November 27, 2010 in Offline Interviews

"She can stay…"

 

From the outside, Julie’s home is probably the most paranormally unassuming house you’ve ever seen, but as the old cliché goes, looks can be deceiving.  Built by a gentleman for his sister back in the 1930’s, it set beside the family farm for many years.  The farmland was sectioned off and sold off years go and houses built on the properties, and the brother’s farmhouse burned to the ground in the 1990’s.  The only surviving memory, on this block, to the family that lived here, is this quaint little house in a residential area one would least expect to hear such an active and enduring haunting.

Media Team Interviewers: Tony, Kat
Interviewees:  Julie and daughter Heidi

MGH-Tony – Maybe you can start by telling us how long you’ve been in this house?

Julie – We moved in, in May of 1987.   My daughter was 4 and my son was just a year old.

MGH-Tony -  When you first moved in did you know much about the history of the building?

Julie -  Not really, we just knew [from] the ladies that we were renting the house from, that the house had belonged to their aunt.  And the house was built in 1931.  Her brother lived next door.  There used to be a farmhouse next door. We knew she lived here her whole life.  She worked [and lived] in New Jersey and would be here during the summer time.  She retired, probably, some time in the 1960,’s, I would say is when I’d say she retired, and then lived here full time.

MGH-Tony – When did you first start noticing activity in the home?

Julie -  About a week after we moved in.  My daughter Heidi slept in the room upstairs that we talked about.  Her bed was positioned in a way where she could see the hallway.  And she came downstairs one night and she was crying and said she wanted her bed moved because she said there was a lady standing in the hallway watching her.

MGH-Tony – So what was your reaction when your daughter told you there was a woman in the hallway?  What did you think?

Julie – I was very unsettled.  It was very unsettling.   That kind of stuff, growing up I was always afraid of stuff like that.  Y’know, ghosts, and I’d never seen one.   Never really knew anybody that had seen ghosts.  But there was just something about this house, when we moved in here.  There’s just a presence in here.  You can just feel it.  Even if you don’t have psychic ability you can just feel it.  And I’ve had people who’ve gone upstairs into the room with the most activity and they feel heaviness in there.  The minute they walk in, it’s like “there’s something about this room that isn’t right.”  And I’ve had several people say that.

My husband and I were in bed one night, and we used to have a plastic cup on the sink.  And he woke me up, it was just the two of us were here, the kids were no longer living here .  The water was [running full] and he heard, like, a cup being set down on the sink. He came into the bathroom and found the water on.  He shut it off.  His toothbrush was in the sink.  And, course, he heard the cup being set down on the sink.

- Julie

MGH-Tony – So your daughter is seeing someone in the hallway.  Your son feels like there’s something in his room rattling his drawers.  What are you thinking about all this?

Julie -  Do we stay here?  Or do we move out?  We rented the house for 20 years.  But we knew the history of the house, at that point, from the nieces.  We knew that the spirit had to have been their aunt, that lived here. because she was the only one that lived here.  This house was built in 1931.   We knew she wasn’t a threatening presence.  And I guess we just tried to learn to live with it.

MGH-Tony – Was everybody in agreement that something paranormal was happening here?

Julie -  Yah, we all just, like I said, we knew something was going on. We really didn’t want to move.  We love the house.  My kids are sentimentally attached to the house because they grew up in it.  It’s really the only house they truly remember.  So it’s like, if it’s Eva, we will just learn to live with it.  We know she’s not going to hurt us.  But it does get unsettling sometimes when she does things that, we don’t always know if she’s angry with us, or if she’s just trying to play tricks on us, or something.  But it , sometimes it’s a little weird, y’know, the things that she’ll do.  But, I’m not going to leave, I’m going to stay here, I’m not going to move out.  And she’s welcome to stay so long as she behaves herself.

MGH-Tony – Have you ever felt uncomfortable with anything you’ve experienced while here in the house?

Julie – The one thing that made me uncomfortable was the incident with the curtains up in that bedroom.  Because that’s almost like they were ripped out of the window in anger.  And y’know, I’d talk to her and say “look, we’re making the house better”.  Y’know, we’re trying to upgrade it.  It needed wiring upgrades.  It needed everything.  We’re just trying to make it better.  Y’know, we don’t disrespect the house.  We love your home, we’re going to take care of it, and hopefully she’s ok with that.

She never wanted the house sold outside of the family.  It was in her will that she wanted someone in the family to live here.  But no one in the family really wanted the house, so we bought it.

MGH-Tony – Now, your dog Max, he’ll sit at the bottom of the stairs and bark up the stairway, right?

Julie – His bed is over here, and he kind of sleeps curled up, a lot of the time.  Well I’ll be sitting, if I’m in here with him at times, if he’s laying on the bed curled up, something with him just kind of … he whips his head up and he looks over there [toward the stairs].  And you can tell his eyes are following something up that stairwell.  And, sometimes he barks, sometimes he doesn’t.  It’s almost like he’s transfixed, he’s just kind of watching.

MGH-Kat– Do you feel it’s residual, or do you feel it’s intelligent?

Julie -  I think it’s intelligent.  I know she watches us very closely.  You can just feel it, y’know.   You never feel like you’re alone in this house. There’s always a presence in here.  I have no psychic ability but I feel like I am sort of sensitive to this sort of thing because I know I’m not imagining what I’m seeing and hearing in this house.  Because it’s been going on for 20-plus years.

