Another fun ghost story for you.

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North Royalton

Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 21:20:07 -0800 (PST)
To: guestbook@ghosts.org
yourname MZZZZ B
email MZZZZ B@aol.com

I lived in a home in North Royalton, (surburb of Cleveland), Ohio for twelve years. All twelve years that my husband and two children lived there, we were not alone! For many years I was the only one in the family who could see our visitor-(I think we were the visitors!), but we all experienced paranormal phemomenina.

>From what I could piece together from neighbors and other sources, the
home was built by a police officer who lived there with his mother and father. This police officer had been assigned to the famous Sam Sheppard case, and was one of the detectives who investagated the case. This, however, has nothing to do with the ghost who was cooccupying the premisess. The home was built in 1946. The ghost must have been the owner of a home which was there before the present home was built, because he was dressed in the clothing of the mid 1800's.

My first indication that we were not alone came one evening about six months after we moved in. My oldest daughter was about a year and a half old at the time, (my son had not been born yet). We were in the basement doing laundry, when a heard a loud "thump" on the floor above me. My husband was working at his night-time job, so this really unnerved me. I was certain someone had knocked over one of my ceramic pots from one of the end tables in the livingroom. I was so frightened that I backed by daughter and I, as silently as I could, up the basements stairs and out the back door. We ran to a neighbors home and I called my husband to tell him that someone had broken into the house. While he was on the way home, a few neighbors decided to investigate. Two men from the neighborhood went into the house and searched it. When my husband came home fifteen minutes later he too joined the search. The only thing they found was my heavy hand made ceramic pot laying on its s! ! ide on the floor of the living room. This pot was always kept on the end table and was positioned in the middle of the table. It weighed at least six pounds, (more like ten pounds), and could not have vibrated off the table and on to the floor by a passing truck from the near-by freeway and the neighbors suggested. Besides, it near ended up on the floor again in the next twelve years I lived there!

After this incident, strange things began happening on a regular basis. For one thing every night, and even during the day, we would hear cars coming up our 350 foot gravel driveway, and run to the window to see who it was only to find nothing there! We were not the only ones who experienced this phemomenia. Anyone in the house would hear cars come down the driveway and run to the window in the kitchen to see who was arriving. During the twelve years we lived in the home, we tried to put it on the market twice. Both times we had Real Estate agents do open houses at the property. After the first open house each agent had, they told us they would never have another because they kept hearing cars come up the drive and no one would be there. There was also a time when I was speaking on the phone in the kitchen with my back facing the driveway and was sure I heard a car pull up the drive behind me--no one was there. There was another time when I was cleaning our family room! ! addition, which was between the main house and the garage, and heard my husband's car with his defective muffler come up the drive and in to garage next to where I was cleaning. I waited for him to come in the house, and finally went into the garage to see what was keeping him--no car and no husband. The garage was empty.

I would constantly see the young man in the black top coat and stove pipe hat out of the corner of my eye. On occassion I would also see a woman, but her sightings were rare.

As I said, many personal items in our home disappeared on a regular basis--at least one or two a month. Some times our ghost would return these items, and some times we never saw them again. The first time disappearance happened with decorater hand towels from the half bath on the second floor.

The home was a bungalow, so the second floor had one large bedroom, the attic, and a half bath. We were using this bedroom as the master bedroom at the time. The children's bedrooms were down stairs, and they never had a opporturnity to venture upstairs. One morning when I entered the bathroom I noticed that one of the decorator towels I had hanging on specially mounted towel rings was gone. Because I used these towels for decoration only, they were never used. I searched the entire house for the missing towel, and never did find it.

