Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007

Ghostly Encounters

Odd sights, sounds signal of spectral visitors?

Sometimes, ghosts run in the family. Sometimes, the family runs from the ghosts.

Many times, getting the willies is just a matter of geography.

But whenever things go bump in the the night (or day), people never forget what made their skin crawl and their hearts jump.

Readers have heard the clatter of children dismissed for the day from a school closed more than 50 years ago. They have seen phantom trains that stopped running years before pull into foothill stations. There were demons trapped in mirrors and ghosts caught in bed by an unwary photographer.

Here are their real-life Halloween stories, with some possible answers by a woman considered an expert in paranormal circles.

Otha Lee Faltermier is a former Modesto county librarian and business owner. She says she never believed in ghosts until 30 years ago. Now she has three stories to make folks shiver.

“My son and I returned to Modesto in March 1977. My family still lived here. In August of 1977, I was working in the library. I bought my current home in December of 1977. I moved in January 1978. I felt something strange in my new home, but couldn’t put my finger on it. My two grandchildren asked me if I believed in ghosts. I asked, ‘Why?’ They both said, ‘Every time we come here we feel someone’s here.’

“I noticed I sometimes felt a touch and there wasn’t anyone around. One day, I was running the vacuum cleaner. I definitely felt a weight on my shoulder and back. I had heard if you tell a ghost to leave, it will. So I said, ‘Go away, I have had enough.’ The weight lifted and I have never again felt the pressure.”

Faltermier’s second story:

“Shortly before my second husband died, we were sleeping and something woke me up. There at the foot of our bed, a man was standing. I could not see his face because the room was dark, but the large windows on the side wall in back of him let light in through the sheer curtains. A neighbor had a yard light on. I saw the outline of his body clearly. I beat my husband on his shoulder and he raised up, and I pointed and said, ‘There is a man at the foot of the bed.’ About that time, the man disappeared, but my husband had gotten a glimpse of him.”

Faltermier’s final chapter:

“My friend had a minor surgery and I took her home with me for overnight. She said she wanted to sleep on the couch. So I brought her a blanket. Next morning, I went in to make coffee. I asked her how she had slept.

“She looked at me and said, ‘OK until something woke me up. I looked around and saw an old lady sitting across the room in your rocker.’

“I said, ‘What old lady?’

“She said, ‘Don’t ask me, she disappeared while I was looking at her.’”

Kim Meu of Modesto was a young single mother working the night shift when a ghost routed her from her rented home.

“About seven years ago, I used to live at a house on 13th Street in Modesto. Every night I would have dreams, seeing a dead cat, a skeleton in the back yard and a dead baby in the basement. During the day while I was asleep, I would hear male voices telling me to get out of this house.

“And when I used to sit up using my computer, I heard noises like someone was coughing or a little boy saying, ‘Mama.’ But I never thought anything of it.

“Until one day, after a year of living in the house, at about noon or 1 p.m. — I was working night shift — and my little boy was about 2 years old. He woke up and said, ‘Mommy, I want to watch TV.’ I was fully awake. I walked him to the living room and turned on a cartoon for him.