It was about this time, fourteen years ago, that we bought our house.
My mother and I had been out driving, drove by this house with a For Sale sign on it - I called my realtor and asked him to meet us quickly at the house to show it to me. By 6:00 p.m. that evening we had made an offer on the house, contingent on the sale of our other house. One month later, we were moving in.
That afternoon, when my realtor rushed over to show me the house, I entered the property and didn't even have to go inside the house - I knew I wanted to buy it. It had a huge 1 acre yard that was entirely fenced in and I knew this would be the perfect home for our family. My twins were 2 years old at the time.
So ... we bought it and moved in and have lived here ever since.
I have since realized that this is not the house of my dreams, but it has become the house my children have grown up in and it is our home. I think we will live in this house for the rest of our lives.
There are many special things about our house - but, not necessarily special to the naked eye. One of those things is ...
the cowboy ghost ...
that lives in the upstairs hallway leading to our bedrooms.
YES - a ghost!
I had seen the ghost many times, after we first moved in. I would be sitting in our little den area down by our kitchen and every so often - about 2 times a month - I would catch a glimpse of the ghost in the upstairs hallway.
I was always surprised and startled.
I was always confused.
I woud ALWAYS get up and go inspect the hallway and the bathroom - trying desperately to explain what I had seen.
The ghost would move from right to left. From my daughters' bedroom, across the hallway and then into the bathroom - a tall, dark shadow. That's the only time I ever saw him and that's all he ever did - move across the hallway from right to left. I never saw him go back again and I never saw him anywhere else in the house.
I was, however, the only one that ever saw the ghost and I never mentioned that I had seen him to anyone - not even my husband. That is, not until ...
One evening, my mother made the comment, "Did you know that there's a ghost in your upstairs hallway?"
I, of course, perked up to this statement. I did not offer my experiences - I requested that she tell me what she had seen.
She said, "He's tall and he wears black. He wears a hat and a trench coat and boots. He moves across the hallway, from the girls' room over to the bathroom."
She thought she was telling me something I didn't know. I said, "I know - I've seen him too," and went on to explain that she had perfectly described the ghost I had seen many times before.
My mother and I sat there and could not believe that we had, in fact, confirmed our sightings - without even realizing or trying. It was spectacular.
I have gone on to tell people about the ghost, but don't encourage the talk around my smaller children, as when they pick up on the idea, it sort of scares them.
About 8 years after we bought the house, we added on a new master bedroom. We also tore down some walls in our kitchen and den area and renovated our kitchen/dining room/living room area. Since that renovation, and redesigning our den, we no longer have the seating arranged in such a way that you can sit at the bottom of the stairs and look up. Because of this, I have not sighted the ghost in a long time - at least not in the hallway.
When we added the master bedroom and then moved in - I began to sense that the ghost was in our room.
There have been many nights when I will sense that there is someone sitting (I can feel the movement) at the foot of my bed. When this happens, I will bolt up in my bed, expecting to see a cat or one of my children.
There never is.
I am not afraid of our ghost, as he has never done anything other than wander. I believe he is a lost cowboy.
The neighborhood I live in is an area where Indians lived. The name of our neighborhood is named after these Indians. There are caves near our house that have been said to have drawings - left behind by those Indians.
Like I said, I am not afraid. He's a lost cowboy and I am perfectly content letting him live in the upstairs hallway of our house. I'm even okay with him sitting at the foot of my bed watching me sleep.
But ... if he decides to move again - if he gets it in his head to crawl in bed next to me ... he needs to leave his trench coat thrown across the chair and his boots on the floor.
I guess he can leave the hat on.
I'm a sucker for cowboy hats.
(I wrote this post for Suz, over at Busy Bee - she wanted to hear the story.)