Haunted Happenings at Work: Largo, Florida

My sister Reenie is a mammogram and x-ray technician in a facility in the Largo area of Florida.  Reenie has had her own personal experiences with the paranormal, so while she isn’t a gullible sort, she does keep an open mind.

One of her co-workers, Maddie, started complaining during the down time in their work day that she thought her adult son, from whom she is estranged, was breaking into her home and moving her things around to mess with her. My sister and the other technicians pooh-poohed this idea and told Maddie that she was probably moving the things herself and just not remembering where she put them.  Maddie was adamant, however.  She lived alone, without even any pets, and she was a  bit OCD about putting things back in their assigned places throughout her house.  For instance, her remote control went on a small end table that was between her sofa and her recliner. Her keys were kept on a hook in her kitchen. Maddie explained that her son, a former Special Forces member, knew how meticulous she was, and that she would notice the small changes that occurred whenever she left the house. Early in their estrangement, he had broken into her previous home just to prove to her that he could. It had been some time since those days, but apparently he was back to his old tricks, she said. Sometimes, she was only gone a half an hour to run to the store, but when she returned, something was typically out of place. Reenie just told her  it sounded like she had a ghost. Maddie was not amused. She vowed to catch her son in the act.

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Update for Haunted Happenings at Work: New England

Please see my original post for the background to this true account: https://4girlsandaghost.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/haunted-happenings-at-work-new-england/.

I have already shared the story of my sister Dee’s (now former) workplace, a preschool in Hampstead, NH. The original part of the building was constructed about two hundred years ago and went through a devastating fire in the 1870’s which left a small girl named Agnes dead. Though other teachers had experienced some pretty telling evidence, such as toys found in the middle of a recently tidied room, after-hours when the children were long gone, my sister had only experienced “circumstantial” evidence. While she was there after hours, she would occasionally hear movement in the older parts of the building, or sometimes a toy would start when she walked through an empty room. This was nothing that Dee couldn’t convince herself was coincidence or overactive imagination.

Gettysburg, PA: The Devil’s Den

Devils Den, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (c1909) – Location of intensive fighting on Day 2 (July 2, 1863) of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War.
Photo Courtesy of the Library of Congress Archives.

I’ve been to the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania twice (so far) in my lifetime. Once in 1999 with my family and again in 2005 with my old, college roommates at my insistence. Both times, I’ve really enjoyed myself there. The historical significance of the Gettysburg Battlefield alone is really inspiring. And, of course, the ample graveyards and ghost stories really made me feel at home.

You have to spend at least a day in Gettysburg. The battlefield is so extensive it takes a whole day to do a self guided car tour– if you see everything from Iverson’s Pits, the Roundtops, the Devil’s Den, the Triangular Field, and Culp’s Hill (among other places). The visitor centers, cemeteries, and museums are really engaging too. Probably the most notable thing about this battlefield is the documentation of the battle and the National Park’s efforts to restore the battlefield to how it looked those three fateful days in 1863. In the years since I’ve been to Gettysburg, they’ve removed trees where there were none and planted trees and orchards where they once stood. Something about the atmosphere and the terrible amounts of men who met their untimely demise on the field of battle in Gettysburg calls to the dead– though the official park stance on the paranormal is that they have no stance on the paranormal.

More Ghostly Humour

American Murder House: The Morris-Jumel Mansion – New York City, NY

Was he pushed?  Was it murder? Was it coincidence that after his death his wife became one of the richest women in New York City?  The mysterious death of Stephen Jumel has caused whispers and rumors through three centuries, but no one living really knows the truth.  What is said about Stephen and his wife Eliza is sordid enough for a modern day soap opera…imagine what post-revolution society may have thought and said about them if even half the claims were true!