Okay…I think that I’ve figured things out!

Hmm…yup, looks like my Halloween costume..well, sort of.

So…what’s the deal eh?  Y’all don’t like my ghost stories or what?  Hmph!  See how y’all are!!

Well…I’m not going to let THAT little thing stop me…so there!  So onward we go…

The next encounter takes place in the house as well…only a couple years later.  I was about 7 when the footstep incident occured so…that would mean that I was about 9 when this next one took place.

It was late in the afternoon and my brother had gone to a friend’s house for the day.  My dad had just come home from work and wanted to drive down to Allegan (a town about 20 minutes south of where I lived) to go to the hardware store for a few things before they closed.  Now, dad was an armed security guard…and a retired police officer so he had many guns in the house.  He had a ritual of coming home from work and taking off his gun and unloading it and then hanging it in the harness up in the closet.  He kept all of the bullets for the guns seperate in their own boxes in his desk drawer in the library.  The library was one of the few rooms in the house that always remained locked…and the guns being in there was the main reason as to why this was so.

Well, because dad was in a hurry to get going into town…he didn’t empty out his gun and such…but instead just took off his belt and laid it on the desk with the gun in it’s harnes fully loaded.  He changed his clothes…locked the library door and then he and I were off to Allegan. 

The house was empty during the time that we were gone.  My mom was working in Detroit at the time and like I’d said prior…Mark was at a friend’s house out of town.  So dad and I were quite shocked to find what we did when we arrived back home.

We pulled up in the driveway, got out of the car and went into the house.  I followed dad upstairs to the library door.  He unlocked the door and opened it for me to go inside.  I entered the room and noticed that dad’s belt and gun weren’t where he’d left them.  I also noticed that there were bullets lined up in a single row on his desk with the box sitting next to them.  Under a corner of the box there was a note written in a woman’s handwriting.  The note said…

Mar~

Don’t ever leave a loaded gun out in the open where my grandchildren could get a hold of it!  You know better than that.

Love,

Marge

Well…first of all…very few people called my dad “Mar”, which is short for Mario…and Marge was my grandma’s (mom’s mom) nickname…and how she always signed letters and such. 

I looked at dad and told him that there was a note there.  He picked it up and I thought that after reading it that he was going to faint.  I asked him if he was okay…and he said yes…but he didn’t look okay.

He said that it was my grandma’s handwriting. (but she’d been dead for 8 years by that point) My grandma Marjorie died a week before my first birthday in June of 1976.  She had a massive coronary.  My dad adored the woman and she loved him dearly as well.

She was a very kind and loving woman…but, she was a determined lady.  When she told you something…she meant it.  Ya know what I mean?

Anyway, my dad was completely freaked out (well, so was I) and decided that there had to be a logical explanation for all of this.  So, he called my brother over at his friend’s house and then called my mom in Detroit.  Mark had not been home at all that day.  My mom was coming home the next day for the weekend.

When mom got home, dad showed her the library.  He had kept everything the same until she could see it…for fear that she’d think he’d lost it somehow.  (sound familiar? haha)

My mom about flipped when she saw the note in her mom’s handwriting.  However, she said that it sounded just like something that her mom would say…and do.

Now mind you…we never saw my grandma’s spirit or anything…just the effects of what she did.  See…you can receive notes (letters) from the deceased.

Next up…hearing voices from beyond.

Do you believe?

Okay…I figure that I’ve done more than my share of serious talk lately…so, in the spirit of Halloween, I’ve decided that it’s time to share a few stories with y’all.

Yup…I’m talking real, authentic ghost stories!   What?  You don’t believe in the supernatural?  hmm…well, we’ll see if you change your mind after I’m done. 

Now I’ve not always been one to believe in spirits staying here on earth or entities haunting people and places and such…but, I think that I’d probably should after what I’ve experienced in my life.  Talk about denial eh?

