If you didn’t think I was crazy after my last post, here I am giving you another chance. You’re welcome in advance, friends! Have you seen the Netflix documentary series, “Surviving Death?” If not… I encourage a viewing. It’s a scientific look at near death experiences, mediums, reincarnation, etc. I turned it on thinking Ginge would think it’s ridiculous and be over it within an episode, but he was very dialed-in, and it was really interesting. I bring this up, because after beginning this series, my wheels started turning. Is our house haunted?
Hahahahha… ok let me back up here. We’ve had an issue we’ve been dealing with for the past year or so. Our two and a half year old has been having night terrors. And not just like every once in a while. Multiple times a week sometimes. It’s not like crying, then going back to bed. It’s like crazy screaming, no talking, eyes open, but not really reacting or responding to anything. We have tried everything (yes, including Melatonin hahaha). Sometimes, petting Ollie would pull him out of it and calm him down, sometimes not. We’ve tried keeping him in the dark, taking him in the light, offering food, water, turning on the TV. Sometimes he will scream with no words for 20-30 minutes. He will eventually come out of it and start talking and acting completely normally. From everything I’ve read, he isn’t truly awake during this time, and probably won’t remember it in the morning… But it’s heart-wrenching every time. I know night terrors are fairly common for toddlers, but the frequency and intensity are disturbing. I’ve spoken to his doctors about it, and they don’t have much to say, and I even took him for an unrelated EEG due to some weird staring/zoning out episodes that I was concerned might be seizures, and everything came back normal.
Recently, even after he’s “woken,” from these night terrors, he will start screaming again as soon as we step foot with him back in his room, refusing to go in, but will go right back to sleep if we put him in the guest bed (before that was Grey’s room), or now, in our bed. Also, more recently he’s actually just straight up refused to go to sleep in his room to begin with. We’ve tried it all. Switching to toddler bed, switching from toddler bed to queen sized bed (maybe that thing is uncomfortable), giving him blankets and pillows from our bed where he seems to sleep just fine, trying to lay in his bed with him til he falls asleep, etc etc… He refuses. Screaming, banging on the door to get out, craziness. We eventually started letting him sleeping in our room (by himself til I go to bed), and as much as I kick myself for allowing this, we were at our wits-end, and to note: he has not had one night terror since.
I read a post recently about a mom who was complaining because her toddler kept coming into her bed in the middle of the night and her husband wouldn’t allow it. How does she make this stop? I read through all of the comments even though this isn’t exactly our situation, and an overwhelming number of responses expressed an opinion something like, “if your child doesn’t feel safe or comfortable in their room…” and this got me thinking. Could he not feel safe in his own room? I’ve seen things floating past the monitor at night since he was a baby. I’ve excused them as large dust particles, but always thought they look like those kinds of orbs you see in some photos when people say, “Oh look! A ghost!” I’ve never admitted that this thought crossed my mind to anyone, not even Ginge, cuz you know, this is just crazy talk. And now I’m probably creating a stretch… but here I am in my own head, combining the night terrors, this orb, and the fact that he’s just NOT sleeping in his room… yet, I still didn’t say anything.
Then… we started watching “Surviving Death.” They discussed children having night terrors and being able to sense something in their rooms. I finally admitted to Ginge that I’ve had this thought before. I decided to look into the history of our house, and see if someone had possibly died in here. Maybe their spirit was still hanging around in Trace’s room.
First, I googled. “Did someone die in my house?” Oh, perfect, a website specifically for this purpose. Just $11.99 for the report. Hahahhahahahhahahahaa. I’ve definitely spent $11.99 on dumber things before, but I’m sure I could figure this out another way. Googled my address… no news. Continued my search, and there was the piece of advice: ask your real estate agent. Thankfully we are still besties… so…. I did (thanks, and sorry, Robert).
Well we’ve already been here three years, so that was a dead end. Next Step: enlist the girlfriends. I got on my Penn State group chat, and all I had to say was, “I wonder if someone died here,” and the full-press investigation was launched. Within 10 minutes, Emitch and Emma had narrowed it down to two specific people, then one. It was really one of the finer internet-stalking experiences I have witnessed. It was Yvonne. She died while living here in 2012. Emma found a photo and an obituary which read: “she died in her home,” and she looked and sounded super sweet, so I was relieved it was her. I said hello to her and everything. I even sent a pic to Real Estate Robert to let him know we figured it out. Flash forward. More digging. False alarm. That was not the right Yvonne in the photo and obituary… just one with the same name who died in the same year. Crap… do we have a mean Yvonne? Who was our Yvonne and where did she die? Was it in the house?
