my mother) and then she was gone. I laid back down just as my husband asked "what is it? What was that?" and I calmly replied "my mother just died" and I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Of course it's true. She really did die at that moment. But why hadn't I woken up and ran downstairs and called someone? Why did I just roll over without doing anything? And what about my husband? Why wasn't he startled awake by my frightening words? We simply went back to sleep! Maybe my mind was rejecting what it had just been through. Or maybe it had been exhausted by the experience. It was just so real.

My mother went right through me and although I can never prove it I know that it really happened. A special moment between body and soul that will never be forgotten. I was left knowing that I wasn't saying goodbye, I was saying so long and see you soon. I was left with the absolute knowledge of her love for me from the inside out!

The next 10 years, leading up to our moving into the haunted house in Salem, were pretty uneventful. I did receive 3 phone calls from people who had recently passed. I know that sounds nuts but it really happened. The first call was in 96 shortly after my mom died.

I got home from work and there was a call from an old friend on my caller ID from 5 am that morning. I couldn't imagine why he had called after so many years of not talking or even seeing each other. But soon the phone rang again and my ID read that it was his phone again. I picked it up said hello a few times but got no response. I forgot all about it until a few days later when I learned he had passed. He had died the night BEFORE he called me. He died in his home around 11pm and was discovered the next night a 6pm. Calculations say he was alone, unfounded and dead in his bed from a drug overdose, when he called me.

One year later a similar story another dear departed old friend calling me from his home (according to my caller ID) moments after he died in the hospital from a post surgical complication.

In 2003 my own dear brother passed in his sleep at the age of 54. His heart simply gave out. It was so unexpected that we were all just in a fog, emotionally crushed, hurting and totally out of sorts.

My brother had worked at the same corner store/ restaurant for several years. Within hours after his death my brothers boss started calling me. My caller ID gave the phone and the name of the restaurant it read simply Smitty's corner PAY PHONE with the phone #. He continued to call me over and over for the next two days but I just couldn't answer, I was buried in my grief and didn't want to talk to anyone except my family.

It was almost a week later when my daughter and I went to Smitty's corner for a memorial to celebrate my brothers life. I had just glanced at my brothers boss when it suddenly struck me! There was no reason for him to be calling me from the outside payphone! He would of called from inside the store, or his cell phone or home phone, but not the pay phone!

And why would he call so many times over and over when he knew we were grieving? I just knew at that very moment that it had been my brother! Sure enough when I got home the caller ID said Smitty's corner again. It was the last time he ever called and to this day I regret not taking any of those calls!

I chalk up those phone calls as a pre cursor to my ability to catch evp so easily now. Am I a medium, a sensitive or psychic? I have no idea and I am not sure if I am willing to find out... yet.

My husband and I moved to Salem from the south shore of MA in October 05. The reason we moved up country was to make an easier commute for my husband.

We soon found a lovely little cottage right across the street from a small lake, we fell in love and agreed to buy the little house the first time we saw it.

Right off I loved our little home by the lake. It had been recently renovated so everything was new and gleaming. Before I moved in I spent several days there with my husband putting up shelves pictures and curtains. I never sensed or felt anything that seemed strange to me during those days shortly before moving in.

When moving day came my (now adult) daughter was a big help. This was her first time seeing the place and I couldn't wait for her to see how close it was to the lake. She has always loved to swim and sunbathe so I just knew she was going to love the place!

Well...she didn't. She hated it and I saw it in her eyes the minute she got inside. She kept trying to tell me "it's nice Ma, you are going to like it here" but her eyes did not agree with what her lips were saying.

Later my husband told me that she had complained that the house had a terrible odor all through it. She couldn't understand why nobody else could smell it? A year later she admitted to me that her first time in the house made her feel like she needed to run out of there, go home and "wash the creepy off".

I wish she had told me how she felt. But I understand why she didn't. We had never lived so far apart before (about an hour and 1/2) and we missed each other like crazy. Ok, so we did talk on the phone 1-4 times a day but it was not the same as actually being together.

My daughter is my heart. We are very close and we love each other dearly. When she would visit us she would normally stay a few days or more if her work schedule permitted. So she did stay over night on and off over the next year.

