storyteller

This story deserves to be told now with Halloween just around the corner, and it has been told to me through out my youth.  This story from what all my relatives who were there say it happened and I cannot doubt it since they believe it happened.  It goes back to when my grandparents were starting their family somewhere around 1947, 1950.  They bought a house on the outskirts of Philadelphia, a fairly large 2 story, Victorian style house.  At the time they already had 2 of the 3 children they were going to have, and my great aunt lived with them also.  She was a great woman in my eyes, and also my favorite aunt!  She was employed by a large hospital at the time where she worked almost all her life.  She was a switchboard operator at that hospital.  Now the house was bought and moving in was taking place.

At the time my uncle was a young man about 10-13, And there was a lot of activity that goes on when moving into a new place.   A short time after moving in and getting settled in things started happening in this house.  Things would go missing such as jewelry, keys, coins, any thing shinny.  The top hobnails on lamps would turn up missing,  and at one point my grandmother would even question her own sanity.  Nothing could be left just lying around because it would go missing without even a trace that it was ever where it was left.   There would be the usual house sounds, and then some more unusual things would start happening, the house was always cold and damp feeling, And no matter what they would do it always smelled musty, or mildewed.  They had only been in the house less than a month and the Rugs, Sofas’, and Chairs would get musty smelling, and within a couple of weeks they would get this green looking mold or moss on them like the kind that grows on trees.  Even the drapes in the house would do the same.  

Back then they would drag all the furniture outside, they would use a broom to beat the fabric to get deep inside the fabric.  Then they would proceed to Scrub the items down with a solution that contained bleach thinking that the bleach would kill out the mildew. And then let the furniture air out, in the sun to freshen it up.    Well that would have worked under normal circumstances.  They would repeat this time after time, after time over the next couple of months, and things were getting worse and worse with noises that could not be explained, hearing chanting, bells, and drums like they were off in the distance.   Things moving from where they were placed, and also things going missing, and that dreadful feeling that they were being watched.  They were devout catholics and had even called a priest to bless the house……He was not comfortable in the house either, but did not say anything to them about it until later. 

My Great Aunt had been working at the hospital as a Switchboard Operator at the Large Hospital there in  Philly, and had come home late one night.  She went into her room and shut the door, she never locked her door to her room.  This was not an issue in my grandmothers house.  If the door was shut you knocked and waited for whomever to say “Come in”  that was just the way it was.  She did her normal routine to prepare for bed and everyone in the house was already asleep.  So she was just settling into bed with a book and a bedside lamp to unwind from work that evening.  She put the book on the bed-stand turned the lamp off, and had just settled down on the pillow.  Right then she felt a Coldness in the room, and was laying there all of the sudden she felt as if someone had their hands around her neck……..She couldn’t  breath!!  She was struggling with something that her eyes could not see!!

She was trying to scream, and gasping for air and knocked the lamp on the floor, and things off the bed-stand when just by chance my uncle was up and using the facilities and heard all the items hit the floor.  He rushed to her door knocking frantically and asking if she was OK, no answer and more stuff falling to the floor he reached for the door knob as he was yelling for my grandparents to come quick, and turned the knob>>>>It was locked!!  She never locks her door…..Now he is frantic, and my grandparents come running, all the lights in the house on the top floor are on, and everyone is beating on the door, no answer, just things hitting the floor, crashing and banging, metal sounds,  And they can hear the struggle, just can’t get to her,  my young uncle takes a run at the door with his shoulder down and bangs into it, the door flies open, as light floods the room, my aunt takes a deep breath, and gasp for air…..coughing, and crying, and everyone upset.  They all rush to her immediately, as she is now coming back from being a blue color.   She gets up and is packing a bag…..”I am not staying here anymore…..someone doesn’t want me here, they tried to kill me.”

My grandparents are questioning her as to what happened when my uncle noticed a perfect set of hand prints on both sides of her neck they are all red and purple looking and quite large as if they belonged to a man.   And they questioned her about the locked door……”I didn’t lock my door, I never lock my door”  as she is packing to leave….That is the moment that my grandparents decided to get out of the house….They just left that night.  They left almost everything they had right there that night.  They traveled to a relatives home and stayed with that relative until they settled in NJ.  After 3 months of serious thought  they put the house up for sale, and it stayed on the market for several months.  No one would buy it, it is like all the locals knew what happened there, and theirs wasn’t the first case for that house. 

It was almost a year later they had an offer on the house and the land, it seems that they were going to tear the house down to put a shopping center on the land……….They took the offer, and had to go  there to get  any of the things that they left if  they wanted  them prior to the tear down.  They went to retrieve  the items out of the house and watched them tear it down.  The next few days after they returned home they received word from the builders there that all work was stopped, because the land was being excavated  under the historical society now.  They found an ancient Indian Burial Ground under the foundation of the Old Victorian House, and had to turn it over to  Historical Society.  No one knew that the house had been put over the site of an Indian Burial Ground.  Now it all made sense to my Grandparents, and my Great Aunt why the things happened the way they did.  And after it was all said and done, the former neighbors came forward and told them of others who had owned the house or rented the house and how they never stayed for long periods of time. 

I hope you enjoyed my story and it is true to the best of my recollection of what was told to me growing up in a family of believers.  Have a great day and smile!                                                                                                                                                                                     

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