Lady

I was only seven years old at the time in 1977 and can still remember this experience as clear as if it were yesterday.

We were a family of ten living in this old farm house built in the 1700's. It had three bedrooms, a kitchen, bath, two parlors and one laundry room on the first floor and two bedrooms and a large sitting room on the second floor.

In the spring of 1977 my parents decided to put a second bathroom in, with all the kids it was just too much. A close relative of my dad's who was a plumber found a vacant space on the second floor beside one of the chimney's. It was a sealed off room about 6'x8'. He was able to fit an old-fashioned claw foot tub in there along with the other necessities...toilet, sink, and mirror. During the construction he found some things in between the floor joists. It was an old pair of jeans, a carpenters apron, and a ball. We all thought that was strange.

The bathroom was finished by the summer. It was so cozy and always warm in there, on account the chimney was part of one wall. My sister and I shared a room abutting that bath. We always left the bathroom light on during the night as it gave a nice soft glow so that we could find our way.

One night I was awoke by a terrible thunderstorm. I lay there in my twin bed so nervous from the storm that I decided to jump in my sister's bed with her. It took a while but I finally fell back to sleep. Awoken by the pain of a full bladder I sat up in her bed and as I leaned forward to get off the bed, someone came out of the bathroom. I looked and just didn't recognize the figure there in the soft glow of the bathroom light. It was a woman. She immediately looked at me and headed right towards me. I stared and asked "what do you want?" and she smiled. I could not see any color on her, but her teeth were so white! She wore a long flannel type night gown with lace at ends of the sleeves. She had long curly hair and wore a bonnet. It was so strange, I thought how come I can't see the whites of her eyes but her teeth are so white. She had a beautiful smile as she proceeded toward me with her arms held out as if she were going to embrace me. When she did not answer, I became frightened. I didn't know who the heck she was. I hit my sister but she didn't wake up! I laid down as close to her as I could, totally speechless as the Lady reached at me an began to tickle my stomach! I felt her, she was cold, but I could feel her! I pushed her hands off my stomach and rolled right over my sister onto the side of the bed closest to the wall. I buried my face in the pillow and held my breath! I was scared stiff! Didn't move an inch and at some point in the night I actually fell asleep.

I awoke in that same position to my sister punching me saying "You peed my bed!...Get out of here Tinker Bell!...Maaa!!!" I tried to explain but she just didn't care she was so pissed off at me.

Less than a year later during the blizzard of 1978 our house burnt down. Although it was 2 am when it happened, we all made it out alive. One day while our parents were building a house on the same lot about 20 yards away from the old burnt house, I saw an old man an old woman drive up to the old house. I walked over to them and asked if I could help them. They both smiled in a sad way at me and asked what happened to the house. I told them the story and then asked them why were they so interested in the old house. They told me they grew up there. They were adopted by their Aunty who had fostered many other children of the state there at that house. They proceeded to tell me how much she loved children and they also told me that she had died upstairs in the middle room, (the sitting room), in her rocking chair. My heart stopped for a moment as I thought to myself about the Lady I saw that night. I don't know why but I didn't say anything to them about what I had saw. I guess they kind of just confirmed to me that she was just that, a Lady, and that was good enough for me.

I was no longer spooked by the memory of her visit but understood her visit to me, a seven year old child.

Many years later I was talking with one of my other sisters and she began to tell me about a woman she had seen at her bureau one night there in that same house. She said the woman was picking up her perfumes and smelling them. She looked away for a second then back again and she was gone....