Oma's Denial Of A House Guest

This account involves me, my children, my sister and my mother. It took place in my mother's home in a small town near London, Ontario, Canada.

I grew up in that house since I was 9 years old and while it is not the main story, I did have one odd, repeated occurrence, that happened to me.

Often, when I would go down to the basement, where my bedroom was, after rounding the landing to the second flight of stairs, there would be a distinct touch on my back. It was not painful but felt like someone giving me a good hard flick on my back with their finger. At first I would turn to look, thinking one of my brothers was behind me but this was never the case. Eventually I just shrugged it off (no pun intended) as a physiological oddity. Otherwise there is nothing I can think of that was supernatural in that house while I lived there.

After my father died, in the early 1990s, my mother lived alone in the family home. I would visit regularly with my three children and my wife as we did not live too far away.

The house was a bungalow, in which you could see down the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom from the vantage point of the living room.

One day after visiting, on the way home in the car, my 12 year old daughter (my oldest) said to me, "When we are at Oma's (Dutch for grandmother) house do you see the shadow in the hallway?" I told her that I didn't. She went on to tell me that she would see the shadow of a person move quickly across the hallway from the area of the basement stairs to one of the bedrooms. I asked her if that was the first time she had seen it and she told me that she had seen it many times over the previous few years. I then said, "You didn't tell Oma, did you?" She said that she had not. I told her to never tell Oma because she would perhaps then be afraid in her own home. I also suggested to my daughter that it could be the sun reflected from a car going by or some other trick of the light.

A few years passed and my daughter told me that it did not matter if it was day or night, if the curtains were open or closed or if there were lights on in the house or not, she would still see the quickly moving shadow in the hallway. She thought it was the shape of a man. By this time I believed she was seeing something supernatural, although I had not yet heard of a shadow person. I once again cautioned her against telling Oma.

My mother was a woman who did not speak much of ghostly matters as this seemed to her to be dabbling at the edge of evil and certainly was not allowed in the type of Christian home and church she grew up in. This was another reason we could not tell my mother of the shadow man.

Years went by and by this time my other two children had also seen the shadow man from time to time. They described it the same way my oldest daughter did.

In 2006 my children and I were visiting my mother one evening. My mother said, during the course of the conversation, that it sometimes gets lonely living in the house all alone. I agreed that it would. She then went on to say that sometimes it gets a little scary. I said that I could understand but did not ask for specifics as I did not want tread into the regions of taboo. She went on of her own accord, however, and said that sometimes at night she would hear sounds as if someone was working at the workbench in the basement. She would also hear the sound of the vice being used. She quickly followed this by saying, "You know... House noises". I said that "house noises" were quite different than the sound of somebody working at the workbench. In full denial she said, "NO! Just house noises." I was going to let it drop there and not push unsettling theories on a woman living alone.

She then calmly said, "And then there's the shadow of a man that flits across the hallway all the time, but I know that's my imagination."

At this my kids and I looked from one to the other and, with a force, all of us contained ourselves and kept our mouths from flapping or hanging open.

I believe it was my mother's way of telling me about the scary occurrences that still fit in with her ideas of Christian propriety. The denial that anything was really amiss kept her safe within those bounds. That was all she would say about it and the subject was closed.

Unfortunately my mother became ill a few months later. She was in the hospital when my sister went to my mother's house to take care of things there. My sister had been to the basement to gather some laundry. When she was back on the main floor, getting ready to leave, she heard a tremendous bang in the basement. She left as quickly as she could.

My sister then called me at work from her house, next door to my mother's, and explained the situation. She then asked me to check out my mother's basement after work. I agreed but only if she came with me (I know, I know, in reference to my Eldon House story and now this, there is an uncomplimentary trend in my bravado on display).

At my mom's, when we got downstairs, I was looking for anything that may have fallen or burst or anything that could make that noise. There was nothing. I then warned my sister that I was going to close a door forcefully. When I did this I thought she was going to jump out of her skin. She said, "THAT'S IT, THAT'S IT, that's the bang"! For those who will suggest it, there is no way that door could do this on its own or with wind etc.

A few days after this my sister started to have bangs in the basement of her house, but that is her story to tell.

Sadly, my mom never returned to her home as she died of cancer, in the hospital. I will tell the odd story that surrounded her death at another time.

As for the house itself, my sister is in contact with the current owner but he has never reported any odd occurrences.