Another mysterious disappearance happened on the second floor as well--this time in the attic. My husband's grandfather had given him an antique .22 rifle before he died. Because I hated guns, I asked that my husband keep the rifle in the attic and that he never buy amunition for it. He promised to oblige, and placed the gun between two studs in the attic directly under the light swicth to the left of the attic door. One day, after we had guests staying in the second floor bedroom, I noticed the rifle was no longer where it was always kept. My first thought was that our guests perloined our rifle. I was very upset by this prospect, because the guests were relatives. To make sure I wasn't falsely accusing my cousin with taking the rifle, I removed everything we had stored in the attic in search of the missing weapon The rifle was not in the attic! Two weeks later I had to return to the attic and when I switched on the light, there was the gun, right where it had always been--between the studs under the light switch. My son had not been born yet at this time, and my daughter was only two years old and couldn't maneuver the attic door, so I was sure she had no part in the mystery. My husband also claimed ignorance. After that occurance, things came and went on a regular basis-- some came back and some never did.

Now though all this my husband kept telling me that there had to be a reasonable explaination for everything that had been happening in the home, but he could never come up with that explaination! The house being haunted was not an option for him--he didn't believe in anything he couldn't see!

Until one evening when I was at a class at the local college. He was in the bathroom taking a bath. Both children were in bed sleeping and he was relaxing in the tub. Suddenly he heard our two small dogs start barking. He assumed they were barking because I had come home from my class, (although they had never done that before!) After a few minutes, the dogs both became quiet at the same time. He waited to hear me come into the house, but minutes passed and he did not hear the back door open. What he did hear, however, was what he thought was someone in the living room crumpling up newspaper and dropping it to the floor. He was sure it was me doing this in an effort scare him. He called out my name several times, but only heard more crumpling of newspaper as a reply. After about five minutes he decided to get out of the tub to investigate, fully expecting to see the living room filled with balled up newspaper. What he saw, however, was an empty room, with our dogs under the couch looking as though they've been drugged. He never again told me I was crazy when I told him the house was haunted!

As I said, I saw the main ghost out of the corner of my all the time. Every time I would decend the stairs from my bedroom I would see someone peeking over the half wall above the stairway. When I would jerk my head around to see the area head-on, no one would be there. I would also see him at times while I was walking through the home.--again I would jerk my head in the direction of the spector, and no one would be there. It wasn't until I had sold the home and was a week from leaving it when the ghost appeared to me head on. I was alone in the home cleaning it. While in my son's room I turned toward the hallway and saw the ghost slowly pass by the door.

Naturally I was very upset, because as I said, I was alone in the house. I took a few deep breaths and waited to see if it would pass by the doorway again. When I saw nor heard nothing after a few minutes, I shrugged my shoulders, and continued with my cleaning. About ten minutes later I was in the livingroom cleaning in front of a huge picture window which overlooked the driveway and pine trees in front of the house. As I was kneeling in front of the plant stand, dusting it, I noticed that the atmosphere was changing around me. It felt like it did when taking off in a airplane at first. This was enough for me to stop what I was doing and pay attention to what was about to happen next. As I waited, I realized that the air had become very thick, as if it were water. I felt as though if I were to move my hand and arm in a swimming like jester, I would be able to feel the air move around me as if I were in a pool. As I thought this, I felt something move though the house, starting at the back door and continuing on to the living room and stopping right behind me were I was kneeling. It was a frightening experience to say the least! Every hair on the back of my neck stood straight out, as if I were in a cartoon! Although I was extremely fightened, I did not feel theatened by this invisable apparation. I said in a very calm voice, "I know you don't want me to leave, but I have to go. You may come with us if you want, but I do have to leave here." With that the atmosphere of the house returned to normal, and I felt the ghost leave the area. I never saw nor heard from the ghost again. I think it was his way of saying good bye.

When I saw the entity pass by my son's doorway, it was moving slowly enough to get a good impression of what he looked like. He was about 5'6" tall. He seemed to be about 30 years old, wearing a full beard and closely cut hair. He was wearing a long black overcoat, and a tall, black hat. I never felt theatened, (except for that first encounter with the cermic pot!), but rather that the ghost pertected us thoughout the years we dwelled there.

My husband worked a second job for most of the years we lived in the home, so my two oldest childern and I were in the home alone most of the time.

Just about every home in the neighborhood had been broken into at one time or another during the twelve years we lived in the home, but although our home was 350 feet back from the street and surrounded by trees, our home was never molested by burglers.

Many other incidents occurred in the home during our tweleve year stay. Some are very interesting.