My husband, three children and I live in NW, Arkansas. In a small house on Beaver Lake, when we first moved in our house in 1991 every time we left home we made sure all the doors were locked, when we can home the back door was standing wide open. So I feel like we have our very own Ghost and we have called it Matilda since the first time it has let us know that it is here. We don't know if it is female or male as we really don't care which gender it is. I refer to it as a she because she always hid my hair brushes and I have purchased around 10 hair brushes since we purchased our home. Once she broke the mirror in the bathroom, I heard a large crash and went to see what it was and there I found the broken mirror.

We have two girls and one boy at home with us and my husband said that he thought I was crazy that he didn't believe in ghost till one night around 10 o'clock or so we had the children in bed and he said that Jimmy was playing around in his room instead of sleeping and Steve, my husband went to see what Jimmy was doing and then the ghost passed through him and it scared him half to death and I said to him are you ok and he said that something happened to him when he was standing in Jimmy's doorway, he said something passed through him and made all the color fade from his face and all the hair was standing up on his arms and such. So he decided that maybe I wasn't crazy after all.

Then another time Matilda hid my hammer it took me a few weeks to find it. So one day shortly after we moved in I stood in my livingroom and said We are here to stay so get used to it, and once in a while Matilda will let me know she is still here and I let her know that I am too still here and we get along just fine and the children think it is cool that we have our very own Ghost.

The children when they were younger would have friends come and stay the night and would have me tell them about our ghost and the other children are afraid at first and I tell them don't be afraid of Matilda she is a cool ghost and the only thing is she loves to do is steal hair brushes so I hope yours doesn't come up missing. I have always believed in ghosts or spirits or what ever people call them and I'm not afraid of them. I would love to know who or what gender my ghost is but for now I'm happy just calling her or it Matilda.

Thank you for putting my story in the Castle of Spirits.

Submitted from: Marti Bowman, Arkansas, USA