Here…let me clue you in…

I grew up in Michigan (most of you know that already) in a very small farm town in between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids.  I lived in a quite large house…it was referred to by the town folks as the “Monterrey Mansion”.  It was three stories high and ninety feet long…and had twenty-one rooms. (yup…I said 21 and they weren’t small either)

Most people thought that our house was haunted…mainly because of it’s size.  However, that wasn’t necessarily the case.  When my parents first bought the house is was merely an old run down one bedroom farm house that an old farmer and his wife had previously owned.  The rest of the house was built by my parents and added on.  (Dad went a little overboard on the building thing)

Anyway…most of our neighbors and such thought that house was beautiful…but, didn’t care to be in at night.  Now growing up in this house was an experience all of it’s own…considering I was the one who had to clean the damn thing. OY!!

I’ll get to the point now…I promise.

The old farmer that lived in the house before us supposedly killed his wife and then committed suicide (hello!! why in the world did my parents buy the house knowing this?).  He supposedly killed her in the bedroom…which was later used as the spare bedroom. (I wonder why that is eh?)

Well, my room was at the opposite end of the house from this ‘spare bedroom’…but, in order to get to the only working bathroom (at the time) I had to walk past the ‘spare bedroom’ to do so.  I always felt as if I was being watched when walking past there.  Now mind you…I didn’t know about the house’s jaded past until I was older (good thing too) but, it still creeped me out!

I used to run through that section of the house if I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  See, I had to walk down a very looonnnggg hallway that had NO windows or anything in it before I got to the landing just above the stairs where there was a HUGE picture window that let in a ton of light.  There was a set of french doors that seperated the old section of the house from the new (I don’t know why), I had to go through the doors and then through a small room that was linked to the ‘spare bedroom’ and then through a larger room that was also open to the ‘spare bedroom’ before being able to reach the bathroom.  I tell you…it sucked!

So…I usually sat in my bed a while contemplating on whether or not I REALLY needed to go.  Unfortunately, I usually wound up having to go more than not. 

I used to hear noises and such in the hallway.  You know, like footsteps.  My Mom didn’t believe me until one night when we were in her room, which was about 5 feet further down the hall from mine, and my dad and brother were asleep downstairs in the living room (too much late night t.v.) and we were talking when we heard footsteps coming down the hall.  Mom called out thinking that it was Mark or Dad…but there was no answer.  Then she thought that it had to be one of the dogs (we had 4 in the house)…but, then she realized that there was no jingling of the tags against the collar.  I knew what it was…but I didn’t say anything because I also knew that she wouldn’t believe me if I told her.

After a couple minutes, the footsteps became louder and were getting closer to the bedroom door.  Mom called out again and of course…no answer.  I looked at her and asked her if she was going to look and see.  So she got up off of the bed, walked over to the door…opened it and flipped on the light in the hallway. 

She looked at me, shrugged and said, “there’s no one there”. 

I said, “then why can I still hear footsteps?”

She had this look of fear come over her face and turned very white, “I don’t know, but I still hear them too”.

She shut the door quickly and locked it.  She then got back on the bed and just sat there…we both just sat there.  In silence…not a word said, just listening to the footsteps as they grew closer and closer. 

I looked at her and said, “Mom…they stopped.”

Yeah…they’d stopped alright.  Right in front of the bedroom door.  Just then, the door flew open and the light in the bedroom came on.  We both screamed!

There was no one there….no one that we could see anyway…but there was definitely someone there.

Mom grabbed my hand and yanked me off of the bed and down the hall.  She picked me up and took me down the spiral staircase that lead into the living room downstairs where my Dad and brother were sleeping.  When we got there, Dad and Mark were still snoring away.  The dogs (all four of them) were lying on the floor in front of the fireplace also asleep. 

My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking as I held on tightly to my Mom.  She wasn’t doing real well herself at this point.  She woke my Dad up and told him what was going on.  He just looked at her as if she had lost her mind. 

After a while, she finally gave up trying to plead her case to him and she and I went back upstairs…leaving on every light in the house behind us mind you.

We didn’t hear  anything else that night…but, then again…we didn’t get much sleep either.

That’s just one of many of my memories of growing up in that house…I’ll share more with you as the week goes on. 

