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Imaginary Friend Tom

 

This isn't something that I have a lot of specific details about. I didn't even remember this until recently. I was reading a comment on one of my other submissions where a remark was made about me being sensitive to the spirit in our house while my roommate was not and thought this might be something like that (me being sensitive to a spirit.)

I don't have a lot of details on this, like I said I didn't even remember it. My mum is the one who likes to tell the story.

When I was growing up I spent a great deal of time at my Grams house. We lived on the outskirts of town (about 10 miles out of town.) Not in the middle of nowhere (houses were about 100-200 yards apart) but we didn't have sidewalks or streetlights.

My Grams house was on the main road, set on the inside bend of a curve in the road. On the outside of the curve was a little side road, the Kirkland Road. It ran about 5 miles of paved road then 15 of dirt and 5 more of paved which led you into town. There were houses on either side of the road on the paved areas.

On the end of the Kirkland Road that we lived on there is a small cemetery about a 1/2 mile from the main road. There are probably 60-70 graves in the cemetery. It mostly has graves from the about 1830-1900 with about 10 from the early 1900's (before 1920) and then about another 5 or 10 from the last 15 years of people who grew up in that area and had lived their entire lives there and so chose to be buried in that cemetery.

Like I said, when I was younger I spent a great deal of time at my Grams house. I was allowed to ride my bicycle down the Kirkland Road by myself as far as the cemetery. You could see straight down this road that far if you looked out my grandmother's window.

I've always been fascinated by old gravestones. As a child I would spend hours in the graveyard looking over and over the stones, I had them memorized where they were, who the families were, how old they were when they died etc. I would sit on this old stump in the middle of the graveyard and just read or make up stories for hours.

Okay, now the thing that creeped me out about two weeks ago when it came to mind. I was thinking about going to put flowers on my Papa's stone (he is buried in this cemetery) when one of my friends mentioned something about imaginary friends we had as a child. This made me think of how my Mum told me once that she always found my imaginary friend a bit odd.

She said his name was Tom and when I was little I played with him only when I was at my Grams. The part that weirded her out though was that when I used to tell her that Tom lived 'down the back road.' (My cousins and I always called the Kirkland Rd the 'back road' when we were younger.) At first, she thought that this was cute and that since I had family that lived on that road (three aunts and a cousin) she assumed that Tom 'lived' with one of them.

She told me that one day (I was about 8 years old) I came back from Grams and was chattering about how I had played with Tom and had a great time. Always one to indulge imagination she would ask me questions about him. What did we do? Did we have fun? How long did we play? Etc. This day she happened to ask me where he lived. I answered her that he lived in the cemetery. So she asked me did I mean that we played at the cemetery that day. And I replied no, we always play at the cemetery but that's because that is where he lived.

So basically as a child I was drawn to this cemetery and loved to play there & I had an imaginary friend named Tom who 'lived' in the cemetery. Mum says I stopped playing with and talking about Tom when I was 10 or 11.

As an adult I don't mind this cemetery but I am borderline terrified of any other cemetery, even during the day.

Like I said I don't remember a lot about playing with Tom. I do remember he was a child, I remember that he had curly brown hair and white skin and wore jeans and a blue button up shirt. I haven't been to the cemetery in years and I no longer remember all of the names on the gravestones so I don't know if there is a Tom buried there. I do plan on checking in the spring though when the snow is gone just to see.

I don't know if this was a ghost or not but it certainly creeped my mother out. Your thoughts/opinions are welcome and appreciated. Thanks!

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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, JaimeLuv, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

bbsgurl1023 (11 posts)
 
14 years ago (2010-08-18)
Hi, I live in Maine so I am going through and reading all of the stories from maine and yours really caught my interest. I have always loved cemetaries and love the history behind them and visiting them. I was wondering if you could e-mail me and tell me the name of the cemetary and where it is located so that I can go visit it. My e-mail is horseluva_417 [at] hotmail.com. Thank you!
soundofwhite (12 posts)
 
14 years ago (2009-10-31)
i joined just so I could comment this haha. So did you go back?!?!?
Im dying to know if you found a Tom headstone xD that would be so awesomely creepy xD
JaimeLuv (6 stories) (14 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-21)
I did pull up a listing of the people buried in the cemetery online. There was no listing for a Tom (in any form) or anyone in the correct age range with the middle initial T. There was however a note that there are two unmarked graves in the cemetery and it's unknown who is buried there. I'm going to have to wait for spring to go back there.
Kecoughtan (1 stories) (211 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-13)
Thank you, JaimeLuv, for sharing your experience! I thoroughly enjoyed it and think you've received some good feedback. I agree with DeviousAngel in his characterization of two likely scenarios. Personally, I've had a couple of experiences in cemeteries--and they have occurred in the middle of perfectly bright, beautiful days. I doubt if you were truly an odd child. To me it sounds like you were emphathic of past lives, curious about other peoples, and sensative to their lived experiences. Please keep us posted if you gather any more details from your mother or return to the cemetery. I am sure most of us would love to see a photo of the cemetery and, when you find it, the gravestone of a young boy called Tom. Thanks!
JaimeLuv (6 stories) (14 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-13)
Thank you for your comments!

DA- Situation A is entirely possible too. I need to ask my Mum more about it. I was a very imaginative (albeit odd) child. And yes I played there during the day. I wasn't allowed out of the yard by myself after dark and my cousins were too scared to go down there at night.

Rhodes- I don't remember much. Just that I was allowed to ride my bike to the cemetary alone starting when I was about 6. (before that only with my cousins) It never occured to me that he could be a spirit until in the last month. I don't have any negetive feelings about it though, I remember playing in the cemetary (not necessarily with Tom) as always being pleasant and happy.

Perd- If there's a stone there of a child named Tom I will probably piss myself lol. I'm going to ask my Mum for details on anything else I had told her as a child.
DeviousAngel (11 stories) (1910 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-13)
Thank you for sharing your story! The way I see it, this could be one of two situations.

Situation A.) You spent so much time at the cemetery memorizing graves and making up stories that you imagined a person named Tom using one of the names from the headstones. It would make sense then, that Tom would live in the graveyard.

Situation B.) You had befriended a spirit of someone named Tom and he seemed to like you, so you'd visit him and play with him, and then come home.

I'm very curious, you would play with Tom in the daytime right? It's strange because mostly I hear of ghost stories happening at night rather than during the day and in sunshine. That's really quite peaceful though... The whole story made me feel at ease, even the slight creepiness had a sort of strange, homey comfort.

Thank you again for sharing!

Blessings
DA
rhodes68 (14 stories) (1596 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-13)
Thank you for an intriguing story JaimieLuv! I really liked the way you described your childhood experience and especially that single answer "he lives in the cemetery" was the highlight!

It would be very interesting if you went back there to see if you can find his resting place.

Do you remember anything more about your interaction with him?
Perd (28 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-12)
Thank you for sharing! 😁 If I were you I would have pressed my mom for every detail she could remember, lol.

When you go back, how do you think you will react if you found that there WAS a boy named Tom buried there?

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