One major problem you encounter when living in a haunted house is that things are always disappearing! SOMETIMES you eventually find them (in some odd place) but we lost things that were never to be seen again. I still wonder where they went? It’s a good question…WHERE do our physical things go when they seemingly disappear into thin air? Another dimension? Do they simply dematerialize and exist no more? It’s a mystery. For sure.
In our haunted old farmhouse, we lost many different items: toys, tools, books (the first book I wrote is among those lost items!), spices. Yeah, spices. I remember one day I decided to make an apple pie. I took a brand new can of ground cinnamon out of the cupboard and set it alongside all my other ingredients (I like to have everything RIGHT THERE when I need it!). My brothers broke out into a argument in the living room and so I went in to take care of it (I was babysitting at the time). After telling them to “knock it off”, I went back to the kitchen to finish putting my pie together. I noticed right away that the cinnamon was gone. Since all four of my siblings were in the living room when I went in to break up the fight, I knew they couldn’t have taken it. I looked everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE for that darned can of cinnamon. Nada. Zip. Nothing. I offered my greedy little siblings a dollar (big money back in the day!) for the one who found it. Still we got nothing. We never did find that can of spice.
There was another time that I had a picture of my grandparents blown up into several 8×10 photos. Since we didn’t have any picture frames to put them in when I finally received them in the mail (back when you had to send away to have such things done!), my mom told me to put the pictures up someplace safe. I put them behind the big-assed antique mirror on the dresser in my parents’ bedroom. One, the kids (the only ones I thought I needed to worry about destroying them) never went in my parents’ room. Two, the mirror was so heavy it wasn’t going anywhere and it would protect the pictures from getting damaged. Three, it was a GREAT hiding spot. My mom called my grandparents and told them the pictures had arrived and my grandfather came right over to get his copy. I ran upstairs to get them…GONE! We pulled that ten-ton (or so it seemed!) dresser from the wall, pulled out the drawers, checked the entire room…nada. Zip. We got nothing. Even when we finally moved out of that house, we never found those pictures. Bummer that because there are precious few pictures of my grandparents posing together.
BUT, the best story I’ve saved for last. I was twelve at the time and had a pet parakeet. We had one of those bird cages that hung from it’s own stand. We kept him in the corner of the living room. My parents were going away on a trip to Florida (without us kids which was a real bummer) and so the five of us got farmed out among friends and family. I stayed with my mom’s friend Beth who lived just up the road from the house. She had several cats and told me not to bring the bird. I was quite concerned about leaving him in the house alone but my grandfather assured me he’d go over every couple days or so and check on things (my parents were supposed to be away just over a week I think). So, even though I felt uneasy about leaving my bird, I had no choice but to go with the plan. Then came the phone call.
My Gramps was at the house and he wanted to know where the bird was. I told him he was in the living room where he’s always been (my grandfather was a frequent visitor to our home so he was quite familiar with everything). Gramps said he wasn’t there…that the cage and all was gone! Beth and I jumped in her car and skiddaddled down to the house to see for ourselves. Sure enough…my bird was gone. The newspaper was on the floor where the cage usually sat (he was a messy little thing!) but the cage, the pole it hung from…all was gone. Beth and Gramps decided that mom and dad must have found someone to take him. I didn’t think it likely, they didn’t much care about the bird and were not concerned in the least about leaving him in the house alone. But what other explanation was there?
So, days later my parents return and my mom calls Beth to tell her she can bring me back home. I urge Beth to ask my mom about my bird. I can remember this clear as day, “Judy, what did you do with Debbie’s bird?”, there’s a pause and then Beth looks incredulous (I think to myself, Oh no! Something has happened to him!). She looks at me and says, “Your mom says the bird is there at the house.” Then Beth says, “Did you bring him back because he’s been missing since you’ve been gone.” Again Beth looks incredulous. My mom tells her they didn’t do anything with that stupid bird. She claims it was there in the corner of the living room when they got home (a couple days early, mind you, because they said they missed us kids!). Beth and I hop in the car and head for the house. Did we think my mom was lying to us about the bird being right where he should be? I don’t know, but we had to see for ourselves. Yup, there he is, fat and happy in his CLEAN cage, his food and water dishes full. My mom doesn’t believe us that the bird has been missing and we don’t believe her that she didn’t have something to do with his disappearance! We never did settle that argument I don’t think because neither side could figure out any other explanation. It remains one of the strangest mysteries we encountered in that farm house to this day!
On a side note, I have to add how this tale of my parakeet came to an end. A few months after this incident, I had a dream that I was playing with my bird (I was trying to train him to sit on my finger) and after awhile, I closed his cage and started walking away. Just as I got to the door that leads out to the front hallway I felt a flutter near my head and ducked. It was my bird. He flew right out the open front door and off into the big blue sky. Disturbed by the dream, I stayed away from him all day. Finally, in the late afternoon, I decided if the dream was going to come true (I’d had several other dreams about things that ended up happening the very next day!) it would have done so already. I went to my bird and tried (unsuccessfully) to get him to sit on my finger. I was sure I closed his cage because, again, I was worried about that dream! So, as I was heading out of the living room, I felt something flutter over my head and I ducked. It was my bird. He flew right out the open door and was never seen again. End of story.