Even though we didn't seem to be getting along so well a that time, I would gleefully wait for her return to the little cottage but unfortunately whenever she did come back...

She would be a monster! From the moment she stepped into that house until the end of her stay. (when I was rushing her out the door) She was very bad-tempered and constantly trying to pick fights! She would then go home and call me and thank me telling me she had a great time and how grateful she was for my cooking and my love... And that she was sorry for being in such a bad mood. She would sound, again, like the sweetheart she really is.

I blamed her moody behavior on my moving away and all was forgiven and forgotten.

The very day I moved into the cottage I started to smell a terrible odor. For the life of me I could never understand why I hadn't smelled it before moving in?

The stench seemed to come out of everywhere, the walls the floors the ceilings. It was intensely strong and nasty but would only last for a few minutes making it impossible to find the exact source of it. Yet we would smell it often. It wasn't a case of getting used to a bad odor after being in the house for awhile. No, this stench would come suddenly from out of nowhere even after I had been in the house for hours. Yet I never thought that any of this could be paranormal. Not once. I had gotten crusty and set in my ways now having reached my mid forties, I didn't remember my earlier paranormal experiences.

I am a night owl.

I set up my chair by the window in the living room facing my tv. Shortly after moving into that spot I started hearing a sound that I knew I recognized. It was the sound of a horse. Pawing and snorting outside my little cottage window.

I would quickly shut out the light and peer into the darkness but the horse would be gone. I thought that it must be a neighbors horse got loose but then I'd soon forget about it.

Until late one night when it happened again. I got up and ran into the pitch darkness of my front yard (I really like horses and I was determined to meet this one) when I got out to the middle of the yard I suddenly became filled with a mind numbing fear as the deep blackness surrounded me. I spun into fight or flight mode and I chose the latter... But instead of being able to run away I got the dreaded "lead" legs. I felt like I was walking through waist high water with heavy chains wrapped around me that kept pulling me back. The door to the cottage was open and I could see the light of the living room shining through it. It looked to be about a mile away but I knew it was only a few steps! YIKES! But I finally find my way to the door and somehow my "right" mind made me blow off this experience as well. I told myself that I had probably been asleep at the time that it had never happened. A dream. A nightmare. Anything but reality.

Many times while inside the house I had called out for my husband and he would answer me in muffled tones. The house was very small so we should have been able to hear each other easily. I would go looking for him and see him outside busy working in the yard. As if he had been there for hours. Never once did I question it or ever guess that it was paranormal.

My husband is the type of guy who likes to work all the time. He was tearing up and putting things back together in the cottage the whole time we were there. Hammer/saws/drills whenever he was home there were tool noises going on.

He replaced the heating system and added 2 more heating zones to the house. Then he built an additional room onto the front porch.

It wasn't just a small amount of work that he was doing, It was actually pretty heavy duty for such a small space. I've heard that even a mild amount of construction can bring about spirits and if that is true that would explain how I ended up with a houseful of them!

Then there were the smells. Strong tobacco smells that would come and go in a non-smoking home. Whole meals cooking at 3 am, and a strong scent of soap which I recognized as Ivory soap, no! No! Not just a scent but a nose tingling, tear inducing odor of Ivory soap, it would only last a few moments but it was so close to me and so thick that it would literally turn my stomach.

A large barn-shaped shed sat on the property. Stored in it were over 6,000 record albums and 45's. My husband had inherited my late brothers record collection. There were so many records that my husband had to build several shelves in the shed to store them on.

Often I would be in the yard and I would hear music coming from the shed. I never questioned it I just assumed that my husband had forgotten to turn off his radio. Many times I would hear tools working in the shed when my husband wasn't home and the shed should be empty. But when I got up close to it I could no longer hear them. I thought the noise must be coming from another home and ricocheting somehow off of our shed.

And then there was the great wind that would blow from my refrigerator door. Now as I look back I can not explain how or why I just accepted this phenomena? There were no windows no doors no drafts anywhere near the refrigerator yet many times a fierce gust of wind would seemingly blow from the refrigerator door with enough force to swing my ponytail back and forth. Somehow I just accepted it as if it were a normal everyday occurrence! When it did finally dawn on me that it was paranormal, I tried to debunk it but there were no clear answers.

