While I still have many stories of my own to tell, I wanted to share this one which happened to my Aunt Lenora (Nora) and her family. My grandparents had fourteen children, and by the time their last child was born, their older children were grown and having children of their own.
When my Aunt Nora was 11 she was playing with her dolls when some of her friends dropped by. Her friends teased her, saying that she was too old to be still playing with dolls. She put all of her dolls away that day, but she truly missed playing with them. A few months later, my grandmother had my Aunt Denise (Deni) and from the moment she was brought home my Aunt Nora became like a second mother to her. (She now had a living, breathing doll to care for. Despite the almost 12 year difference in their ages, the two are very close. So much so that when my Aunt Deni renewed her wedding vows a few years back, it was Aunt Nora who 'gave her away.' (My grandfather was no longer living, and my grandmother was too ill to travel to New York, where my Aunt Deni now resides.)
When my Aunt Deni was 14 she and the whole family were awakened by a loud pounding at the front door around one o'clock in the morning. My Aunt Nora stood there with tears streaming down her face holding her 10 month old baby (Linda) in her arms while her 5 year old (Barbara) clutched tightly to her pants leg. My grandfather assuming that Aunt Noras husband Ed was to blame, sent all of the children back to bed, so that he could find out what was troubling his daughter. Aunt Deni wasn't having it. She needed to know what her brother-in-law did to cause her beloved sister to be in such a state. So she snuck out of bed, and hid in the hallway to listen in. She was surprised to hear Eds voice amongst the others, as no way would her dad let him in if he hurt Nora or the kids in anyway. Intrigued she sat in the hallway, and this is what she heard.
Aunt Nora told my grandparents that she and Uncle Ed had just put their two children to bed, and were discussing all that had gone on that day, when Barbara came out of the room carrying Linda. Aunt Nora was ready to scold Barbara for picking up Linda, but said that the look on Barbara's face stopped her in her tracks. Barbara looked terrified. Barbara told her mom that someone was knocking on her bedroom window, she got scared, and so she got Linda out of her crib and came to find them. Uncle Ed grew alarmed as he thought someone was trying to break in, so he went to the girl's room to see if he could catch the culprit in the act. However, when he looked out the window he saw no one there. So he went outside to look, and found no evidence of anyone having been outside the window, either. Uncle Ed and Aunt Nora thought of calling the police, but weren't sure if Barbara had just imagined hearing the knocking, or if maybe it was the wind or a tree branch tapping the window. Not wanting to be embarrassed they decided to let the girls sleep with them. They made sure all of the doors and windows were locked, and took the two girls to their room.
After settling the two girls into their bed, Aunt Nora and Uncle Ed climbed in and started to drift to sleep. Aunt Nora was almost asleep when she heard someone knocking on the bedroom window. Thinking she was imagining it after what had previously happened, she decided to just lay there and see if it happened again. Then she heard pounding on the bedroom door, and what sounded like someone trying to open the door. Fearful she turned to wake up her husband, when he suddenly spoke and said, "Yeah, I hear it too."
Uncle Ed got up, turned on the light and spoke through the door. Bluffing (This was in the 70's before cell phones, and the only phone they had was in the kitchen) he told whoever was there that he was calling the police, and that they had best leave now if they didn't want to go to jail. Then someone pounded loudly on the door for about five minutes, causing the door to shake violently. Uncle Ed and Aunt Nora were terrified, as they were trapped in the room with no means in which to call for help. Then suddenly the pounding just stopped. After listening and waiting for almost 20 minutes, Uncle Ed got the courage to leave the room. He told my Aunt Nora to lock the door behind him, and if she heard anything to take the two children out the window and go to a neighbour's house.
Uncle Ed opened the door and stepped into the hall, after hearing the door lock behind him, he slowly made his way to the phone. Encountering no one on his way, he called the police. They told him that they would send an officer by to check out the place, and file a report. They told him then to go back to his family, and wait until the officer arrived. Uncle Ed went back to the bedroom seeing nothing and no one as he went.
A few minutes later two officers arrived, they checked outside first going all around the house several times. They saw and heard nothing. Then they announced that they were there, and my uncle let them in. They checked every room in the house, including the attic crawl space; they checked every window and door and found nothing. Feeling secure that whoever had come had gone, they took the report, told my aunt and uncle to call back if they saw or heard anything, and then left.
My uncle and aunt took their two daughters, the kitchen phone and headed back to bed. Uncle Ed locked the door, Aunt Nora plugged in the phone, and the family all settled back down. No sooner had they all laid down when again they heard banging on the bedroom door. This time Uncle Ed was more angry than afraid, he told my Aunt Nora to call the police, and then he bolted out of bed, and went to the door.
He again spoke through the door telling whoever was there to leave. This caused more banging, and Uncle Ed out of sheer anger threw the door open wide, only to find no one on the other side or in the hallway for that matter. The police were again called, only this time it was two different officers who arrived. They went through the whole investigation again, only to find no one in or around the house. As one officer and my Uncle Ed were filling out the report, the other officer started talking to my Aunt Nora.
He told her that this wasn't the first time that he had been to their home that he had in fact been there several times. The woman who previously lived there had called the police over a dozen times with the exact same complaint, and always the exact same conclusion. No one was ever found in or around the house. It was like whoever was causing the disturbance just vanished before the police arrived. He said that the last time he went there he suggested that she move out, and she did so that night with his assistance. He said he and his partner took her to her parents' house that night, and then went back a few days later to keep an eye on her while she removed her things from the place.
My Aunt Nora was too scared to stay in the house any longer, so she and Uncle Ed gathered some things together and went to my grandparents' house. They ended up having to stay there until they could find another place to rent. Their landlord refused to admit that anything had ever occurred in the house, and when asked about the former tenant he denied that the reason she left was due to anything remotely about the house. He said that he evicted the previous tenant for failing to pay back rent. So was it the officer who lied, or the landlord? Obviously one was lying, but since Aunt Nora and Uncle Ed both experienced what they had, they tended to believe the officer.
My Aunt Deni said that she could not sleep that night after hearing the story, but that she was so happy to have her sister back in the house that she didn't dwell on it. They enjoyed a few weeks being in the same house together, and then Aunt Nora and Uncle Ed found a new place to live.
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