It’s quite frustrating to lose things YOU JUST HAD in your hand, but it happened all the time in that house. The five of us kids got blamed for a lot of it but I have to tell you, even we were baffled. Many times we discussed the situation among ourselves for really, we were quite honest with each other. Oh we had the occasional upset when we’d think my oldest brother was the guilty party (he really was a bit of a brat at times) but for the most part, we knew it wasn’t us taking all those things, or moving all those things, or opening all those doors or … well, you get the picture. Those danged ghosts probably got a kick out of their pranks but we didn’t much enjoy them. No.
So, has anyone else had that sort of experience? I’d love to hear your stories. Until next time, many blessings to all and Peace Out!
Related articles
- Living With Ghosts, Part II (deborahjhughes.com)
- Want to Meet a Ghost? (deborahjhughes.com)
Deborah,
I finally got a chance to read your book ‘Be Still, My Love’ and I LOVED it! People began to get irritated at me because I could not put it down to do things they thought I should be doing…like cooking etc. I CAN’T WAIT for your next one!
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That’s so awesome, Karen! I’m so glad you liked it, truly!! I just sent Hidden Voices to the publisher…fingers crossed that the editing part goes quickly!!
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Loved your post! I see where most your readers thought the bird was strange, and indeed it is! However, the pictures of your grandparents going missing, and your grandfather came to feed the bird and it was gone…I was curious, did your home belong to your grandfather at one time? What I wanted to share with you wasn’t something going missing, but instead, My daughter was in her room two weeks ago, writing (she’s my writing partner) when all of a sudden, a Nick Nack (3″ porc. doll) went fying thru the air and hit the door cracking the doll’s face.She jumped up nervous as it was quiet and the sound caused her to jump and went over and seen the doll on the floor the face cracked. The doll has been in the same place for eight years, never moved except to dust. She was alone in the house. When I got home, she was in her room, the entire room pulled apart and her furniture in the hall. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me the story and said, “I’m looking for anything! A rat, snake, something that could have hit the doll on the nightstand or made this happen.” I asked her what was wrong, because I could see she was upset. She said to me. I guess I pulled my room apart to prove a point to myself. An animal would have hit the table knocking the doll down onto the floor by the table. This doll had to fly nearly six to seven feet. It was hurled mom! How can that happen? It spooked me out big time! I couldn’t answer her and that didn’t help her nerves any. She slept in the living room the next three day’s when she finally decided she wasn’t going to let anything chase her out of her room. But it still freaks us out. I was wondering what you think of this or if you’ve ever had anything like that happen to you? Thanks
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So sorry to take so long to reply! Just got back from vacation and the computer we brought with us would not hook up to the internet! Honestly, what’s the use of it? So anyway, I just read your comment and I’m wondering…how old is your daughter? Sounds like a poltergeist sort of thing occurring with the doll and that seems to be more common around teens. I’m not sure why, there’s lots of theories. Has anything else happened? What was she writing? The doll being thrown must have been done to get her attention. Spirits can grow stronger when people are in an intense state of meditation (even her focus on her writing is a sort of meditation…her mind is occupied fully, allowing her sub-conscious some freedom to interact with the spirit world). Has she lost anyone recently or had she been thinking about someone who has passed? They might have come through to let her know they are still “alive” and well. This might really be the case if nothing else has happened. She certainly doesn’t need to fear it. Did the doll come from someone who passed? Just trying to figure who it might have been that wanted your daughter to know they are around.
It’s scary when something happens that we can’t easily and logically explain away. I KNOW. Been there and done that. Many times. Here is where you can pretty much go with you “gut feeling”. If you don’t FEEL threatened, or that it was a BAD thing, and your fear is more from not understanding or knowing how such a thing could have happened, then you can go with you “gut”. Our spirits know all. Our soul is in the know on these matters and our soul communicates to us through our feelings. Especially this is so during meditation!
I’ve had things disappear (thing I JUST HAD), searched all over for them and then found them (minutes later) right out in the open…in a place I had just searched! I’ve had loud noises happen…knocking mostly (the dogs bark so it’s not just me!). My daughter had an entire roll of toilet paper unravel right before her eyes up in our bathroom! I’ve had things fall off shelves (but not hurled) without any good reason for them to do so. I’ve had doors shut or open, windows close, and chairs move. All sorts of little things have occurred. Spirits are all around us. Most of them are not in any way bad. Some are but you’d know it. Your gut would be giving off warning signals. Trust me!
As far as the spirit being connected to my grandparents, I don’t think so. We eventually contacted them and they were folks who used to live in the house. It’s a strange thing to have them stick around after death. The biggest mystery is not whether ghosts exist but WHY they do! I know this much…I hope when I cross over…that I move on to better things. Hanging around “here” just sounds so boring! Unless I do it to watch over those I love. I could see myself doing that. But, dang, it’s frustrating to try and do that while in the living body…can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to do it in spirit!!
I’d be curious to know if anything else occurs! Let me know. Blessings to you both.
