Like Father, Like Daughter

It all started back in the mid-60's when my father was growing up in the house that I grew up in. At night my father sometimes heard whispers of something saying his name, seeing shadows, record players going on and off, and things being moved for their original place. The creepiest experience, from my grandmother's point of view, (my father refused to tell me most of this until I was older), was when my father woke up in the middle of the night, sat straight up, and the pillow was stuck to the back of his head. He couldn't get it off, however. Then he started screaming. At that point, it just fell off after he screamed. My grandparents hired people to do some experiments in the house, and they found that they were centering around my father because he could channel the spirits easy. Even that if he wanted to, he could learn to communicate well with him. Of course, after experiences like that, he was paranoid of them and that was the last thing he wanted to hear. Especially being only 12 or so.

A few years later his father died and his body was cremated. His ashes were put in an urn and kept under my grandmother's bed. For some time, everything had stopped. Record players were to be turned on manually now, things stayed put, and shadows stopped moving around in the house. Then in the late 70's or early 80's my grandmother had come home from work. She put some potatoes in the oven, but went to lay down for a few minutes after a long day at work.

As fate would have it, she ended up dozing off. Then she realized that the potatoes in the oven should start burning now. She got up and ran into the kitchen and as soon as she reached the doorway she saw the dial turn on the stove and a white cloud-like structure float up through the ceiling.

After that experience, things calmed down until the early 90's. I was a little kid back then--5. My bed was in the same spot as my father's when he was growing up. I remember never ever sleeping next to the wall. I was afraid of it, and I still don't know why. I live in a different house as of December, and I like sleeping next to the wall now. I was talking to my cousin about this yesterday and she told me it was funny that I mentioned it because she never liked something about that closet.

Again, back to when I was a little child. Once in a while I could swear I'd hear something whispering my name. This happened till I switched to the room across the hallway when I was 10. I remember every time I heard it till I was older I would scream, or when I was closer to 10, I'd run into the den and sleep in there for the night. It wasn't until I was talking to my father about this when I was 12 or so that he finally told me that he heard the whispers of his name, too. It was one of the only times he ever told me about anything that had happened to him with the paranormal because it made him nervous and probably a little scared. I got most of this information from my grandmother and mother.

Now this takes place circa 1995. My mom told me this not too long ago. She was upstairs getting ready for work, and my father, grandmother, and I were downstairs. Our family dog had just ran away not too long ago, and to console me, my father's friend bought me a stuffed little white dog. (Our dog was a Samoyed.) The stuffed dog had a paw that if you squeezed it, it'd bark. I also had a pet cat, and no matter how many times he'd go into my room he would never go onto my bed. Well, my mom was in the bathroom doing her hair, when she heard the barking of the white dog. She knew that nobody else was upstairs, so she figured that the cat had finally gone onto my bed. She laughed and went to go catch him being on my bed, but she turned around and the cat was in the hall. She stared at him with her back to my bedroom and again the stuffed dog barked. So then she went to go squeeze it's paw, and it worked. My mother stood there for a moment, and then it barked again, as she was standing right in front of it without any pressure being applied to the paw. She took it off my bed and locked it in the den closet. From that day onwards, the cat would sleep on my bed every night.

After that, everything calmed down till 2002. I was in my bedroom that was now across the hall. I was up late reading when I thought I saw a short black shadow go from one side of a wall to the other, very quickly. I felt threatened--but I decided I was just overtired from staying up late and reading. I put my book down and hid under the covers.

That didn't happen again till early Summer 2002. I was up late, again, watching television. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw the same shadow run the same distance, then even more so. The shadow turned the corner and went along the wall that my television was on and disappeared at the end of the wall. This had been a second time so I was half convince that I was overtired again, and half convinced that something really was happening.

The last time it happened was around late July. I was watching television in my room. This time, it ran the same distance and ran the same length it had the previous time, and then turned the corner and ran along that wall until it reached the foot of my bed and disappeared. So by now I was convinced something was going on. It took me a while, but I finally told my father about it. He suggested that I should set up the video camera to see if this happened every night. I told him that I didn't honestly want to know.

That August my father passed away in a motorcycle accident. He was cremated like his father and his ashes were scattered in our field. For some time after that, nothing else had happened. Nothing else happened until late December of 2003.

I was sitting at my computer, where I could see the hallway out of the corner of my eye. I suddenly saw a tall, lean, shadow with a hat on along that wall. Moving, as if walking into my room. I didn't feel threatened as I had with the short shadows I had seen the year before, just nervous. I was the only one home, and I saw a shadow. I ran downstairs and didn't go back upstairs till my mother came home.

Until this Summer, that was the last time anything happened. Late this Summer my mother was again, getting ready for work. She left for work and I went on my computer. After a while, I turned on some music.

Maybe half an hour or so later I got off the computer, due to remembering that I still had a bit of Summer reading to finish up. As soon as I turned off my speakers I heard water running. I knew my mother didn't leave it on when she left because I was upstairs in the room next to the bathroom. Not to mention, I walked right past the bathroom to get to my room to go on the computer. I got up and walked into the bathroom. The cold water was on full blast. I shut it off, and that is the last occurence I have experienced in that house.

I am not sure what caused the odd happenings, to this day. Since I have moved from that house, I haven't experienced any other happenings. I am assuming more than one thing is in that house. There was the spirit that stopped dinner from being burnt, something that was causing my father havoc, and perhaps even a tall, lean man with a hat. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, but not needed.

Thank you for reading!