Oct 25 2006 My daughter stayed over in the small spare room downstairs that I used as a dressing room. She was on an air mattress and looked quite comfortable. We had just finished watching all her favorite scary shows and it was 4 am. I went off to the upstairs bedroom where I got into my bed just as hubby was getting out of it to go to work.

An hour later I was deep into a really decent sleep when I felt someone get into bed with me. I knew right off who it was so I ask my 30 year old daughter "Aren't you a little old to be getting in Mommy's bed?" She tells me that there is something "staring at her" in that room and she cannot and will not sleep in there! I say "OMG! It's just the cats looking at you and you've been watching scary movies all night"! But I was too tired to resist and instead went back to sleep.

The next day my daughter decided to split a day early vowing she wouldn't spend one more night in that room! Now I knew I had to do something soon I wanted my child to feel safe in my house! I decided to do something that I had seen on one of her (what I called) "ghostly shows" it was TAPS Ghost hunters show where I had learned about recording with an audio recorder to "hear" spirit voices, called EVP.

This was the answer on how I was going to prove to my daughter, believer of ghosts, that there was really no such thing as the boogeyman and that my house was NOT haunted!

I don't know why I didn't remember the paranormal events that I had experienced while I was younger. But I now saw myself as staunch, reality based, level headed. A dam Capricorn for Goodness sake! I just didn't believe in the paranormal anymore and I had no idea what had happened to change that.

Anyway, the next day I forgot all about putting a recorder in the spare room. I probably would of forgotten about it all together.

But then I heard a voice! I was in my living room and my husband was on the front porch sawing (very loudly) some plywood for one of his shelves. Once he started up the saw I heard, as clear as day, a female voice right beside me complain "Oh no! Not again"

Well I couldn't ignore this at first. I started to believe that it really happened! This lasted for about an hour before I talked myself out of it again. I decided that it was my next door neighbors voice that I had heard. Even though it was cold out and all my windows were closed, and the voice had come from right beside me.

But I did put a recorder in the dressing room. I shut the door. I used a digital audio recorder (the Sony B ICD B300) and I set it to voice activated. This was the evening of Oct 27th. I left it on overnight shutting it off in the early morning. There was about 50 minutes on the recording and much of it was just cars rolling down the busy route in front of the house. I did not know how interesting this recording would become until later on that night.

The night of Oct 28th 06 I got roped into going to the lumber yard with hubby it was on the way to the grocery store and as usual I would wait in the truck. Most times I brought a newspaper or catalog along with me but this time I grabbed the recorder and earphones to listen to the recorder while waiting. I knew that I could prove once and for all to my daughter that the room was NOT haunted and I could do so by using a method I saw on her own favorite program!

And then I heard the laughter! I listened to the tape and clearly there was a *child laughing and a man speaking right into the recorders microphone! It was impossible, but it was true! I stuffed the recorder into my bag and did my shopping like I was in sort of dream state. I just couldn't wait to get somewhere quiet and listen to that tape!

The first evp I heard was of a man saying "let me out" and then a child's laughter. So clear and so close to the microphone these people could only have been in that very room! I listened to the end of the recording and heard nothing else but then I started it from the beginning. The first evp on the recording is of a man saying *"f you mother" then a sharp intake of breath, it is loud and clear and could only have come from someone speaking directly into the microphone! The next evp was a man saying "I'm coming I love you" and he breathes heavily. There are loud banging noises in these recordings that I hadn't heard during the recording only after the playback. I knew this was impossible and yet here was the very evidence in my hand!

I sat on the whole thing for about 24 hours. Then I started to try and debunk everything. I began by leaving the recorder in the same spot as I had gotten the original recordings.

I went to every room in the house and spoke in a natural level tone as the voices on the recorder had. Then I went and stood outside the room near my neighbors yard and I spoke in a natural voice and then I called to my husband in a loud voice, and then a good loud yell even though he wasn't home at the time. At this point I still didn't want the neighbors to think I was crazy. (That soon changed when I began to go out in the middle of the night to take pictures of my shed, by then I no longer cared who thought what about my mental state) I needed to see if the yelling had penetrated the outside wall.

It didn't. So one at a time I turned on every radio and tv in the house while leaving the recorder on in the same spot. None of the voices emanating from these sources sounded anything like the voices I had heard in the earlier recordings.

