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The Man In The Hall

 

My encounter takes place in the early '70's when I was in my early 20's. I was newly married and my husband and I rented a house a few houses down from my parent's home. This home was located in Oak Cliff, a suburb of Dallas. My dad had purchased several houses that were run down and fixed them up for resell. The home we were renting was one of those homes and was approximately 80-100 years old. This house was not very large, but had lots of character and we were happy to have a home we could afford to live in. It still needed some repair, but we gladly exchanged doing the repairs for much of the rent.

We spent a great amount of time the first few months painting and cleaning the place up. There was nothing unusual about this house, except the front bedroom that always seemed unusually cold. There were space heaters throughout the house, so it was not that unusual to have cold spots.

My husband would get up for work around 5:30 a.m. And was out the door by 6:00 a.m. At first, I would get up with him to see him off for the day, but he insisted I sleep in because I didn't have to be at work until 9:00 and he would reset the alarm to wake me by 7:30a.m. I truly appreciated those extra hours of sleep. He would kiss me goodbye and I would hear the front door lock before drifting off to a little more precious sleep each morning.

One morning, however, was very different. After my husband left and I heard the front door lock, I had my eyes shut and kept trying to drift off into that extra hour of sleep. Something told me I wasn't alone and I could "feel" someone looking at me. I was lying on my side and felt someone staring at my back. Sounds ridiculous, but I just felt a presence. I opened my eyes and slowly turned my head. There was enough light from the window in the room that I could see pretty clearly around me. As I glanced over my shoulder, I saw a man standing in my hallway. I sat straight up in bed to scream but he disappeared. Yes, just disappeared, vanished. To say the least, I was shaken and confused. I thought I must have awakened from a dream and imagined it all. I got up and checked the front door, it was locked. I, slowly, investigated each room while carrying a fireplace tool in my hand just in case someone jumped out at me. The house was empty except for me.

For the next few mornings, I got up with my husband and saw him off to work too afraid to go back to sleep. About a week later I convinced myself it was a dream and decided to sleep in after he left for work. Several days passed with no problems. Then one morning I got that same feeling and sat up in bed to see this man in my hallway AGAIN. I sat there staring at him and he was staring back. No expression on his face, just staring back at me. He finally turned and "drifted" down the hallway out of sight. I say "drifted" because it seemed his feet didn't move. His hands were straight down by his sides; he never moved them or changed his facial expression. He glided down the hallway until I could not see around the corner. I sat there shaking my head thinking I was going nuts. I didn't really believe in ghosts and had never had an experience like this before. I didn't know whether to say anything to my husband or parents for fear they would laugh or think I was totally crazy.

This scenario took place several mornings and it always played out the same way. The "man" and I stared at each other and then he would just drift away. Sometimes he would float backwards while keeping his eyes fixated on me. Other times, he would turn his whole body and drift away. I can still remember every detail about him. He was an older man in his fifties (back then I thought 50 was old). He was balding and wore a tan colored suit with a striped blue and brown tie. I never saw his feet or shoes. As I would sit up in the bed, he would glide backwards down the hallway and I could never catch a glimpse of his feet. But, he looked solid. Nothing like I imagined a ghost would look like. He appeared about 3-4 times a week, but never when my husband was there. I had grown accustomed to seeing him and never felt he was there to harm me. I did try talking to him a few times, but the moment I would open my mouth to speak, he float away down the hallway.

After we had lived in the house a few years, my dad said the lady that used to live in the house (Miss Brady), wanted to drop by and see what improvements we had made. She and her family had lived in the house for over 50 years and she was now in a nursing home. My parents knew their family when they occupied the house and purchased the home from her when she went into a nursing home several years prior. The home had been through several renters, but no one seemed to stay for more than six months. My dad told her he would pick her up one Sunday afternoon and bring her by for a visit. Miss Brady was a very sweet old lady and walked slowly around the house admiring all our handiwork. She was so very happy we had taken care of the house and said her family would be proud.

We sat down in the living room and I served her some coffee with cookies while she reminisced about how things used to be in the neighborhood so many years ago. She pulled out pictures of her family and showed them to me. The first picture was of her daughter at about the age of five. The second picture was a picture of herself when she had first moved into the house and she was planting flowers in the front yard. She was quite stunning. The third picture was of her husband and her sitting on the front porch. I looked closely at that picture and must have gasped at some point when I saw her 'husband'. I had my hand covering my mouth and looked up at this woman. She immediately said, "Oh, honey, have you seen Elbert here?" "He used to visit me every morning after he passed on!" "What," I asked? I didn't quite understand what she was trying to tell me. I told her I had seen a man that looked like him in the hallway several mornings just staring at me. She was not at all surprised. She said Elbert used to visit her every morning in her bedroom and he was probably just confused to see someone else in the bed. I felt cold shivers go right up my back. I told her how this man was dressed and she said that was what Elbert was buried in. Oh, dear God, could this really be her late husband?

