I felt like I had to tell Aunt Zola, so when I saw her I told her all that I had seen. She listened intently as I described Julie’s burial clothes and the locket she was wearing. My aunt smiled when I was finished.
“I feel better now,” she told me. “I know that Julie exists somewhere and is happy.”
Years later when I was old enough to understand, Aunt Zola told me how much my ghostly experience had meant to her. She had been depressed and grieving over Julie’s death because a local preacher had told her that nobody could go to heaven without being baptized.
“This got me so worried that I nearly lost my mind,” she said. “But when you told me what you saw, my burden lifted. I knew she was with the angels.”
In our community in those days, the dead were kept at home until time for the funeral. Just before they took Julie away, my aunt placed Julie’s favorite locket around her neck and tucked it inside her dress out of sight. Nobody but my aunt knew that it was buried with Julie, until Julie came to see me one last time like she promised. To me, that says that I really saw the ghost of little Julie.
15. “Grandmother Nevils’ Ghost”
McCreary County
When I was about twelve years old, my family and I were getting ready to move from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, to Texas. Mom and Dad brought me to McCreary County to stay with Grandmother Nevils while they helped the movers pack up.
Being there was great. She would get up early and fix me the biggest and best breakfast you could ever imagine. Then, I would fix her lunch and supper. Once a day, we would clean the house and wash dishes after every meal.
Well, two weeks later, Mom and Dad come back. We stayed another week there with my grandma, then headed toward Texas. Mom Nevils wanted me to stay with her, but Mommy said I had to go. Mom Nevils became upset with Mommy and told her that she would never see Mom Nevils alive again.
We were in Texas about four to six months, if that long. The family called us and said that Mom Nevils had passed on. The funeral was held just one day before my mother s birthday. Our friends from Ft. Campbell came to the funeral with us. That night at the opening, about five people, including myself, heard Mom Nevils yell out Mommy’s name. We all heard it at the same time.
Two or three years later, we moved back to McCreary County into our old house that we let Mom Nevils stay in while we were away. For a while, everything seemed a little strange like it always did when we moved to another place.
We moved here in November ‘86. Around December, I started seeing Mom Nevils. She’d go to that bedroom and look out at the field where horses and cattle were sometimes kept. After she looked out the window, she would walk over to my bedside and stand there a while just staring at me, with her hands together. She would look at me sadly….
I was terrified at first when I saw her spirit standing beside my bed. For many months this went on. Then one day I decided to speak to her. I told her how much I missed her and how I loved her more than anybody. Her smile showed me her happiness. I felt like all that time that she was coming back to check on me and to let me know that she was no longer in misery.
16. “The Gold Tooth”
Russell County
This true story from my mother’s side of the family inspired my fictional story “Ghostland,” published in The Walking Trees. In other words, its the story behind the story.
During his lifetime, my great-grandfather Christopher Columbus Gentry had two wives named Elizabeth. Both went by the name Lizzie, but neither seemed to be the type to be a main character in a ghost story.
When my great-grandfather was married to First Lizzie (my great-grandmother), he was not very generous with his money. When First Lizzie had trouble with her front teeth, Great-grandfather Christopher did not feel it was necessary to spend the money required to have the tooth fixed. Women didn’t work outside the home then, and they didn’t have money of their own. Perhaps that’s why First Lizzie didn’t stand up to him and eventually lost her tooth.
First Lizzie didn’t smile much because of the missing tooth, and she usually held her hand over her mouth after that when she talked.
During an outbreak of flu, Great-grandmother Lizzie became ill and died. It would seem that the need for a gold tooth she’d always wanted would have died with her, but that was not the case.
A while after Great-grandmother’s death, Christopher married the second Lizzie. Before long, she, too, developed tooth trouble and complained to Great-grandfather.
Maybe he felt guilty about the way he neglected First Lizzie, or maybe he had more money to spend during his second marriage. In any case, Second Lizzie got a gold tooth.
The gold tooth was a source of great pride to Second Lizzie. She smiled often to show it off at first. Then she suddenly stopped smiling. She kept her mouth closed and her lips set in a prim, straight line.
“What’s the matter with you?” Great-grandfather wanted to know.
She didn’t tell him at first, but things finally got so bad she finally had to.
“Every night,” she said, “a shadowy form comes down the stairs to my bed, floats over me, and starts plucking at my gold tooth. It’s about to drive me crazy!”
Great-grandfather was about convinced she was crazy until he watched her carefully and saw it, too. It frightened him enough to cause him to build a new house for Second Lizzie.
After Great-grandfather and Second Lizzie moved to the new house, they never saw the shadowy form again. Maybe First Lizzie forgave them and went on to rest, or maybe she didn’t follow them because she was still too embarrassed to be seen outside her old home without her missing tooth.
17. “A Dead Grandson’s Return”
Taylor County
When my brother Paul died, my grandmother was very concerned and uneasy over the loss of her grandson. One night while she was lying there in bed, she spoke to him. “Paul,” she said, “if you can hear me, give me some kind of sign that you are all right.”
