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From: "Copen-Spears, Kim" (kim@mgmt.purdue.edu)
To: obiwan@netcom.com
Subject: FW: Unexplained Happenings
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 16:45:50 -0500
Hello everyone.
I've been reading everyone's strange experiences for a long time but have never contributed.
Here's my story:
My husband and I purchased our first home in October of 1994. It is situated about a mile from Purdue University. The previous owner was a woman in her 80's who moved to a retirement complex. The house is a small, 3 bedroom cottage that is just over 60 years old. On the day we moved in various family members and friends came from Ohio to help us. My best friend, who is not prone to supernatural experiences, kept seeing a movement out of the corner of her eye. As we continued to move items over the course of the day she started asking everyone if they had seen the cat that was hanging out by the back door. She thought it had wandered into the house. We kept teasing her about "seeing things" but didn't take it seriously. We have two cats of our own, who were back at the apartment, and just thought she was "projecting" their image into the new environment or was seeing "spots" because it was a very sunny day. You know, when you go in and out of bright light you sometimes see dark spots.
As we began the task of going through items and cleaning the house more thoroughly, I noticed past traces of a cat in the 3/4 finished basement; pieces of old food, cat hair around the basement windows. I remember laughing and thinking my friend had been right, but really didn't think too much more about it. In the course of our cleaning up we moved an old steel desk that had been left in the basement. As I pulled out the drawers to move it, a packet of papers fell out the back. It was a detailed account of all renovations done on the home by the previous owner's husband. We also found packets of insurance letterhead paper and envelopes. It seems he was an insurance agent who ran the business out of the basement. I guessed, and I found out correctly, that he must have died around 1979 because all the paperwork stopped that year.
Time passed, and we began doing projects around our house, i.e. painting, wallpapering, carpeting, landscaping. My parents came and helped us on a number of our projects because, although my husband is a hardworker, he isn't very comfortable doing those types of "projects".
Anyway, our first child, Katie, was born last October. As most of you past and present parents know, we both were surviving on less sleep and more stress then normal. I kept seeing little movements out of the corner of my eye on different occasions but dismissed it all as a by-product of our new lifestyle. One afternoon, about 2 months ago, I went out to run some errands leaving my husband to watch the baby. He put her down for her afternoon nap, set up the baby monitor, and headed to the basement to do some work on the computer. About 45 minutes to an hour later he heard footsteps upstairs coming from the front bedroom (we had turned this room into our dining room.) He went upstairs, thinking I had returned only to find a sleeping baby and no one else around. He said he was a little spooked by the incident, but not wanting to give the situation any more "power" by acknowledging it, didn't say anything to me about it.
Well, four days ago, I had my own experience. Saturday night, my husband ran to the grocery while I gave the baby her bottle before going to bed. I had just put her down for the night and was sitting in the living room reading when I heard a noise on the basement stairs. We have metal handrails on the basement stairs that make a distinct groaning sound when you use them. I called out my husband's name, rationalizing that he must have quietly returned, and I missed hearing him come in. It's amazing to me how our mind's rationalize unexplained things! I got up and checked the stairs, and of course, he wasn't there. I went to the baby's room, again rationalizing that she must have done something to cause the noise, because I knew it wasn't me! She was asleep.
After my husband came home, I told him about my experience and that's when he told me about the footsteps. As we continued to talk, we both admitted we had seen movement out of the corner of our eyes, heard what sounded like inaudible whispers last fall, at night, when the attic fan was running (he mentioned this to me before, but I wouldn't admit that I had heard the whispering too), and also had the sensation that someone else was in the house at various times. We also both concluded that the feeling was not negative. The funny thing is, we both thought it was the same person...the previous owner's husband. We think he probably isn't too happy with some of my husband's "half _ssed" fix-it jobs!
So, that's my story. Not as exciting as some of the one's I've read. I still don't know how I feel about the various unexplained happenings. I'm a firm believer in a Heaven and Hell, and I really don't think our spirits hang around...but I can't explain what's happened in our home either! I can't dismiss them as the creaking and groaning of an old house because our house has a steel post foundation and very firm floor boards.
Kim in Indiana
Kimberly J. Copen-Spears
Purdue University
Krannert Executive Master's Programs
1310 Krannert Center, Rm 237
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1310
(765) 494-7595 NOTE NEW AREA CODE