For example…do you believe that you can get letters from the deceased? 

Don’t go away…I’ll explain.

 

Did y’all miss me?

I missed being here with Jason & the kids…believe me.  Poor Jason had to play Mom while I was away.  Things have been a bit hectic around here since I’ve been back.  The days after Mom & I returned, my car decided to die on me on the way to work. (as if I needed anymore to happen at that moment)  Luckily it died just before a side street and I was able to turn off of the main road in order to avoid major rush hour traffic.  The two really nice men stopped and pushed my car into the parking lot of the Firestone shop on the corner. 

I called my Mom and told her to ask Jason to come and get me.  I then called my work and told them that I’d be out yet another day.  I’m lucky to have a very understanding company to work for.  They even sent me a bouquet of flowers and a very nice note of encouragement and support after my Grandpa died.  After speaking with them, I called the towing service and was told it’d be at least 90 minutes before someone would be there to get my car.  Well, normally I wouldn’t mind this at all…but, the weather here has been winter like instead of fall like…so, it was a bit cold that morning and I was in a car without any heat.

To my amazement, the tow truck showed up only 20 minutes later and I was sitting inside the warm cab of the tow truck while waiting for Jason to arrive and for the truck driver to load my car.  Jason arrived not much long after that and we were off to meet the tow truck at the dealership where the car was being towed to. 

It was just a very hectic morning and pretty much the last straw for me after dealing with a very emotional and draining four days.

My flights home weren’t bad at all…which was a comfort to me.  However, once I got into Michigan…I found out that they sent my bag to Florida by accident.  Nice eh?  Now mind you…I was wearing a tee shirt and jeans and didn’t exactly want to show up at the funeral dressed in that attire.  Thankfully my bag showed up around 10:30pm that night…which by that point I didn’t really care because I’d had about 4 margaritas.  (oops)

Things went pretty well while in Michigan considering the circumstances and all.  My Mom was VERY glad that I was there with her…and I was happy to be there for her.  I knew that she needed me and so that is where I was meant to be…holding her hand through it all.

I saw many people throughout the time up there.  My Grandpa was a very well known Orthopedic surgeon in our community up there…and around the nation.  He was a pioneer in his field and developed many procedures that are used today.  He even invented a surgical tool that is now very commonly used in orthopedics.  Pretty cool eh? 

Well, because of his notoriety…there were a great deal of visitors at his viewing on Sunday afternoon.  In fact, there were so many that we had to hold three separate sessions.  That made for a VERY long day let me tell you.  By the end of the day I thought that if I heard one more person tell me that they hadn’t seen me since I was a little girl…I was gonna just lose my mind!!  See…I need to move back somewhere closer to home.

The funeral service was the next morning and it was a somber time.  I think that the hardest part about burying my Grandpa was having him be buried only 3 spaces over from my Dad.

I saw a lot of family members that I’d hadn’t seen in many years…including my 1st cousins from my Mom’s younger brother.  David and Lisa grew up with Mark and I and we were all very close as children…but lost touch with each other after high school.  Lisa still lives in Grand Rapids and is a police officer in the private sector.  David lives just outside Indianapolis and is an engineer for a large engineering company.  Lisa hasn’t married as of yet and doesn’t have any children…while David is married and has two little boys, Logan & Carson, who are both under 3 and only 16 months apart in age.  He has his hands full…I know from experience…haha.

It was good to see them and spend some time with the two of them after all these years.  They both want me to move back up North so that we are all closer to each other.  I’ve been wanting to do that anyway…and Jason wants to also…so, I think that a move will be inevitable.  Although, Lisa wants me back in Michigan while David would love to have me out in Indiana…and of course Jason wants to move back to Indiana…so, I think David will probably get his wish.  Not that I’ll be far from Grand Rapids…only about 4 hours or so…that’s closer than I am now!

After the funeral was over and we all went out to lunch together…I decided that my Mom needed to get her mind off of everything that had gone on the past few days so…we went to see a couple of movies.  She enjoyed that and we hadn’t done that in a while…it was good.

