Ghostly Encounters, Flowers of Rememberance
My best Friend Benny
Benny was born on April 28,1977, the only one of 7 kittens to live. His mother refused to have anything to do with him, so he became my baby. I guess you could say we made his mother feed him till he was old enough to drink from a dish and eat catfood. He wasn't to old when he would cry what sounded for all the world like "Ma" and come looking for me. Thats how close Benny and I became. In the 5 years Benny lived with us the bond only grew.
October of 1982 we had to move and the apartment we had to take didn't allow animals. Benny, his aunt Angel, and adopted brother Billy Jack were taken to the humane society. I felt like my children were being torn out of my arms, and all I could hear was Benny cring "Ma". It took awhile to get use to not having them there. Not having Ben follow me all over the house, sitting by feet or in my lap when I was sick. He used to sleep curled around my shoulder with his head at my ear and his arm around my neck. I missed the sound of his soft purring in my ear putting me to sleep.
I often wondered where they were and how they were doing. I'd say a prayer that they were with good people. People would say as the years passed that Benny had to have died. I did't think so. I knew that when he crossed over, I'd know. I wasn't sure how, but I'd know. Then about 2 years ago, I was watching television when this conmercial came on for a cat food. The one that says cats have many jobs, comforter, companion. Watching it, I burst into tears and looked up at a picture I had on the wall of Benny. In the picture, he seems to be smiling, It was as if he were telling me he was allright. It took awhile for me to stop crying.
The next 2 days I thought of him often and told him he could come home if he wanted to. The morning of the third day, I lay in bed after waking up wishing I didn't have to get up, when I felt something on the bed. Something had jumped up on the foot of the bed and was walking up aling my side, to stop and settle down at my shoulder. As I lay there feeling a warmth stread through my body, tears slid down to soak into my pillow. Smiling, I turned my head to where it lay and said softly; "Welcome home BenBen, I've missed you so much."
I had told my boyfriend that I knew Benny was gone, but not that he'd come to visit me. That night as we lay in bed, he turned to me ans said; "I just felt a cat kiss my cheek". All I could say was that Benny must like him.
We haven't had such noticable things happen since, but I feel him with me at times. When I feel sad or depressed, or if I'm not feeling well. Those were the times when you couldn't keep him away from me. Now no one can make me get rid of my BenBen ever again. He knows he's welcome whenever he wants to be here and we don't mind him making himself known. It's kind of nice having a cat you don't have to clean a litter pan for or take to the vet. But most of all, its nice to have my best friend back.
LOVE YOU BENNY!
A Lonely Little Boy
When my son and I moved into our first apartment alone, it was in an old school house. I didn't know until a few months after moving in that it was haunted. An upstairs neighbor told me about him. It seems that when the places was still a school, a little boy felt from the top floor over the railing. He landed in front of what was now my door, and before they could get him out of the building, he died. The other tenants who knew of him called him Bobbie. No one knew what his real name was or how to find out.
He was your usual 8 year old, fooling around and playing tricks on people. He liked to play with the water when you were in the shower, always the hot water went off, he never hurt any one. You could leave your apartment with all the lights off only to find them all on when you got home. My cousin, who lived upstairs, came home oneday to find his stereo on.A friend of mine ,at the time, who played drums ahd his drums at my apartment and would play along with the tape player. Bobbie liked to make the music speed up and slow down while he was playing til he gave up and let him play with the tape til he was done.
In the 3 years we lived there there are 3 times that really stand out in my mind. The first was the first time I actually saw Bobbie, and the only time. I'd seen his little shadow from the corner of my eye before, but never got a clear view of him. I had a screen door and in nice weather the other door was always open. On this day all the kids in the building were either in school or out somwhere with their parents. I was standing at the sink doing my dishes when I looked toward the screen door. Looking in at me was a little boy with brown hair,long bangs and longish in the back, something like a dutchboy haircut. He had big brown eyes and he just stood there looking at me. I said "Hi" and he gave me a little smile, and I turned back to my dishes.
As I put my hands in the water it hit me, this little boy wasn't one who lived here and I hadn't heard the heavy doors open or close. Besides, he should have been in school. I went looking for him. No one else was home in the building and there was no little boy in the building. I hadn't heard the doors open and these were the old heavy doors. The door to the gym was locked. The little boy was gone!
Only when I got back to my door did it hit me about Bobbie. He had been standing in the same place they said he landed when he fell and died. It spooked me a little, but then I remembered how he looked and his little smile. He was nothing to be afraid of. He might be lonely with all the kids gone for the day.Before I went into my apartment I stopped and said "Thank you for letting me see you Bobbie. The kids will be home soon."
