Family Ghosts: An Interview With My Mother

Okay, so this isn’t actually an interview, I asked her to tell me about the ghost stories in the family. So she spoke and I listened.

The females on my fathers side seem to be most sensitive. I don’t know if it’s the same on my Mother’s side. If it is they certainly don’t talk about it.

So I knew that we had a lot of family ghost stories, but I couldn’t remember all the details. So when my Mother was visiting last week I asked her about them.

SO many!

So I decided that every once in a while I would do a “Family Ghosts” post that features one member of the family, or one story. For the first one I am focusing on my mothers experiences. I had heard a couple before from her, but some I had NEVER heard and was really surprised with.

So lets start with when she was a teenager.

One night as she was sleeping she was awakened by something. She didn’t know what had woken her up, but she was wide awake. As she lay there the room began to get cold. It was winter and my Grandfather turned the heat WAY down after everyone went to bed, so she naturally thought this to be the reason. As it became colder and colder she started to get concerned.

She sat up thinking that she would sneak out and turn the heater back up. When she sat up she saw that the room had started to get foggy. It was getting thicker by the second.

At this point she was starting to get scared and she lay back down and covered her head with her blanket. She lay there for a few minutes then lifted the blanket to see if the strange fog had gone.

She was horrified to see that not only was the fog still there, but it was so thick she could barely see the opposite wall of her room. (She was a teenager, she had painted her walls black LOL)

At that second she saw someone standing at the foot of her bed. It was a woman. Her features where sort of generic. Very non descript. She had blonde hair, and she was wearing white. She could only make out an outline of arms, mostly it was just a torso and the woman’s head.

My mother was terrified. She tried to scream, but couldn’t, she tried to get up and run, but she was frozen with fear. She just laid there and stared at this woman who stared right back. This went on for a few minutes. My mother closed her eye tight thinking that she was imagining things. When she opened her eyes the woman was still there. Hadn’t moved an inch. The fog swirled around her. She didn’t even seem to blink.

My mother again closed her eyes and started praying to God to make it go away. She stayed like this for about 5 minutes. Eyes closed clutching her blanket close to her body.

She began to notice the room getting warm. She slowly opened her eyes and looked down at the foot of the bed. The woman, the fog, and the cold were all gone.

She didn’t tell anyone about that for a very long time. She didn’t even tell her Mother, (My Grandmother) about what had happened. Like I said, my mothers side of the Family doesn’t talk about that sort of thing. So my mother kept it to herself.

This was one of a few stories she told. Another was of a little girl ghost who lived at the hotel she worked for. This little girl liked to play in the elevators. apparently when the hotel was built an old homestead had been unearthed. A grave was discovered of a little girl. This is rumored to be why the little girl roams the hotel.

Of all the stories she told me that day, there is one that meant the most to me. I will finish this post with that story.

First let me give you some background information so you can understand. The actual story is pretty short.

My Aunt Mardean was my fathers sister. She and my mother were very close, more like real sisters then sisters-in-law. So close in fact that I was named after her. Mardean was one of the sweetest women. I remember her only a little as I was just a little one then, but what I remember was how much she loved everyone. How she treated everyone with such love and respect. You could not help but fall in love with her spirit.

One night everything changed. Mardeans husband lost his mind. They had an argument and it ended with him murdering my Aunt. He left her to bleed to death while their little girl was alone in her room. Just about 2 or three yrs old. It was awful what that little girl had to go thru. He was caught quickly. I can assure you that had the cops not found him, he wouldn’t have lived long as Mardean had many brothers who adored her and were ready to take care of justice on their own.

So back to the ghost stories.

That night that Mardean was taken from us my mother did not yet know. She was lying in bed listening for a car to pull up in the driveway. My oldest brother had gone on a school trip and was due back that evening. She was in that Mother sleep where you are sleeping, but you are alert to things going on around you.

My mother heard tires on the gravel. She sat up and saw a car pull up. The headlights shown in the window. My mother recognized the car to belong to my Aunt Cathy.

My mother thought this was strange, Cathy visited often because they lived just down the road, but never a surprise visit in the middle of the night. She turned to start toward the hallway to go open the door for Cathy when she saw a form starting to appear in front of her.

Mardean stood there, solid now. She was so solid in fact my mother reached out to touch her. She touched nothing.

Mardean looked at my mother with such love that my mother instantly started to cry. Mardean spoke to her in a calm and tender voice.

She said, “I’m Okay.”

After the last word she started to fade. It only took a few second for the vision to completely disappear. As soon as she had completely faded my Aunt Cathy came into the room. She was covered in blood. She informed my mother that Mardean had been murdered.

I completely believe all the stories my mother told. While she spoke there was no pausing for effect, no dramatics, no stopping to think, she just talked plainly. I could tell that she believed it all whole heartedly. So I do as well.

Mommy D