How an old house (and our curious house spirit) ended my fear of ghosts
When we moved into our old house, footsteps echoed upstairs and doors opened on their own. We didn’t want a logical explanation, because living with a ghost was more fun, writes managing editor Anu Karttunen.
I suspect we had a ghost living with us. Soon after we moved into our old house ten years ago, I often felt I wasn’t alone upstairs—especially at a particular spot outside my daughter’s bedroom door, at the far end of the hallway. Whenever I tucked items into the hallway closet, I felt compelled to glance over my shoulder. Of course, there was never anything there.
At some point, our daughter wondered why we kept opening her bedroom door at night. We never did, but maybe she left it open herself?
To prove the door was opening on its own, she set her phone to record a time-lapse video overnight. The footage shows her tossing and turning in bed, and then, in the early morning hours, the door swings wide open and light spills in from the hallway. This happened night after night, until it suddenly stopped and never happened again.
“I often felt I wasn’t alone upstairs.”
Strange things happened upstairs over the years as well. In my son’s room, the punching bag would often sway on its own, even though no one had been there all day, and it hadn’t been used before we left. Occasionally, we heard footsteps from above when we were all downstairs. That odd hallway feeling never really went away, but we got used to it.
Who was living with us? We figured it was someone curious but well-intentioned.
“When our house spirit decided for some reason last fall to stop creaking the floors and all its other activities, we almost missed it.”
Before living in an old house, I used to be terrified of ghost stories, but I’m no longer afraid of spirits. When our house spirit decided for some reason last fall to stop the floor creaking and other antics, we almost missed it. For the past year, our life has been completely normal. Either our senses turned off or the spirit moved on.
I know there’s a perfectly logical explanation for everything if you really dig, but we haven’t tried. It would be painfully dull to have a reason for everything, and besides, we’d lose out on our best Halloween stories.
