Woman At The Cemetery

This sighting caught me completely by surprise. I am not sure what you would call what I saw, a ghost, apparition, spirit...

This happened about three years ago in daylight hours, about 3pm in the afternoon, but because it was so strange, I remember the experience clearly.

This event occurred in Lake Mary, Florida. I would have been 60 years of age, at the time of the occurrence, and my daughter 30. This event occurred in a cemetery, and, to protect the privacy of the cemetery, I will avoid using street names and the name of the cemetery.

We rode our bicycles often to be outdoors and to get some exercise, sometimes I rode alone, and sometimes my daughter rode with me.

It was a Saturday, the time was approximately 3 pm as mentioned. As I remember, it was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. I was riding the bike with my daughter. Our usual route was to start from my house, ride about 2 miles on the local bike trail until we got to a local cemetery (a small cemetery, fenced by a hedge). Make a right turn into the cemetery, continue to the back of the cemetery (about ¼ mile) loop to the left, make a half circle, and ride out of the cemetery on our way back home.

Here I should say that at the time we got to the cemetery there was no one else in the cemetery, no visitors or maintenance staff.

To continue, this day my mind was clear; I was not thinking about ghosts, and I never did expect to see one in the daylight hours. We had ridden through this peaceful cemetery hundreds of times over the 15 years we had been riding the bicycle, and had never seen anything that can be categorized as strange. However, this day was the exception.

I was in the lead, and just before I got to the right turn into the cemetery, I noticed a woman seemingly walking on the sidewalk adjacent to the cemetery. When I first saw her, she seemed to be walking alongside the cemetery on the sidewalk going south. In about 10 feet she would have passed the boundary of the cemetery. When I first noticed her I had already passed her, and something caused me to look back at her. What drew my attention to the woman was her hair and strange appearance. Although she was apparently out for a walk, she was progressing very, very slowly, as if moving required great effort. In addition, the normal movements of someone who is walking could not be discerned. There was absolutely no movement of the head, arms or feet. Her hair was completely white and tied at the back. It appeared so neat, as to give the impression of a wig. I took a long look at the back of the woman and made the right turn into the cemetery.

What I saw was what seemed to be a tall woman, approximately 6' 4" in height, clad in what appeared to be a dark pink, active wear corduroy suit. I only saw her from the back, and her white hair gave the appearance of a woman.

As I continued riding I realized that the "woman" I just saw presented a very strange appearance. Although I rode past her front, I did not look at her. I only looked back at her after I had passed her. The other thing that stood out was her white hair. This bears repeating: Although she appeared to be "out for a walk", I did not notice any of the normal movements of someone walking. There was absolutely no movement of the head or arms, and I do not remember seeing any movement of the feet. As I kept looking back at this figure, it appeared that one moment she was here, another moment there, kind of like seeing someone in a strobe light.

As I rode to the back of the cemetery my mind unconsciously grappled with the image I just saw, and I rationalized it as someone being very ill, out for a walk, and unable to walk at a normal pace, and exhibit any normal movements of a walker. But I quickly realized this made no sense, because someone so ill would need an attendant.

As I kept looking back at her, she seemed to have turned back at the boundary of the cemetery, and had made a right turn back into the cemetery. My route out of the cemetery would take me past this woman again, and I planned to look at her face while riding past her; this woman now had my attention, and I had a burning desire to see her face. But, would you believe that, although I planned to look at her face, I rode past her without looking at her. I realize this may not make any sense to the reader, but I just did not look at this woman.

I rode past her and realized I did not look at her face. I immediately came up with a plan to turn around, ride past her, pretend that there was something wrong with my bike, stop, and when she was about to pass me, look at her face. However, I did not go through with this plan. When I looked back at her she was well into the cemetery and I still could not detect any movement of the head, arms, or feet.

My daughter did see the woman, and I drew her attention to the strangeness of the woman, but she did not show too much interest in what I was noticing.

We rode away, leaving the woman now deep into the cemetery, and I was still wanting to turn back and investigate further, but did not.

This encounter has bothered me and I thought about it frequently, because I now know it is the strangest thing I have ever seen, and I now think that it was a ghost, apparition, spirit, or something. I also wonder if this "woman" somehow exercised control over me during this encounter. I should add that there was no feeling of fear (it was about 3pm in the afternoon), and all the time, this "woman just kept her head very still and straight, never looking to the left or right.

I have read a lot of stories on this site, but have not come across anything similar to this experience. Although there are stories of seeing ghosts in cemeteries, I have not come across any description of the way these cemetery ghosts moved.

I am interested in learning if others have had a similar experience. Keeping in mind that this was during the day, and the person seemed to be moving or walking, but not in the usual way someone walks. There was absolutely no movement of the body discernible. No movement of the head. No swinging of the arms, and no movement of the feet. After thinking about this I realize that the average person going about their business, may not notice how strange this "person" really appeared.

The other detail that is perplexing to me is the fact that I had made a decision to ride past her and look at her face. But in passing her, I kept my head straight and did not look at her.

I doubt that what I have described here occur "all the time" at cemeteries. As mentioned above, I have ridden through this cemetery hundreds of times over the years, and never saw anything strange. I am guessing you have to be really lucky to see something like this, because I suspect this is something rarely seen. The woman appeared solid, not "see through". She seemed like a real person except for the absence of movement and the overall strangeness of her.

I still ride through this cemetery at times, I also drive past it several times a week and frequently look to see if I see the "woman", but I have never seen her again.