Deb
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Hi Deborah: Sorry I’m just getting back to you. We’ve been working on cleaning our third book. Thanks so much for answering my comment. To answer your question, my daughter, (who is also my writing partner) is 26. I want to thank you for bringing out something that had never occurred to me. You asked me if we had someone pass. YES! We had a horrific tragedy hit us not long ago, when we lost three family members in a three month period. My father, (her poppa whom she was very close to) my uncle, (his brother) and MY grandpa( their father). The three male heads of our family all died within tweve weeks of eachother. It devistated our family, but especially my kids. We found out, that the business they owned, (construction) had exposed them to asbestos, giving them the mesothelioma cancer (hope I spelled that right, mouthful). The reason I”m thanking you is, that thought had never occurred to us. Silly I know. But sometime’s it helps when someone from the outside looks at a situation as you did. When I read my daughter your reply, she teared up and asked me. “do you think it could have been poppa?” and I smiled and said. “it’s a nicer thought than what we had imagined. The comments you made about hoping you could move on and that you could see yourself watching out for your family…..well, my dad was the exact same way, constantly looking out for us. We are inclined now to agree with you. And if it was my father, then at least I know he’s still watching out for us. Thank you for your kind words, and open mind.
Inion N. Mathair
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The parakeet story! Truly, that has to be the oddest one I’ve ever heard, especially since he returned with a clean cage and full bowls. Weird indeed!
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It’s quite bizarre. The food and water dishes being full is very odd…how? And the fact his cage was clean!! Amazing. Honestly, I’ve never known what to make of this. It’s almost too much to believe and yet it DID happen.
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We have lived with ghosts. We have heard them. We have seen what they have moved or changed or dropped during the night, or maybe it was the day. But I have never seen a ghost or talked to one, and I wish that I could.
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Who knows, though, Caleb, you may have seen one and not even realized it! It’s amazing enough to notice things they’ve done and to hear them! As for talking to them…that is rather easy actually. Ever heard of “table tipping”? It really works. But you have to have an open mind for it. Or, you could get a “sensitive” to use as a go-between. You could also try automatic writing! That you can do on your own.
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No similar experiences here. But I can’t help wondering if all these “lost” items end up being apports in seances? 🙂 I’ve been reading about apports a lot lately… they have to come from somewhere. Is there record of any cinnamon showing up in a seance? 🙂
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I wonder the same thing. Do they take things and send them elsewhere? Maybe this is why people find the most unexpected things in the strangest of places! I heard that apports were more popular back when Spritiualism was really big and it’s not as common today. I would love for apports to occur during a seance! We should post the question…”What sort of strange things have you found…things you KNOW shouldn’t be there?” Or “Has anyone ever had an apport occur? If so, what was it?” And then I could say, “If anyone got a can of cinnamon…it’s MINE!” lol.
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Ha! Great idea! Can’t wait for that post! 😉
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Loved the story Deborah. I fortunately don’t recall having any missing item issues with my ghost experiences and my incidents were few (faucet turning on, walking up steps, other strange noises) Finding the dimes from my deceased uncle is my biggest and most treasured experiences. I really need to share the story. Thanks for another great ghost story, I have had things misplaced and now may need to wonder if it’s me or something supernatureal:0)
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How lucky not to be missing anything!! It’s one of the most common occurrences. The faucets turning on…another big thing!! I love that about the dimes, though. That’s really special.
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The ghost that stayed at my house, Mike, used to love to hide things from my sister and me. He continued the pranks when we would come home after we grew up and moved away. I remember once when my sister and I were trying to get ready to catch a flight and Mike kept hiding the things we were needing to use. He hid my shoes (which I plainly remember putting by the wall) and then he hid my sister’s hair dryer. I spoke to the air and scolded him, telling him to give them back. When we turned around, everything was where we had left it!
Another time, we found a hider ghost in a hotel at Vegas….and he was apparently a dirty old man ghost. He hid my sister’s makeup and then her bra. He kept picking on my sister for some reason, even locking her out of the room despite the key. Once again, I scolded into the air and they came back. All of these stories are told in full in my book, ‘Growing Up Weird: Confessions of a Closet Medium’.
http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Weird-Confessions-ebook/dp/B005S1ZHDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340299977&sr=8-1&keywords=growing+up+weird
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Wow, what a story! How did you know his name was Mike or did you just call him that?
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I’ve had similar experiences of trying to find something I really need and then having it show up in the most obvious of spots…in PLAIN sight. It happened not too long ago with keys. Couldn’t find them anywhere…so where do we find them? In the middle of the floor…out in plain view! I’ve got to get your book, Karen! It sounds like an awesome read!!
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Ah, yes…we’ve lost jewelry that has reappeared in obvious places right in front of us a week earlier…like on a computer keyboard…something that was used all during that week. I went to have a reading two years later. My father came through and said that it was him! 🙂
There’s been other things as well. I really can’t lose my keys ALL those times, can I???
Nice blog ❤
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The world of the paranormal is very strange and fascinating! No, you couldn’t have possibly lost those keys all those times! lol
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