Well, when Paul was living, he always walked a certain way. He kind of dragged one foot, and he always wore cowboy boots. After she had spoken to Paul, asking him to give her a sign, she and her husband heard Paul walk up to their front door. When they heard his steps, the house shook and they heard him walk away. Grandma just knew that it was Paul who had walked up to the door so, after that, she handled Paul s death much better.
18. “The Ghost That Visited the Scene of His Wife’s Death”
Jefferson County
Patti McConnell moved into an upstairs apartment on the Bardstown Road there in Louisville, with her eight-year-old daughter. The day they moved in, Patti instantly felt as if there were a presence living there in the apartment with her. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happened, yet Patti said that she could always feel something or somebody there with her.
One night, Patti had been out, and when she arrived at her apartment the front door was wide open, yet she knew that she had locked it when she left earlier that evening. She walked on into the apartment, and she immediately noticed that there was no longer a presence there. Whoever it was had left.
Two weeks later, Patti decided to move back to Bowling Green. Her daughter and most of their belongings were already in Bowling Green, so Patti was all alone. Later on that same night, Patti woke up and saw a misty-like figure standing at the end of her bed. It appeared to be an old man all dressed in white, and he looked at Patti and said, “I’m coming back,” then just disappeared.
Patti immediately gathered up the rest of her things that night and drove to Bowling Green. She never returned to that apartment.
Patti also told me that she learned that an elderly woman had previously lived in the Louisville apartment, and that she had died in Patti s bedroom. Likely, that apparition she saw was that of the elderly woman’s husband.
19. “Was It Really Marcie?”
Union County
Right before my mothers best friend, Marcie, died, Marcie told people in her family that she wanted to go see m
y mother on the forthcoming Saturday. Unfortunately for Marcie, she didn’t hold out that long. She had suffered from some sort of illness that changed her whole personality in later years. Up until that point in time, Marcie had been a pretty happy-go-lucky sort of individual. She always had a gruff tone in her voice, but she never meant anything by that tone of voice at all until the sickness got hold of her.
She and my father had grown up together. For some stupid reason, a year or two before she died the two of them got into an argument and refused to speak to each other after that. My father was so angry with Marcie that he forbade my mother to ever speak to her again.
Sometimes when my mother is in the house all alone, she hears Marcie call out her name. She never has seen her, however. The only thing that Marcie does is to call out my mother’s name. Mother believes it is Marcie because she has something she wants to tell her.
“A Dead Mother’s Return”
Caldwell County
Mom died when I was just fifteen years old. Well, once when I was alone in my house here in Princeton, I felt something smoothing my hair down just like my mother always did when she’d rub it with her hands. I turned around, and there Mom was, her spirit, standing there right in front of me.
She said to me, “Liz, I love you.”
I was so glad to see her again, but I almost fell out of my chair when I saw her and she spoke to me.
When I looked back up toward her, she was gone.
21. “A Dead Father’s Return”
Grayson County
I woke up from a bad dream about two weeks after my father’s death. In the corner of the room sat the recliner that my father had used in the nursing home where he died. I looked over at the chair and saw my father sitting in it. He had on his pajamas.
It was really cold in the room, and I felt a sudden chill. He then looked at me and said, “Gail, everything is going to be okay.” Then, suddenly he was gone.
I felt like he had come back to tell me that it was okay that I wasn’t with him during his last day here on earth. See, I was supposed to be there with him, because I was usually with him for a little while every day there in the nursing home. My conscience felt at rest. Then I just fell back asleep. Everything was all right now.
22. “Grandmother’s Return”
Larue County
These friends of mine, the Potters, told me that they had a wonderful grandmother, who had been dead for ten years. I never met her, but they told me a lot about her, such as the very long hair that she had. She used these long hair pins to keep her hair up and in place.
It had been ten years since the grandmother had been in the house. Well, Mrs. Potter had a dream about her one night. The grandmother was sitting at Mrs. Potter’s bedside telling her that she was all right, that everything would be okay.
The next morning they found one of the grandmother s big, old hair pins right outside the bedroom door in the hallway. They truly believed that that was a sure sign that the grandmother had come back to see them.
23. “Assurance of Love from a Grandmother’s Ghost”
Ohio County
Donna Ford, my senior year psychology teacher over in Ohio County, told me that she and her sister shared a room that had two closets. One closet was theirs; one was that of their grandma, who lived with them.
When Donna was seventeen and her sister was nineteen, their granny died. The night after the funeral, they were in bed, and Donna woke up and saw their grandma walk across the room to her closet and proceeded to get her blue sweater, the one she always wore.
Donna woke her sister up and they both saw their grandmother leaving. As she left, the grandmother looked at them and said, “I love you both and would never hurt you.”
Donna thought that she had dreamed all this, but after talking with her sister the next morning, she realized that it had indeed happened. And, believe it or not, when they went to their grandmothers closet, her blue sweater was gone.
Their mother told them not to be scared because of what they saw. She told them that their granny did love them very much and that she would never hurt them.
24. “A Dead Uncle’s Return”
Cumberland County
During this summer just past, I really got depressed over the death of my uncle, who died a year ago last November. I was truly so depressed that I didn’t want to socialize with anybody. All I wanted to do was sit in my upstairs room, alone.
