The one room cabin was built in the mid-1960s on land located on an island in the Pacific Northwest that has been in the family since 1948. The building was intended to be the garage, however after the fireplace was installed, the owners decided to do some remodeling, build on an addition and park the vehicles under the trees.
It's not a large house, but cozy and comfortable it is. Plenty of room for the elderly married couple and the family pet named Katie.
In the early to mid 1990's, their daughter started noticing some odd things going on at the house when she would visit them on the weekends. Being the night owl that she was, she was always the last person to wake up the next morning. Her parents were kind and knew that she enjoyed her dream time, so they would go sit outside, weed in the garden or nap quietly in their recliners.
On more than one occasion, the daughter felt a presence... She couldn't see anything but it was like there was something following her around. And, it was usually after she woke up when she headed down the hallway to take a shower. She would turn around and nothing would be there but was aware of the hairs on the back of her neck standing straight up.
Being the intelligent soul she was, she immediately thought "We have ghosts." Of course, she didn't want to say anything for fear of sounding a bit loony and she figured no one would believe her, anyway.
Shortly thereafter, the Mom (out of the blue) said to her, "Your father thinks I'm nuts, but I swear we have ghosts."
The daughter replied, "Well, Mom... Now that you mention it, I've noticed a few things, too!"
The Dad, however just shook his head as he wasn't a believer.
Over the next few months, things started to disappear, including books and photos. Decorative plates would fall off the wall and break, strange noises were heard and the house always felt cold. Even a Corelle dinner plate that was on the kitchen counter ended up breaking into a million pieces when it fell on the floor. (By the way, no family member was in the kitchen at the time and the plate was not anywhere close to the edge of the counter.)
During the times that the spirits were present, Katie would crawl in a lap and snuggle, like she couldn't be close enough to her protector. This, by the way was very odd behavior for her as she preferred to chase after a tennis ball during all her waking hours.
All the while, the Dad didn't notice anything. When the Mom and daughter tried to bring his attention to what was going on, he just shook his head.
That all changed one afternoon. He was having his daily nap in his favorite recliner and he woke up and said to his wife, "There is something sitting in my lap. I feel something sitting in my lap."
Of course, his wife couldn't see anything, all the while looking at him with an "I told you so, grin."
On one occasion, the parents had business to tend to in Olympia early one Friday morning so changed places with their daughter. They came to Seattle on a Thursday evening and the daughter went to stay at their house with Katie. They timed it perfectly so the daughter caught the same ferry that her parents came across on.
The daughter and Katie had an interesting night. Before going to bed, Katie decided to have a snack and she took a bite of food and went into the living room to eat it. She dropped the mouthful of crunchies and before she could eat them, she growled and snapped at whatever was there that was trying to take her food. The daughter couldn't see anything but figured something was amiss since Katie had never exhibited this behavior before and the daughter had felt something tap her on the head earlier that night.
The daughter and Katie then went to bed - the daughter sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the living room. The daughter read for awhile before turning out the light and as she was reading, she heard a faint snoring sound. Usually, Katie would sleep with her but Katie was not next to her in the bed. She called out Katie's name and Katie wasn't there. The daughter then wondered if she herself was making the snoring sound so she held her breath. The snoring sound continued.
Needing to investigate further, she went looking for Katie. Katie was sound asleep at the other end of the house and wasn't making a sound.
The daughter went back to bed, said goodnight to the 'snorer' and went to sleep. By the way, the snoring sound was coming from the same place where Katie had snapped and growled earlier.
On occasion, the son would spend the night with his parents. He would sleep in the 2nd hide-a-bed in the living room. On several nights, he was awakened to music playing. The spirits would have either turned on the radio or wound up the bird music box that sat high on the shelf. He was not amused.
The most memorable weekend was Thanksgiving of 1998. The daughter arrived early Thanksgiving morning and it was just her Dad and Katie there as the Mom was in a nursing home. The Dad had gotten the turkey in the oven, however needed help replacing the overhead light in the kitchen. As he wasn't as tall as he used to be, he figured his very tall daughter could help when she arrived. It was basically a 2 person job, anyway as the lights were the long florescent kind with the wobbly oversized cover that had to fit in just so.
The light got changed, the cover was replaced and Thanksgiving went off without a hitch.
That following Saturday night, the Dad went to bed early as he wanted to get up and go to church the next morning. The daughter stayed up late and watched TV in the living room with Katie. Although the Dad was rather hard of hearing, she kept the TV on low volume so as to not disturb him.
It became more and more difficult to hear the TV as there was a lot of unearthly noise coming from the kitchen.
Finally, the daughter went to bed. She was no longer sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the living room as she found a more peaceful and soothing room to sleep in... The laundry room!
Sometime during night, Katie joined her, which was out of the norm as Katie didn't like sleeping on the aero bed. But, for some reason, she joined her that night.
The next day, the dad went to church and the daughter slept in. When it was time for her to get up, she was awakened by a cold wet nose and some very slobbery kisses from Katie.
After letting Katie outside, the daughter noticed the cover from the kitchen light was lying on the counter. She immediately thought the light she and her Dad had replaced three days before was bad and he removed the cover before going to church.
When he arrived home, she asked him, "What's wrong with the light? I see the cover is on the counter."
He responded, "I thought you took it down."
She shook her head no and they both looked at each other and immediately knew what had happened during night. The spirits were back, they had probably witnessed the changing of the light bulb and thought it would be fun to take off the cover. (By the way, had the cover fallen off, it would have landed on the floor and broke. There was no way it could have ended up on the counter without help.)
The Dad and daughter probably guessed that Katie got tired of listening to the noise going on in the kitchen during night, thus her crawling into bed with the daughter.
The daughter left for home that night even though she insisted on helping with the dinner dishes before leaving. The Dad told her he would do them. After she had left, the Dad thought the daughter had left the sliding glass door open as it was so incredibly cold in the house. He went to go investigate and the door had been shut but the house was still so incredibly cold, even with a hot fire burning in the woodstove. He returned to the kitchen and the dish towels that were hanging on the oven door were moving, as if they were flapping in the wind. No windows were open.
The spirits aren't there all the time, but when they are, they make themselves known. They tend to be mischievous... The family just wishes they would return all the things they have taken over the years.
In case you're wondering, the house is located on Whidbey Island and the daughter referenced in the story is me.
Do you believe in ghosts? You now know that I do since I have witnessed them first hand.
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My dad did witness a male figure in the hallway, which appeared for about five seconds and then disappeared. (This happened quite some time after he became a believer.) That was the only 'real' sighting. (To be honest, I'm glad he saw it and not me! As much as I find the whole thing interesting, it does give me the willies when I'm alone, especially at night!)
I did question my dad about the sighting as to what the male figure looked like, what it was wearing, etc., but my dad was too shocked to take notice.