The other thing, this happened, this summer.  This past summer, early summer, a friend of mine came over was sitting out on the deck.  We had a patio table, and we had a cookout the night before so there were a couple of beer cans still on the table.  So we’re sitting there talking and all of a sudden, because the woman that lived here was a teetotaler, she didn’t believe in alcohol at all,  [this empty] beer can started moving across the table.  Moving, Moving, Moving across the table.  The table wasn’t wet, there wasn’t a wind blowing, it was like an 85-degree day.  Upright.  It just started sliding.  I wish she was here to corroborate this because she was right here when it happened.  She was looking at me, and she goes “what’s going on? Why is that can moving?” It was just sliding across the table and it was like, it didn’t fly off the table.  It probably moved from here to here [6 to 8 inches].  It was a short distance, just enough to get your attention.

- Julie

MGH-Tony – Have you ever felt uncomfortable with anything you’ve experienced while here in the house?

Julie – The one thing that made me uncomfortable was the incident with the curtains up in that bedroom.  Because that’s almost like they were ripped out of the window in anger.  And y’know, I’d talk to her and say “look, we’re making the house better”.  Y’know, we’re trying to upgrade it.  It needed wiring upgrades.  It needed everything.  We’re just trying to make it better.  Y’know, we don’t disrespect the house.  We love your home, we’re going to take care of it, and hopefully she’s ok with that.

She never wanted the house sold outside of the family.  It was in her will that she wanted someone in the family to live here.  But no one in the family really wanted the house, so we bought it.

MGH-Tony – You mentioned the activity is kind of sporadic.  You go for periods of time, sometimes a year, before anything new will happen.   Do you notice any significant triggers for those events? I mean, remodeling is a huge -

Julie –  That was a big one.  A lot usually happens when you’re (Heidi) home.  In a weird sort of way I think she misses the children being here.  And the minute [Heidi] comes home something happens in the house, there’ll be some noise you can’t explain.

Heidi -  She was pretty active before my wedding, too. Because my wedding dress was here.  She was not happy.

Julie – That’s right, and there’s a story.  There’s a reason for that.  The family had told us, back in the day had had a gentleman beau.  And he, just stopped seeing her.  They were supposed to get married.  And just said he didn’t want to, well they didn’t actually get to the altar, he just didn’t want to marry her.   She was devastated.  I don’t think she ever had another boyfriend.  She was an old maid.  She never married.

Well, around the time of [Heidi’s] wedding, we kept her wedding dress up in that bedroom. And, I don’t think she was happy about that at all.  Because we were hearing a lot of noises in that room, thumping.  It sounded like that bedside stand was being pushed across the floor.  It was a very distinctive sound.  Just certain, I don’t know what it is but just certain things seem to trigger her.

MGH-Tony – At what point in all of the experiences that you’ve been having did you realize that it was definitely Eva, that it was someone who lived in this house, and you knew who it was?

Julie – I think it was probably when you guys [Maine GhostHunters] came and did an investigation, and you were able to ask questions.  It came up in a couple EVPs, her name came up.  I think I always knew that it was her, but I think I just wanted an answer, y’know, who is this?  And I think there’s more than one spirit because you picked up on a male.

MGH-Tony – So let’s talk a little bit about how you feel about all of this.  I mean, here’s a home you’ve been living in for 20 years.   You fell in love with the home so much that you bought it.  You raised your family here.  You have at least one spirit, probably two spirits, living here.  One who gets kind of testy with you when you start changing things.  How do you cope with that?  How do you feel about that?

Julie -  I don’t mind her being here. I would like to see her at peace.  And I would like, if she was to go, I’d be ok with that.  But if she’s going to stay, I’d be ok with that, too.  It’s just that I don’t want her to be angry with us.  And I don’t want her to be upset because we live here, because we aren’t leaving.  And I have told her that.  I have said “y’know I don’t mind if you stay, but we’re not leaving.  This isn’t your house anymore. You’ve passed, you need to go to the other side.  And we’ll take care of the house, we’re not going to hurt the house.”   Whichever way it goes I just don’t want there to be any animosity or disliking us being here.

A couple of years ago we went to a wedding in New Jersey and my brother had sent us the directions to where the hotel and everything was.  I had them in that room next to the computer so I’d know where they were.  Well, about a week before, maybe a few days before the wedding I went to get the directions to look at them, couldn’t find them.  They were no where to be found on that desk.  We turned the house upside down, we could not find these directions.   They were behind this clock, folded up and hidden behind this clock.

- Julie

 

MGH-Tony – Do you feel she’s angry that you’re here?

Julie –  I don’t think she’s angry that we’re here, I just think she’s, I think she wants us to acknowledge that she’s here but we can’t actually see her.   She has passed away, I mean, 

MGH-Tony – So you mentioned, a little bit earlier, if she had to go you’re fine with that, and if she wants to stay you’re fine with that. But either way she needs to, kind of calm down and behave herself.  If she does not calm down and she continues and causes more problems would you seek help to kind of have her, passed on, to the next world and removed from the home?

Julie -  I just, I don’t know, it tugs at my heart because I know how much she loved this home, and I don’t mind her being here, I really don’t.  I just want her to accept us being here.  And, either quiet down, y’know, we know she’s here, and she makes her little noises, and she hides things and she does her thing.   And it doesn’t bother me anymore because I’m getting used to it.  But I just, I don’t want another incident like the curtain incident.  Because that looked like it was done out of anger.

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