One day, my parents were downstairs watching television, and I was there in my room thinking. Suddenly, I felt that someone was there in the room with me. I turned around to look, but saw no one. But suddenly, I heard my dead uncle say, “Alica, don’t worry about me. I’m happy where I am.”
And at that very moment, my mother yelled out, “Alica, come on down for lunch.”
I ran on downstairs to eat, and my uncle never spoke to me again. But I truly feel that he came back and spoke to me, just to make me feel better, to help me accept the fact that he was gone.
25. “A Dead Mother’s Ghost Returns”
Russell County
When my mother was fifteen years old, she lost her mother by death. The night after her mother died, my mother told me that as she lay in her bed, she looked up and saw her mama standing there beside the bed.
My mother called out to her mother, but she didn’t answer. She just stood there for a few seconds and then walked out of the room.
Mama never saw her mother’s ghost again after that one time, and nothing unusual has happened since then.
26. “Ghost Whispers”
Warren County
One night I was lying awake in my dorm room, and my sister was asleep there in my room. I heard someone whisper my name. I just laid there, scared; afraid to look to see who it was. I felt as though someone were getting ready to strangle me or something. I was scared, truly scared. Then it whispered my name again.
That time, I jumped up and turned around real fast but no one was there that could be seen. I distinctly felt someone standing there in the room, looking down on me. I have never been able to figure out whose ghost that might have been, but something was there. I was not asleep and did not dream it.
27. “One Stormy Night”
Pike County
It was on a dark, stormy night, and there was a knock on the door of this country doctor’s house. He was very sleepy, but he came downstairs and answered the call. It was a small girl who was very scared. She said that she had to come and find a doctor because her mother was very ill and might die.
The little girl had on a wool coat and a furry hat and mittens. She also had on little black boots. It was storming very bad, and the doctor was amazed at how brave she was. He said that he would be right down. He ran up and got dressed, then grabbed his medical bag. Off they went into the night.
They walked and stumbled through the storm and finally they came to a little cottage. They went inside, and the doctor went into the bedroom. The woman was almost dead from pneumonia. He bathed her in alcohol to get her fever down, and he gave her some medicine. He stayed with her for a long time until finally she began to get some better. The crisis was almost over.
He was wondering where the little girl had gone, so he remarked to her mother, “That little girl of yours sure is brave. Not many little girls would come out in such a storm as this.”
Then he noticed that the woman acted very strangely. She said to him, “Doctor, I have no little girl. She died three months ago from pneumonia.”
The doctor couldn’t believe his ears. He said, “But she came after me in a wool coat and boots, with a furry hat and mittens! She led me here.”
The lady looked very sad, and she said, “When she died three months ago, we put her things in the closet.”
[He looked in the closet.] Sure enough, there were the very clothes the little girl had on. Suddenly, though, as he looked closer, he could see that the clothes were very misty and wet from the storm.
28. “Uncle Lish’s Buried Treas
ure”
Henry County
When Mrs. Sanders was about twelve years old, her Uncle Lish Williams died. He had been living with his niece Mrs. Ollie Teague, Mrs. Sanders, and her family. Some two weeks after Uncle Lish died, the family was preparing to move. Great-grandmother was in an upstairs room finishing a carpet she had been weaving so the loom could be moved. Uncle Lish’s sister, a Mrs. Johnson, was in another room. Mrs. Sanders, who was then Cleo Teague, was taking up a piece of linoleum that was tacked in front of the hall door. It was just outside the living room door where Uncle Lish died, and on the other side of the hallway was the parlor where he had been “laid out.”
My grandmother looked up, and there floating through the air toward her was Uncle Lish. His snow-white hair was combed just the way the undertaker had combed it, but only the upper part of his body was visible. She was so frightened that she ran up the steps to the weaving room. Her white and frightened little face told her mother that something was wrong.
Grandmother[, who was then just a little girl,] couldn’t speak at all. When she recovered enough to tell her mother and aunt what she had seen, Aunt Johnson was very perplexed. “He wanted to tell you something, child.”
You see, Uncle Lish was believed to have buried his money, and the story goes that those who do this will return, and if you ask them they will tell you [where it is]. My grandmother says that she had no thought of Uncle Lish that day, and so far as she could remember she did not know of the dead returning for their buried treasure.
My grandmother swears this is the truth, and says if she were meeting God right today, she could tell Him so, truthfully.
29. “Gnatt Hudson and a Spirit”
Knott County
My brother Gnatt was always a rowdy boy. He always carried a pistol, which he called his “Sweetheart.” He was always looking for fights or anything that would cause trouble. He was better known as Bad Gnatt Hudson. One reason for this was because every time you saw him, he had this little pistol by his side.
Gnatt also had a horse named Maggie. She would do anything that he asked her to do. He had her so well trained that he never had to get off her to open the gate. When he was drunk, he would say, “Come on Maggie, I’m drunk and too drunk to open the gate. You know how to get me on the other side.”
Haunted Houses and Family Ghosts of Kentucky Page 32