A Haunting?

This time of year, all the focus is on the creepy, the ghostly and the haunted. We enjoy getting into the "spirit" of things by hosting our biennial Halloween party and passing along all the great, spooky stories of our own haunted house. Yes, my husband and I supposedly inhabit a real haunted house!!

The main portion of our house was built in 1869 by Colonel Thomas Cheatham Little for his bride, Agnes. The back of the house that now houses our kitchen was built in the 1820s and was originally a cottage on the property. Colonel Little was a veteran of the Civil War and an escort for General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Young Thomas ran away from home at the age of 16 to join the Confederate Army when word of the death of his uncle, a Confederate officer, reached him. Devastated by the news and filled with anger, he joined the war, fought with the Confederates, and was with Forrest when he surrendered at the end of the War. Thomas and Agnes had several children, and the house was passed down in the family until my Dear Husband purchased it in 2001. He was the first person to own the house outside of the family.

After the purchase of the house, DH immediately began hearing stories of "The Gray Lady." Since the earlier part of the century, there were stories of the solemn woman who could be seen haunting the upper hallway of the house. She was also seen at times in some of the upstairs bedrooms and a few times on the ground floor of the house. There were stories of guests' bed covers being pulled slowly off of them in the middle of the night, one woman being pushed down by an unseen force, a chair flying through a glass window. But most of the reports were simply of a lone woman in Victorian style clothing appearing in various places in the house.

DH lived alone in the house from 2001 until we married in 2005, and claims to have never seen The Gray Lady. Likewise, I have not seen her since moving into the house over four years ago. With that being said, however, we can report many strange happenings that we have been unable to explain. They include our dogs being locked into one room of the house when no one is home to do so, doors that are heavy and difficult to move slamming shut without any assistance and with a puzzling ease, items disappearing or moving from where we originally placed them, and a stereo blaring music without anyone turning it on, then, shutting itself off after about 20 seconds. I have many times heard footsteps in the house, thought it was DH returning home, and then found no one in the house but me. Of course, it makes us feel a little better to come up with reasons for these happenings, and since we have not yet "seen" a ghost to blame them on, we will continue to look for logical explanations of such occurrences. It helps us sleep better at night, you see.

This time of year, our friends love to visit our house and hear all these stories. And I admit that I, especially this time of year, always feel a little reluctant to look over my shoulder for fear that the Lady in Gray will finally make her appearance!

But...until I have seen her for myself, I will continue to try to "explain away" all the odd little happenings.

I am including a photograph in this posting in which guests claim to be able to see The Gray Lady in one of the upstairs windows. Can you find her?

Happy Halloween!!