I took a walk around my neighborhood searching for extra large antenna on top of cars and homes but came up with nothing. Later I drove around and looked for antenna within a few miles of my house again nothing.

I rustled paper and thick paper bags, I turned doorknobs and faucets. I noted all creaks and groans while walking around the home and NOTHING. (I learned a tip here, you can step on a board in one room and it can groan in another room) I recorded the water running, the toilet flushing, microwave going everything that I thought might be causing the voices but nothing even came close.

Naturally the only thing left to do was to try it again. So here is what I did. I waited until I knew my husband and I would be going out. I was so new at evp that I still thought, for some reason, that the voices would only come if the recorder was left alone.

I made a big point of going around the house and shutting everything down and then I went around and unplugged everything I turned on the recorder at this time and sat down to write out my grocery list in complete silence. I got up put my coat on and had to search for a few moments for my keys. I then put on my boots and I left, leaving the recorder running.

During my last moments in the house I made no noise except for my flip flops flopping as I walked around looking for my keys. But the recorder tells a different story. There are three voices.* A woman talking then yelling, a child screaming then talking, and a man whispering throughout deeper in the background. This evp is 41 seconds long.

I had no idea at the time that an evp this clear and this long was highly unusual. After all everything about this whole thing was still pretty strange to me!

When I first heard this evp for just a moment I thought I must be going to die! I mean there were people talking in my home from all around me but I could only hear them on a recorder! What else could it be but some sort of sign of my approaching death? Or some other equally impending doom?

Of course I knew these ideas were crazy! It was obviously aliens, a parallel universe, or the FBI secretly taping us (hubby's idea) maybe it was our own brain waves projecting our voices out loud? Were the cats talking to us psychically? The neighbors or previous owners playing a joke?

But then it hit me. It wasn't any of those things. It really was the voices of the dead!

What happens in a "eureka" moment like this? Well you want to tell everyone about it and as fast as possible! There is life after death!

I really thought that everyone was just going to believe me. I called people, I went online and sent emails. It was Tuesday Oct. 31st. My own sister laughed at me and said "happy Halloween" before hanging up.

Only my daughter was willing to believe me and ooo-ed and aahh-ed over the evp, in spite of the fact that it was Halloween and that I often told her scary stories around this time. She did, however, get to mention " I told you so"

I listened to that one crazy long evp over and over again trying to understand the words it contained. The woman sounds likes she is speaking Japanese, a child screams and all the while a man is whispering menacingly in the background. So damn scary yet somehow so compelling to me!

At this point I still had only 4 evp while today I have over 500 collected since that night in Oct 06.

Unfortunately we only lived there for another year and ½ because it turned out that the dirt basement was very bad for my health and we had to let the home go.

During our stay in the little cottage my husband and I had several more paranormal experiences and I did contact a paranormal team who confirmed that the home was haunted they did this by collecting their own video and evp evidence. It was wonderful to have the haunting confirmed but at the end of the day I was still pretty much taking the haunting on as my own, becoming more and more obsessed on a deeper and more personal level.

I saw a bottle spin on it's end all by itself, I watched in stunned silence and then got dizzy myself and had to go throw up. It was as if I had been spun myself.

And my husband (once a non believer now not able to dispute the evidence) continually felt something getting up on the bed with him. All the while he kept dreaming about a golden retriever named "ruffle's" one night while sleeping my husband began to scream out loud "I don't want a dog" he was kicking and screaming and moaning and I couldn't wake him up! He finally settled down and I went back to sleep. When I mentioned it to him the next day he remembered dreaming about "ruffles" again but thought it had been a good dream and not the nightmare that I described. These dog dreams continued for my poor husband throughout our stay in the cottage. Thankfully though, he has never complained about them since leaving.

I remember one time (long before I had realized that I was living in a haunted house) I told my Doctor that I was getting an extremely cold feeling on my left shin that would come and go, he said he had no idea what it could be other than a draft. Righto, it was a draft that had the ability to follow me from room to room and hit me in the same exact spot every time! The cold spot on my leg was a constant until we moved in late 2007 and has never returned since.