I never got to see him again while I lived there, but he made himself known in many a laughable way., and he found a friend in my 5 year old son who would play games with him and talk to him.That was the first time that sticks in my mind.
Did You Say Ghost?
The second time Bobbie left a deep impression on my mind was when my friend the drummer stayed for the night one night. I hadn't thought to tell him about Bobbie and this was before he'd brought his drums to my place. So he had no forwarning of what was about to happen.
He went in to take a shower, and I told him if the water acted up to just tell Bobbie to leave it alone. He wanted to know who Bobbie was, but I just said to tell him to leave it alone and not worry about it. Sure enough, not 2 minuets into his shower, I heard him tell Bobbie to leave the water alone. I admit I sat at the kitchen table tring not to giggle to loud. I knew Bobbie well enough to know that that wouldn't be the last of it.
It was quiet in the bathroom for a little, when I heard my friend call me sounding not quite like himself. When I asked what was wrong, his answer was; "I just saw a face in the mirror, and it wasn't mine" I shouldn't have, but started to laugh and told him not to worry it was only Bobbie.Then he asked who Bobbie was and I told him; "He's our ghost"
I laughed outright when I heard his reaction to that.
"DID YOU SAY GHOST?"
"Yes, but he's just a little boy, he's only 8 years old, He won't hurt you."
I give my friend credit, he didn't run from the bathroom or the building. He came from the bathroom white faced and shook up, but he sat at the table and asked me to explain about how I came to have an 8 year old boy ghost in my apartment.It didn't take him long to get use to him after that. As I said when he had his drums at my place, Bobbie would fool with the speed of the tapes when he was tring to play drums to them. It was their game, and Bobbie always won.
Somebody In the Attic Waved
"What is wrong with you? Did something happen?"
It took him a little to catch his breath, but between him and his friend we got the story like this.
They were coming up the road from the store when they happened to look up at the attic window. There in the window they saw something glowing. When they looked closer they could see that it was a person and they were waving at them. They didn't wave back, they ran like the dickens to get to my apartment.
I told him to sit down and calm his butt.
"It's only Bobbie. He won't hurt you"
"Who is Bobbie?"
"He's our ghost."
"YOUR WHAT" Out came another beer, and down he drank it."Did you say Ghost?"
"Yes I said ghost. He's a little boy. He isn't going to hurt you. "
I then had to tell Bobbie's story to them both and explain why he was still there and what kind of things he did around the building. When my cousin said he sleeping with the lights on that night, I didn't have the heart to tell him they might be off in the morning.
He did get use to Bobbie after awhile and when Bobbie left toys in his apartment, he would bring them down to my son. None of us ever forgot the first time he saw Bobbie.
The building was sold in 1987 and we all had to move out. When we left I hoped Bobbie wouldn't be to lonely. The last family moved out in March I believe. I had moved to another town and wondered about the little boy with huge brown eyes. I was there for a yearand a half. Then I moved back not far from the school house that was still empty. The drummer was now my boyfriend and lived with me. One of the first things we did once we were settled in, was to walk down to the school house and tell Bobbie that if he were lonely there alone, he could come stay with us.
Walking back home it seemed that a little hand slid into mine and I couldn't help but smile.
4:00 the next morning I woke up to find the hall light on. Bobbie wasn't lonely anymore.I said goodnight to him, rolled over and went back to sleep.
Maryanne
The first time I ever actually saw a 'ghost' was in 1977. That was the year I got married. We lived in a small 4 room apartment upstairs in my mother-in-laws house. I had been told that they had ghost, but at that point all she was to me was stories. Things changed once we were living there. I'm just glad I was warned a bit ahead of time.
It started with quick shadows I'd see cross doorways from the corner of my eye. She seemed to enjoy doing this whenever I was reading a scary book. Then things would be missing. Anything from clothes to dishes. My husband told me to ask "Maryanne" , the ghost for help. What could it hurt, I asked. It was like someone tapped me on the shoulder, or wisphered in my ear. "Look over her." I'd look in a place I knew I'd looked in before, and there would be what I had been looking for. Needless to say I always said "Thank you."