Ginge, yet still not convinced of my spirit theory said, “you know the easiest way to figure out this info, right?”
“No, how?”
“His name’s Doug and he lives about 50 feet from us.”
Ohhhh… Doug. Our next door neighbor. He’s lived here since the houses in this community were built, so he obviously would have known of Yvonne. And he loves to talk. Duh, Doug would have so much insight. Def better than the google machine. I told Ginge we needed to talk to him next time he was outside. His response: “Correction… YOU need to talk to him.” 🙄
Fine, I wasn’t getting any help here. Doug was my last resort for info. Ginge warned me that he doesn’t take Doug for the type that would believe in ghosts or spirits and that he will probably think I’m nuts, but I didn’t really care. I needed to ask.
All of my texting/internet investigating was going on while I was sitting in the parking lot of Living Spaces waiting for Trace to finish his car nap in the backseat (yes, we’ve resorted to car naps on weekends). After he awoke, and after our unsuccessful bookshelf shopping experience, we came home, and LO AND BEHOLD, there was Doug, working outside near his garage, hobbling around with his cane and knee brace.
I ran in the house with Trace in my arms, ready to dump him on the couch, excitedly announcing “DOUG IS OUTSIDE! I GOTTA GO TALK TO HIM!” Ginge was mid poop-emergency with Grey, and I had no time to waste, not wanting to miss Doug, or get Trace involved in the poop fiasco, so I decided to just take him over there with me. I turned my phone’s voice memo recorder on and scurried over. As I approached, I noticed another man, with a bike, standing next to Doug chatting with him. I introduced myself, and it turns out he’s a neighbor down the street who has lived here for 27 years. I said “oh good, I’m here for some neighborhood gossip.”
I begin by asking Doug if he knew Yvonne. As I mentioned, Doug loves to talk, so I got Yvonne’s full back-story, when she bought the house, who inherited the house when she passed away, etc. I asked if he knew where she passed away. He told me it was at Tri City Medical and described her embolism and how sad it was, but he obviously wasn’t catching on that I had an objective for this conversation, so he continued on, describing every person who has lived in our house before Yvonne, as well as after. I recorded this entire conversation, but to spare you the unimportant details, I trimmed to get to the meat of it. I could have just summarized it, but I chose to include the recording, so you could hear the tones in their voices and their exact words. I do want to point out, that at no point before this clip starts, did I mention anything about ghosts or anything to that affect. It was literally just Doug describing of all past homeowners over the years. At the beginning of this clip, Doug is finishing his description of the original owners of our house whom they referred to as “Tuna,” and the other man, Don randomly jumps in and says, “You don’t think your house is haunted or something, do you?”
In case you couldn’t listen to this, or couldn’t make out certain parts, I’ll also summarize the convo:
- Our neighborhood was built on an old Indian burial ground that was discovered when they dug up earth for the golf course
- This was kept a secret from the city, because they didn’t want to halt golf course construction
- Doug asked if I’ve seen “the Indian,” and when I say no, I haven’t seen anything, he says “the kids will see it…motioning at Trace,” and that his son used to see an “Indian” walking around the house at night when he was young.
- The reason I said “I’m getting the chills” at the beginning is because Doug had a bewildered look on his face, and whispered that his son started seeing things “around that age,” while pointing to Trace who was in my arms.
- While asking if Trace ever saw anyone in our house, Doug says, “At night, maybe? Walking down the hallway?” Don chimed in, “a cowboy?”… I started getting creeped out and wished I hadn’t actually brought Trace along. I guess I wasn’t expecting the convo to go in this direction.
- They fully believe kids see/sense things we don’t see.
- They were emphatic that it is NOT their friend Yvonne’s spirit in my house (sorry for assuming, Yvonne).
- They do not think I’m crazy and they completely believe there are “Indian” spirits as they call them, (Native Americans, c’mon guys), just “cruising through.”
I came home and relayed all of the info to Ginge. I think he was flabbergasted and did not expect me to return with any sort of story like that one. He just said, “Do you feel justified now?”
Yes. Yes I do.
The next day my sister met me at a crystal shop, we bought a bunch of appropriate ones with the guidance of the staff, and I saged the shit outta my house.
I have many more thoughts on the “Surviving Death” series, but I’ll save my reincarnation theories for another day. I welcome any thoughts/experiences/medium recommendations. I’m neck deep now. Gimme all the crystals.
Til then…
xoxo
breathe in, laugh out 