I don't know if there was ever a pet there for sure, but if I had to guess I would have to say yes! There was one. A golden named "ruffles"

By November of 2006 I was all a frenzy recording day and night not only in the house but, wherever I would go in between. I recorded in the car, at the store, in restaurants and other peoples homes. One time when I was terribly sick with asthma (a by product of living in the cottage) and had to go to the hospital I begged my husband to go and get me the recorder before we left. I'll never forget the pitiful way he looked at me when he flatly refused.

I hadn't even gotten into taking pictures yet, that would come later and would open up another whole universe for me to explore... My shed.

By the end of November in 06 I already had more than 30 class "A" evp in only a month.

It would be another month before the Taps Family team would get to the house. Two months since the first recording.

And two very eventful months they were! I had gotten some of my very best recordings in November and December of 06. And I had learned, by research, who two of my new "friends" were.

Henry and Evelyn husband and wife.

Henry had been the last person who had owned the home who had lived in it. It had been sold, renovated and resold in a turnover to my husband and I.

Henry had lived a long life and had died in 2004. His wife Evelyn had also lived in the house and had died in 1984.

* I have a cute recording of both of them where I say to Henry "do you want us to leave Henry? Are we taking your space"? Henry answers "I'm fine" which is ended with a polite cough suggesting that Henry's wife Evelyn was not so happy with us being there!

Henry seemed to really like my husband and began to "speak" most often whenever he was around. I found out later that they did have much in common as far as liking to work on the outside and smoking cigarettes right down to their Similar slim and tall build. (I learned from a neighbor how Henry actually looked) One of my favorite recordings of Henry and hubby is when my husband had come in for a moment to warm up from working outside, as he was leaving again he asks me *did I come in here with a pkg of butts, probably not" you can clearly hear Henry answer "I don't think so"

Once after having made hubby a cup of coffee* I asked him if he wanted some more sugar? He answers yes, and then I ask how many (sugars)? He says "a couple and I need a stirrer too!" The spirit of who I now believe is Henry answers "are you sure about that?"

I felt no fear of these two, Henry and Evelyn, and I was always happy whenever I heard their voices on my recorder playback. But, there is a child in my recordings as well. She once said her name was Sam on one of my earlier recordings but it is a "d" recording and won't transfer well. I could never locate any info on this child in the public records as I had Henry and Evelyn.

Sam seemed to spend most of her time in my dressing room and for whatever reason I was often frightened by her, REALLY frightened! She didn't have the same calming effect on me as the other two. I swear that one evening she made me play music on my computer that I didn't want to hear. It was old and creepy lullaby music that was part of a spam that I had accidentally opened and was just about to delete. Instead I was stricken with the urge to play it over and over again rooted to my chair and sick to my stomach until I finally was able to stop!

I must of replayed it 20 times.

But, once I was able to stop obsessively clicking my mouse, I calmed down again right away again almost as if I were being soothed. I then quickly grabbed my recorder and turned it on... As I was getting the heck out of there and going to bed! I shut off my computer and my AOL which (as aol users know) says *goodbye. The next day I discovered the recording contained a voice clearly answering Aol's goodbye with a hearty "bye" of her own.

I believe it was Evelyn that night who stepped in and stopped me from playing that creepy song maniacally over and over again. I believe that she was still with me and saw me to bed that night to keep me safe from Sam.

I knew that Sam was manifesting as a child but I never believed that she died as a child. I think she just chooses to come back as one. Perhaps to her happier days when she vacationed as a child by the lake. Even though she didn't always act like an innocent child. I firmly believe that the spirit of Sam is very real and exceptionally strong and was even somehow able to compel me to do her bidding on two separate occasions!

Sam had practically stolen my dressing room by this time.

I would most often have to leave the door closed and stay away from it when I was alone in the house and at night. One early morning however around 3 am I was simply overcome with the urge to go in" there..." I was actually talking myself into going into a room at 3 am that I was afraid to go near at 3 pm!

I was trembling I was so afraid to go in but, I "knew" that I had to do it!***

I went in to take pictures of Sam at her request or rather at her other worldly insistence! I closed the door and closed my eyes, shut the light out, clicked the pic and then turned on the lights before opening my eyes! Scared wasn't the word for it! I could only manage to do this twice before I had to flee. The results were pretty obvious to me. Sam was a solid white blob with little orbs flowing off her! Both pictures are refutable and could never be used as real evidence.