We checked out the next morning and I thought that it’d be a good idea to go out and do something until our flight left…so, we went to the zoo.  I hadn’t been to the zoo out there since I was a small child. In fact, I believe the last visit was with my classmates from elementary school on a field trip…gee, that was a long time ago..haha.

I took tons of photos while we were there…and oh did the sites bring back a lot of memories.  It was very cool and Mom and I both enjoyed it all a great deal.  We cut our visit there short however, in order to get to the airport on time to catch our flight home.  This time I would be taking my bag with me as a carry on…no more visits to Florida for that bag!!

Jason picked us up from the airport with all of the kids.  Talk about some happy faces!!  I’m just glad to be back here with all of them and in my own bed.

Thanks again to all of you for your wonderful comments and touching words. 

I should have some photos to post soon from my various trips to Michigan…so stay tuned.

Saying good bye…is never easy

Especially when it’s to a family member.  My Grandpa died early this morning.  I just received the call from my Mom, who seems to be handling it pretty well…considering.  She said that she’s relieved in a way after having to watch him in the state that he was in for several days. 

I can understand that.  Waiting is never an easy task…especially when you’re waiting…knowing that they person that you are looking upon is going to die and there isn’t anything that you can do about it, except wait for it to happen.

I will be flying back home to Michigan tomorrow morning to be with my Mom and the rest of my family.  Grandpa’s funeral will be on Monday…so Mom and I won’t return to Colorado until Tuesday afternoon.

Thank you all for being SO supportive and wonderful.  Your kind comments have meant so much to me.

 

In Memory Of

Dr. Harvey M. Andre, M.D.

You will be missed…I love you.

 

It’s gonna be one of those weeks…

I want to thank all of you for your support, prayers, and comments regarding my grandpa. 

Just to let you know, my Mom made it up to Michigan okay and got to see grandpa.  She said that he looks awful…but, that’s to be expected considering the stroke and all.  The doctors say that he won’t make it through this next weekend…so I should be flying back home soon to help with the funeral arrangements.

As if all of this wasn’t enough for our household…we had the stomach flu go around this last weekend!  Let me tell you, THAT is NOT something that I’d wish upon my worst enemy!

Jonah contracted it first…he in turn gave it to his sister, Dora…she’s the oldest…and then, Jason got it!  Yup…poor guy has been EXTREMELY ill since Monday morning.  My Mom wasn’t feeling very well either…so, yours truly was the one that took care of all of the sickly people.  What a job I tell ya!

I most certainly don’t get paid enough to clean up after that many people…haha.  Good thing for all of them that I love them all so much to do that for them eh?

Anyway, I finally returned to work today after taking care of them the past few days.  Jason is feeling a bit better today (thank God) and is starting to get his appetite back…’tis a good thing.

Jonah has been fine since Monday…and Dora was well enough to return to school yesterday…but, I think that Jason had it the worst of all of them.  Those viruses just affect adults much differently then they do children…and in this case, much more severely!

Hopefully I don’t get it after having to take care of all of them.

 

I have a request…

In my last post I had a side note that stated that my grandpa had had a stroke and wasn’t doing well.  This morning we were told that he will not survive the next few days.  The damage from the stroke is extensive and quite severe and he will not be able to overcome it.  My Mom is flying out to see him tomorrow morning and spend the remainder of the time he has left with him.  I will be returning to Michigan as soon as he has passed on.

For those of you who pray…please pray for him to go quickly and as painlessly as possible.  Also pray for my Mom…this is an extremely difficult time for her right now.  I know what she is going through, having gone through it myself with my dad only 5 years ago…it is just something that you can never prepare yourself for, even when you know it’s coming.

Thank you.

Yes…it’s ME!!  With a few adjustments anyway!

I decided to keep my other site as a hockey site…with some help from Jason that is…haha.

Anyway…I will post Part II on the trip soon!!   In the meantime…the profile picture is one that Jason and I had done while on Mackinac Island…pretty neat eh?