Many people believe in “residual hauntings”. Ghostly scenes that are played out randomly with no interaction with the world or people around it. Many have witnessed it. This is especially common in areas in where a traumatic event occurred. Wars for instance, is a great catalyst for “residual hauntings”.

Remember the “Gettysburg video” ?

This next submitted story was sent to us by Jeanne S. In her story, she encountered a stranger in her room, someone who she believes to be her grandfather who has passed away.

When I was a child I went on a yearly vacation to my grandmother’s home in rural Illinois. When I was still very small, I slept with my mother , in my grandmother’s bedroom, which was at the front of the house.

I woke one very early morning, to see a figure sitting in the chair opposite the bed. It looked like my Uncle Fred, wearing a large fedora hat as he did. This figure was putting on it’s shoes.

At first I thought it WAS my uncle, and sat up in bed, greeting him. But the figure didn’t acknowledged me, just kept slowly putting on it’s socks, until suddenly it DID look up..and gazed right through me, as if I weren’t there at all.

I suddenly realized this WAS NOT my uncle. I cried out for my mother, who was sleeping by my side, and when she woke, and I turned to point to the strange man on the chair, he wasn’t there. Nothing, not even a whisper to give a clue as to where he went. My mom said I was dreaming and to go back to sleep…it must have been about 4am.

I accepted her observation till I was grown, believing it to have all been a dream, until one day I was talking to my aunt concerning the old house that was my grandmothers.

She told me that when the house was first built..the front of the house was different, and that what was now the front bedroom, had been part of the front porch. She also told me that MY GRANDFATHER USED TO GO OUT ON THAT PORCH IN THE SUMMER, TO PUT ON HIS SHOES AND SOCKS, SO AS NOT TO WAKEN MY GRANDMOTHER! She remembered this fondly, as a part of family anecdotes every person relates to their younger relatives, but I was stunned. I immediately remembered my vivid ‘dream’. I asked if my aunt had any pictures of my grandfather, and she provided one. There, in the picture, was the man I had seen, even down to his fedora hat.

I don’t think it was a dream any more. I believe I saw some kind of imprinted memory within the house. Because the figure gazed right through me, I don’t believe ‘he’ wasn’t even aware I was there. It was only a recording of an event, much as something is recorded on a dvd disk..only the house took the place of a dvd. An automatic haunting? Like the replaying of a video?

So I’ll always believe in some form of ghost. And I don’t care who doesn’t. I KNOW what I saw.

Thanks for listening.

Jeanne S.

Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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