But I knew she was there, I could smell the strong odor of Ivory soap as she came ever closer to me and I tried to will myself to stay I just couldn't do it, not alone anyway.

I regret chickening out in that room that night. I wish I could of stayed to get better evidence of what was going on in there. But the room was just to horrifying for me to withstand.

One night while my husband and I were watching tv I glanced over and caught a jelly fish like figure with the shape and head of a child peeking around the corner at us. I looked at the figure and then glanced at my husband who was also looking in the same direction! I knew FOR SURE that he saw the same thing that I was looking at but he refuses to admit it to this day!

One other time in broad daylight, my husband and I were in the living room talking about the work that he was doing outside on his car when he wondered out loud "do you think it's going to rain today?" and in true Henry fashion and in Henry's "own" voice (a voice that I had heard on my recordings before saying the same exact words) the answer came from the other side of the room right out loud and strong it answered "I don't think so"

This is the only time that I ever heard Henry's voice when it was not in a recording. I gulped and looked right at my husband who was staring right at the spot where the voice came from.

I jumped up and pointed at him "there" I said "I know you heard that, I saw you look"! Nope he said quietly "heard nothing" as he backed out of the room and went back to his chores.

Once while cooking dinner I felt this overwhelming urge to take pictures. I just dead stopped what I was doing and grabbed my camera. ***I took some pretty wild red and orange pictures that night with my brand new camera. I never got any other pictures in those colors after that one instance.

Did Henry whisper in my ear that day, in a voice I couldn't really hear but my subconscious did? Did he really pose and let me take pictures of him that night? Was the burst of color all he could muster up? Was that you Henry?

Finally it was December 9th of 2006 the day before the Taps family team was about to arrive. I had left on my recorder in our bedroom that night and had awoken to one of my creepiest evp ever. * In it a man with a mechanical voice says "my eyes are wide open" and woman plainly asks "are you scared?"

Why this evp scares me so much I really don't know, it's not so much different than any of the others, but ever since I first heard this recording I have never put a recorder in the room where we were sleeping again!

Still, I hadn't yet put an end to my strange habit of going out late in the night and taking pictures of my shed.

Yes, I said my shed. There was something going on around that shed day and night! In almost all of my 200+ shed pictures, the roof is always either foggy, cloudy, smoky or covered in orbs.

I soon began to call the roof of the shed the "hell mouth" and to this day I believe it had to be some sort of vortex of constant energy transference. The thing seemed to have a life of it's own! Yes, I said my shed. As in "that nutty lady was out taking pictures of her shed again at 3 am this morning" that shed.

Once, while I was packing just a few weeks before leaving the cottage, I was suddenly and completely engulfed in a freezing cold hug. I immediately said "knock that off you're scaring me" and it stopped at once.

While I may have felt like I was getting used to these things happening around me, deep inside I was still somewhat frightened.

Late one night shortly, before heading to bed I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of loss and sorrow. I thought that I recognized this feeling as artificial, a feeling that was induced by whoever or whatever was haunting the home at moment. But, I turned on my recorder and set it on my shoulder. I asked "are you Freddy?" and clears as day and from right beside me his voice whispers softly "yes I am"

I know that spirits speak in many different voices. I know that this ghostly recording could be just about anybody. But it wasn't anybody. It was truly my dear father, Freddy. I cried for a long time after I heard the recording, even though I am not prone to crying. Even now, hundreds of evp later, this one remains my very favorite.

Today I live in a new home. It is decidedly not haunted. I have stopped recording every moment of every day and I am relieved that I am no longer compelled to do so. Oh I still record when the mood strikes. Because when the mood strikes it is never wrong and I always pick up something from the other side! It is as if someone were whispering in my ear and telling me to go ahead... Start the recorder. Now, a faithful servant of our dearly departed, I will continue to "start the recorder" until I am nothing more than an evp myself.

EVPs

Let me out and then a child laughs. (takes a second to get to the voices, the noises are also evp)

FU mother

I'm coming I love you and heavy breathing

Longest EVP

Do you want us to leave henry

Husband asks did I come in here with a pkg of butts

Aol says goodbye

eyes are wide open/are you scared

are you freddy