Things like that were easy enough to get use to, but there was more in store for me. Maryanne's family, as the story goes, knew she had money in the house. They wanted it, so as I uderstand it, they got rid of her by hanging her in one of the upstairs rooms.Everyone always thought it was the room we used as our livingroom. That is until one morning when my husband went to work at 6:30 and I went back to bed. I hadn't been in bed long when I had this strange feeling that I wasn't alone. Moving the blankets to look toward the foot of the bed, my eyes were drawn up toward the ceiling. There, just beyond the end of the bed, hung a body.
My first reaction was to pull the covers back over my head.Then I thought, "It has to be Maryanne. Ok, I know she won't hurt me" So I peeked out at her and squeeked out; "Ok, I see you Maryanne. Now could you just go away and let me get some sleep?" I covered my head again and prayed she'd go away. When I looked again she was gone. I breathed a heartfelt "Thank You." and drifted off to sleep. When my husband came home I told him they had the wrong room. He looked at me funny until I told him exactly what had happened that morning.
That wasn't the last time I would have an encounter with Maryanne, but it will always be the one I remember the clearest.In the three months we lived there she and I became friends of a sort and I think of her often now and hope she's happy.
As I went around for Memorial Day to the different cemeteries and graves, I began to really think about what I was doing and why. Flowers of Rememberance, that's what I planted. As long as you remember a person they never really die. The form, shell we touch dies, wears out, but the spirit that made that body who it was never dies. It goes on to live another life, either here reborn in another body, or on another plane.
Death is not an ending, but a new begining, a chance to wash the slate clean and start over. A time to rest the spirit til it feels ready to move on. In that time the spirit, if it chooses, can visit those left behind. It can decide to be reborn in another body into another life, or to act as a guide to the living or to other souls who have passed through the veil. Far from being an ending, death is more like the pause that refreshes, an incident in the middle of a long life.
At one time I feared death. It seemed so final. But I've learned from Bobby, Benny, Maryanne and others that it isn't something to be feared. We don't cease to exist, We may feel we've lost those who have gone on ahead, but they're really as close as whisper,as near as a sigh. We need only let go of our grief and the belief that they are gone, and they can reach us.It's not the same as having them here living, but they are here, and they are still part of our lives.
Many times I've thought of my parents and what they would think of things. Each time I do this, I feel as if they're telling me. My mother would be happy for me in the home I have made now. This is what she'd hoped for when I first went on my own. My father would sit and laugh with me as we fed the squirrels and birds. Thoughts like these bring them close to me and know they are here. I am never really alone and I know it. I may feel alone at times, but that's when I talk to them or think of them, and they are with me.I can never lose them because I will always remember them and love them.
My Father "Pop"
He taught me to know it would rain by looking at the leaves.
He played jumprope with a lonely little girl,
He understood how to help others
My greatest memories of my father
When I think I've lost him,
Forever "Pop"
My Little Friend
A while ago I became a member of a ghost hunting group.. Needless to say, I don't need any proof that ghost exist, I've seen and felt them. But this was a chance to be with like-minded people,hopefully anyway.
We've gone to many places,houses, historical sites, but cemeteries are our favorite. We always seem to get something at cemeteries.
On the night of June 8,2001, we were at a cemetery. One spot was giving very low readings on the thermal scanner which tells where there are cold or hot spots that could mean paranormal activity. Everyone was taking pictures. I took a few not expecting to get much.
A few days later I got the film developed and was looking through the pictures. There were the usual orbs and lights, one with ecto, nothing to be overly excited about.
Then came the picture that I call my baby. On the left side you see ecto in motion and different forms, the usual, but in the lower right hand corner, there as plain as day, sits a little figure. They seem to be sitting on one of the smaller stones.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Others had gotten figures, but not like this one. Of all the pictures I have, this is my favorite. Now I want to go back to see if I can find the stone and maybe find out who this person is. Til I do, he or she is my little friend, and I thank them for letting me take their picture.
Since that time I have left that group and started my own. If you are interested in seeing our pictures and learning about what we do, our web site is www.geocities.com/spiritquesters
Up Date on my little person. I got to go back to the cemetery and find their stone. The name of my little person, is Cordelia A. Morey.
You can sign my Guestbook here: Carvings in the Wood
What deer and bobcat sounded like.
What a calm voice and strong helping hands could do.
and showed us the joys of sliding down
a winter hill on the hood of a car.
that needed it, and showed us how.
Yet he knew when it was best
to let people help themselves.
are his love, his quiet courage and strength
that seemed to carry all of us through rough times.
His little laugh, and the sparkle in his eyes.
The way he was always there for us if only for moral support.
I remember all this and more,
and realize he's not gone. He's right here with me,
in my mind, in my heart,
forever a part of my life.
