Users Scare Up 'True' Ghost Stories

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The Ghost Who Smoked Cigars

The first thing I noticed was a strong smell of cigar smoke and than the feeling of someone being there with me. You could smell the smoke both in the day hours and the evening hours. Some customers even made remarks about the smell.

My husband and I own a photography studio in Springfield, Miss. For the last 17 years the studio was located at one location. It was during this time that I found I was not alone in the studio.

Many nights working by myself to complete my work, "my friend" was with me and provided me with a feeling of peace and calm. Occasionally, I would feel a cool breeze; like a light touch on your arm. When the studio changed locations this spring, I asked "my friend" to go with me but he did not make the move.

Lois Haneghan
Springfield, Missouri

The Week from Hell

It was the week of weird events that convinced us we were living in a haunted house.

First, in June of 2002, my niece, Cheyenne, who was 2, was in her crib in her room and we heard the TV turn on real loud. My sister went into the room to find the baby sleeping and no one else.. She turned the TV off and just as she was walking down the hall it came back on real loud. So she stormed into the bedroom, grabbed Cheyenne, and shut the door. She would not sleep in that room for two days.

The weird events continued. While I was watching TV in the living room, I fell asleep and around 2:30 in the morning I felt my covers tightening as if someone was trying to suffocate me. I shot straight up and looked around but no one was there. So I went to my room and couldn't sleep for most of the night.

Thursday, we were sitting at the living room table having a family meal and we were discussing the weird things. A few minutes later I saw a spirit of a man walking down the hallway and into my aunt's bedroom. I would have probably thought it was from all the conversation except my cousin turned to me and said did you see that? We both described the same man and saw the same thing.

Well, the next Saturday, we were all settling in doing our thing and around 1 AM the front screen door started to bang real loudly and my aunt, whose window is next to it, looked out and said she saw no one and there was no wind. The banging went on for about 3 or 4 minutes and stopped. Since then we have not had any problems and have slept in peace, but for whatever reason that week was disturbing.

Eric Owens
Sacramento, California

The Spirit of George Street

When I used to live on George Street in Alton, Ill., in 1992, I could feel a presence in my apartment.

It used to be one house but it’s divided into three apartments. I lived upstairs in a big attic. When I checked out the programs on TV to decide what I wanted to watch, I saw a big black man with denim overalls and a white T-shirt walking in the hallway. I could tell he was a runaway slave because in Alton there were Underground Railroad slaves who ran away from the South.

When I came home from the hospital with my baby daughter, we were ready to go to sleep. I could see his face looking at my daughter. I immediately felt the urge to protect her from him. I was so scared. I couldn’t sleep very well. I decided I had to move out. I thought I was the only one who saw him, but when my friend stayed overnight she acted funny. I asked her what was wrong, but she said nothing.

One day I talked about the man in my old apartment. She said she’d seen him too. I think it was a slave who didn’t make it to freedom.

Karen Lewis
Novi, Michigan

Some Cats Have Seven Lives

Right after a dear sweet friend of my passed, I was on my way to visit his grave, 3 hours away, and saw a black cat in the median of a four lane highway. It was startling – to get home, the poor thing would have to cross the heavily trafficked roadway.

I had an incredible urge to stop and pick it up, but kept traveling.

On the way home--two hours away from where I had seen the black cat in the median--I saw another one. I knew it was a sign from my loved one that he knew that I had visited his grave.

The following year, I found a small black kitten outside, which I knew on sight I was keeping. It took me a half hour to realize that I found the kitten exactly a year to the day of the first time I visited my friend's grave. He had sent me a gift.

Right around Christmastime that year, I happened to see another black cat in the median. I knew it was Justin telling me "hello" and that he loved me. A few weeks later, I realized I saw the black cat at mile marker 73. He was a football player and that was his jersey number.

About nine months later, I saw another black cat in the same exact place. About two months later, I saw another black cat in the median.

I know these are messages from my loved one. I'm overwhelmed by the benevolence of the divine. We are not alone, nor have our loved ones actually left us.

Amy Zarichnak
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Continued on page 3: They saw Uncle Frank waving to them from the side of the road... »