I have always been skeptical. I am someone who believes that YOU believe what happened to you but I need to experience things myself to truly be convinced.
Growing up in an old farmhouse (it is one of the oldest in my town) there were always the usual creaking sounds of the floors and stairs, doors closing on their own, lights flickering... These were always dismissed as the house just settling.
Now fast forward 10 years. I meet my now husband and he shares with me all of the strange, ghostly experiences he has had throughout his life. I always believed him but never fully without having my own experience. Sometimes his stories seemed so far-fetched that the only thing that made me believe was his belief.
About 2 months after we are married, we are living with his parents and I get a job working at an antique store in our town that is in a house that is at least 120 years old. It is a big, beautiful and grand house where I always imagined someone of importance or money lived there. It is the typical big house with a foyer, parlor, dining room, and kitchen downstairs and 5 huge bedrooms and one bath upstairs. There was a grand staircase in the foyer directly across from the front door (that had bells to notify of anyone entering or leaving the shop). Once upstairs, there was a small banister along the hallway which ran straight down the middle of the house with the narrow, back stairway leading down to the kitchen.
The back door to this house was not used as a customer entrance, only by me when coming and leaving work, therefore the door was always dead bolted. I worked by myself all day long, never seeing the owner as she had another small shop across town. Days were always long and I caught up on a lot of reading and quite a few naps to be awakened by the bells when a customer came in.
On this particular day it is around 2 or 3:00 and only a few people had come in. At one point there were about 4 people in all at once (a rush, so to speak). I helped them find their purchases and such and they left. So knowing that my chances of anyone else to talk to was slim to none, I called my husband at home since he didn't work that day. Just as we started to talk I heard the hall floor upstairs creaking and then I heard very clearly two women talking about the victrola that was along the small banister at the top of the stairs.
I told my husband I would have to call him back as I somehow missed some customers. I always liked to be in eyeshot of people as many liked to pock small items. I went up the front staircase to find nobody there. I looked in the 2 front bedrooms at the front of the house and they were empty. I continued down the hallway to the back of the house, looking in every room and each closet, calling out "Hello?!"
Okay, they must be downstairs already via the back stairwell so I start down it to the kitchen and about 3 stairs down, I feel a cool breeze. It was gentle but enough to give me goose bumps on my arm. I dismiss it as a draft even though where the air conditioners were positioned upstairs it couldn't have been from them.
I make the circle back to the parlor room off the side of the foyer where my desk was, checking along the way and there was nobody in the house. They couldn't have gone out the front door as I mentioned before, the bells would ring. I am scared out of my mind now, the hair on my neck standing up. I don't know if it was from fear or something paranormal but I ran to the telephone to call my husband.
I quickly told him my experience and told him to get up there and sit with me for the rest of the day "RIGHT NOW!" Luckily, he was only 6 blocks away and was there in no time. He snickered at me and told me "I told you that spirits and ghosts are real". I have been a believer ever since.
When I retold my story to my boss, the owner, she said that little things like that were always happening. She'd hear voices and have things moved. One time she said that the old fashioned cash register dinged open by itself. After the antique shop was closed, the house became a lawyer's office and it is now a residential home. I haven't spoken with anyone who has been in the house since but I often wonder if others have heard or experienced anything.
Since this experience, I have had a few more which I will share another time. I know this isn't probably a very exciting story but I feel it is my first TRUE paranormal experience and just wanted to share it. Thanks for reading!