Miss Brady told me Elbert was leaving one morning to go to work and was struck by a vehicle as he crossed a busy street to catch a bus. He got up, brushed himself off and came back home to lay on the sofa because he said he had a headache from his head striking the pavement. No insurance in those days and he refused to go to the doctor because money was tight. She said he took a nap on the sofa and never woke up. She never got over his death and continued to set a place at the dinner table for him. Bazaar behavior, but we all mourn in different ways. A few years later, he began to appear in her bedroom. She felt he was just keeping an eye on her and making sure she was safe. She was very matter-of-fact about all this and not at all shocked that I was seeing his 'ghost'.

She got up to leave a few hours after her arrival and I gave her a hug at the door. She called out to Elbert before she left and told him to be nice to me. I didn't want Elbert to be nice to me; I wanted him to GO AWAY. After that day, I never again had a visit from Elbert. Perhaps he followed her to the nursing home. After that time, there were a few incidences of hearing a knock on the wall, but the house was so old it could have been pipes... Or at least that's what I told myself.

That made a believer out of me. I have had a few other things happen to me over the years and will share them in another post.

Blessings to all.

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

Kecoughtan (1 stories) (211 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-14)
I think the fact that the house frequently turned over and your husband seems to have been incapable of accepting something was amiss, lends additional support. It seems the encounters that you and Mrs. Brady experienced were far from isolated events. I wonder if a lot more wasn't going on. It must have been extremely frustrating to have a spouse that would not believe your experience or accept that you said you were not in that room. Too often this behavior seems patterned in which a spouse or partner, usually a male, denies any activity--even at the point of discounting their own experiences! You were very fortunate that Mrs. Brady called on you.
Angelwing (2 stories) (9 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-14)
Kecoughton,

My dad and I worked together in this house when he first purchased it. I painted the kitchen cabinets while he put new vinyl flooring in the kitchen area. Then we worked together painting and doing general cleaning. We never found anything unusual about the house during that time. He rented it out quickly, but the renters never stayed in that house over six months. A few even moved out without notice, but none of them ever complained to my dad that there was unusual activity.

If my husband had any unusual experiences, he never told me. I do, however, remember one evening when he was putting a puzzle together on the dining room table and I was in our bedroom hemming some pants while sitting on the bed. I heard him say something and got up to find out what he wanted. When I walked in the dining room he looked white as a ghost (no pun intended). I asked him what he needed and he said, "weren't you just in here whispering in my ear?" I said, "no", I've been in the other room. He swore he thought I was standing behind him watching him do his puzzle and heard me whisper something in his ear. I promised him I was nowhere near him and we ended up in an argument about it because he refused to believe it wasn't me. This incident happened after my visit by Ms. Brady, but he still refused to believe there could be an "unusual" activity in our house.
Kecoughtan (1 stories) (211 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-14)
Thank you, Angelwing, for sharing your fascinating and well-written encounter! To your knowledge did your father or husband ever experience anything in the house? Thanks.
Angelwing (2 stories) (9 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-14)
James,

Yes, after Ms. Brady visited with me, I told my parents and my husband. My parents had always been believers in things like that. My dad wanted me to move out of the house and was afraid for my safety once he heard about it, but I assured him I never felt threatened.

My husband (my X-husband now), on the other hand never believed me. Kept telling me it was a dream or just my "vivid" imagination.

Ms. Brady passed away about six months after her visit and I never got to speak with her again or ask her if her husband was visiting her at her new home. Certainly would have been good to have that information. I just know he never came to visit me again.
hazzardsyndrome (10 stories) (121 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-14)
thats a really amazing story and definitely one of the exceptional stories that I really believe 100%
Thanks for sharing
Take care
SwtNyx (1 stories) (21 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-14)
Wow that one was a wonderful story. I woul've been scared to hell if that would've happened to me! Thanks for sharing it with us. 😊❤
JamesRobiscoe (419 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-13)
Angelwing--You tell your story beautifully. Did you ever tell your husband or your father?
I come away from the tale wondering how it was that Elbert never located his wife in her new facility? This apparent fact alone raises a packet of questions about what abilities (and rules?) under which the dead exist. Miss Brady might've been nonchalant, but your encounter was quite different from hers.
rhodes68 (14 stories) (1596 posts)
 
15 years ago (2009-01-13)
Angelwing (what a beautiful name!) thank you for sharing an amazing story and a very well-told one!

I think Elbert was definitely not ready to leave the physical world. In fact the ones he left behind were those that showed him the way home again. "He drifted off to sleep and never woke up", his wife told you and maybe that too was one of the reasons he kept coming back... To do what he never had a chance to do and that is to tell his wife he trully loved her and that death is not the end but the beginning of a more perfect existence.

He finally got to say "goodbye".

May he rest in peace.

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