Church Ghost

On the day after Thanksgiving 1998, I was at my friend Cassidy's house. She had gone to her grandparents house on Thanksgiving, so they were having a second Thanksgiving dinner at home. After we ate, Cassidy called her friends Jessica and Danni. They were sisters, Jessica was our age, 13 and Danni was 12.

Jess and Danni met us at the cutway between the streets and we decided we were going to Dairy Queen for ice cream. (I don't know why we wanted ice cream at the end of November when it was about 25 degrees out.)

It's a little hard to explain where the houses, church and Dairy Queen are, but I'll do my best.

There is a main street called Lynch that has the shopping center to the left and to the right is Our Lady of Hope Church near the road and at the top of a hill and long field is the Our Lady of Hope Catholic School. The front of the church faces the development where Cassidy, Jess and Danni live.

The easiest way to get to the Dairy Queen is to walk to the street that the church's front faces, walk through the parking lot and through the field to the main street and then across the shopping center's parking lot. The backside of the church faces the field, but there is an entrance there.

We were walking through the field in somewhat of a line with Cassidy in the front, Jess and Danni in the middle and me in the back. I don't remember what we were talking about, or if we were even talking at all, but I remember thinking that it was really dark out. As we were right in front of the entrance of the church I looked at it. I don't know if I was expecting to see something or not. But there was a man there. He was older, probably around 70. He was wearing corduroy's, a flannel shirt and a floppy fishermans hat. I didn't think anything of him being there for a second, but then I realized the church was closed and I could see right through him. He was in full figure, but misty. The church has glass doors that lead into a small lobby and then more glass doors that lead into the church. I couldn't tell where he was. I was puzzled and not sure if I was really seeing him or not.

"Do you see that?", I asked to no one in particular.
I don't remember if it was Jess and Danni that spoke but they said, "You mean that man?". She said it clear as day, like there was a perfectly good reason for a transparent man to be standing there. I looked back at the man again, half expecting to see nothing, but he was still there. He didn't really have much of an expression on his face, just lonely and tired.
I don't know if Cassidy looked at him or not, but she started to walk away from the church and said, " Come on guys."

We went to Dairy Queen and ate our ice cream. We didn't mention the man, and I have no idea why. When we were outside of Dairy Queen, Danni suggested we go to CVS and buy a white candle and hold a seance to find out about this guy. Not knowing what else to do, we all agreed.

We went back to Cassidy's house and sat on her back porch. We lit the white candle and realized none of us knew how to conduct a seance. So we all sat Indian Style holding hands and concentrated. Since I was the first to see him, I had to ask all the questions. I said, "What is your name?". After a minute I opened my eyes and looked around. Cassidy and Danni said Robert at the same time Jess and I said Bob. I asked his age and we all came up with the number 76.

We never mentioned that night again until this past summer. Cassidy was spending the night and we were sitting in my living room trying to scare my boyfriend and we ended up telling him the story. He thought it was weird, but didn't say much. About a month later he asked me about it. I told him the story again and he told me he asked someone who used to go to the school about a man named Bob and she gave him a puzzled look and said Bob was a janitor. But he died a long time ago, he was around 75. When he told me that, I started crying without knowing why.

I've been past the church many times and I've never seen Bob again. I don't know if it was a real man who appeared to be transparent, or if we really saw the deceased janitor. Either way, it was an interesting experience.

Believe it if you want to. Sorry it was so long.

FEELING OF SADNESS