Happy Halloween - A personal account of a haunting...

Ghosts, spirits, apparitions, forms from other dimensions, whatever name you choose to call them, I believe that they exist. Yep, there it is in writing. Call me nuts, but all it takes is an experience or ten to solidify one's belief. There are only so many times every hair on your head can stand straight up before you accept and face whatever it is trying to catch your attention. Quite frankly, when we lived in Batavia it took a few years before I was able to take action, and boy did it get out of hand.

The first question while walking through the home we purchased in 2004 was related to ghosts. Intrigued since childhood, yet without any evidence to solidify the belief, there was a desire to inquire about anything fishy having had happened in the homes we looked at. I would make darn sure that we weren't buying the next Amityville house. The previous owner reassured me the house was quite pleasant. It was either their departing or my arriving, but creepy things began to happen almost immediately after moving in.

It started in a simple fashion. A fearful feeling at night that someone was watching me from the hallway. So strong a feeling that I hated to even walk in the hallway at night, but had to nonetheless because my baby's room was opposite my bedroom. Then there was the basement...boy did I HATE that basement for I had the same feeling of being watched down there as I did on the top floor.  Anyhow, logic told me that there is no such thing as ghosts...buck it up kiddo and put on your big girl pants on, it's all in your head.

A turning point no doubt, upon the arrival of my second son the following year, these energetic disturbances became more apparent. The same feelings of being watched remained, but now by a man that I would see from time to time. He was tall, brown hair, dressed like a pioneer, and liked to stand at the top of the stairs. My babysitter would claim to have thought she saw something too...when we compared notes as to what and where, they always matched up. At night when lying in bed, on a few occasions I heard children's footsteps running in the hallway downstairs. It was multiple pitter patter sounds on the hardwood floor, an unmistakable sound to any mother or caretaker. Another occasion, a babysitter heard 'me' call her name from downstairs, but I had not arrived.

Don't get me wrong, there are many ways one can justify strange things happening.  I have had every skeptic in my house during this time period and EVERYONE always felt odd. It was unnerving to me to hear non-believers claim to be skittish because of how apparent these ghosts were. And it just escalated the more time went on. Clearly my fear and the fear of others attracted them. From random pictures just falling and breaking with no one around, nail still in the wall and hanger remaining perfectly in place on the frame, to lights and televisions turning on and off at any given time. Banging that would shake the entire house, toys and puzzles making sounds synchronized with lights turning on in the playroom, my waking up to children that weren't mine standing beside my bed looking at me, the list goes on and on. It became apart of our everyday life. Then 'they' started to mess with my children.

When my boys reached 2 1/2 & 3 1/2yrs of age, they began to talk about 'The Boot'. The boot was a man that they were terrified of, especially at night. My eldest always escaped his room like 007. I could never get him to stay in his bed long enough to fall asleep but if the door was closed, the screams he could produce were just awful. Clearly, it was fear. The youngest boy ALWAYS stayed in his bed, as if frozen. His room was where I had first felt something unnatural and he claimed to be terrified of his closet. They would tell me that the 'Boot' liked to scare them, that he was in their rooms. One night at bedtime, my eldest said "shhhh, daddy. Do you hear that? It's the Boot, he's coming." My husband, who never over thinks things, really squirmed with this comment. This Boot lived upstairs and in retrospect was probably the ghost that the babysitter and I saw often. But should anyone, living or not, threaten my children there will be no limits to what tactics I will use to change the situation.

As Divine timing would have it, a dear friend of mine came back into my life the summer of 2008. One day when she was over, her little girl began to cry and point at something, yet nothing we could see. She said that she had a 'not so good feeling' about something in the house but wasn't sure of how to approach the discussion. At that point, all history of odd occurrences came flooding out from me and thankfully my friend didn't run. She even knew of someone that could help bless and clear the house, seal it up so that these beings would permanently go away. Without hesitation I agreed and a date was set for a house blessing.

The day before three women were to bless my house, I was on the phone with a friend discussing what was to go down. Alone in the house and putting on makeup, in the middle of a sentence 'someone' coughed clearly and loudly from right behind my body. Completely freaked out, I began counting the hours to peace. Not certain of what was to come, at this point I was willing to try anything...dance like a chicken, sacrifice a lamb...ANYTHING!

Finally the day arrived for the clearing. The details of 'how' it was done aren't important, but that day as the women moved through the house closet doors slammed shut, cabinets opened and closed, screams and all sorts of energetic disturbances were unhappy, yet removed from my home. I will NEVER forget after all was said and done...that for the first night in years my eldest son slept in his bed without getting out at all, while my youngest,now unafraid of anything, chose to get out of bed freely during the night. It was a huge difference. I slept better and felt a lifting in the air, just simply a better vibe with an angelic twist.

I'm forever grateful to those women who taught me how to maintain an energetically clean home and now I love helping those that have lived through similar experiences. Don't get me wrong, we still had some things happen here or there, but nothing like before....

Happy Halloween!