Beech Tree News Network

In the fashion of continuing to protect the privacy of the individuals these experiences belong to, all names in this account are fictional. 

Growing up, Margo lived with her grandparents on their farm at the county line.  The little farmhouse was originally built by her great-grandfather, and now she resided there with her grandparents. It was not uncommon for Margo and her cousin Claudia to spend weeks at a time together at either Margo’s home or Claudia’s.

To set the scene you must understand that the cousins entertained themselves.  Smart phones and smart TVs were nonexistent at this time and if you wanted to call a friend you picked up the landline, and if you had a private call you took the twenty-foot cord with you into a closet for a makeshift phone booth. Without electronics, they amused each other. 

It was a summer night as Margo and Claudia lay together in her bed at the back of the house engaged in middle school gossip and discussing their summer plans. It was not uncommon for her grandparents to finally holler at them to hush when they had enough of the girls’ antics. So, when footsteps were heard coming down the hallway, they instantly assumed they were fixing to be scolded. As the footsteps approached the girls simmered down, and glanced out the door into the hallway. As they watched, they seen the side view of a woman in a white petticoat with purple flowers, she then turned her back to them and flapped her petticoat behind her as she opened the door to the bedroom, stepped inside and shut it. 

Still believing it was Margo’s Mamaw, they laid there holding in their giggles, waiting for her to come into the room and say something, but the door never opened. Getting up, the girls left the bedroom, and opened the door across the hall that led to the other bedroom to speak to her grandmother but no one was there. Stunned, they both ran down the hall way, through the living room, and into her grandparent’s bedroom.

Excitedly the girls talked over each other to tell Margo’s Mamaw what they had seen. Of all the things they told her Mamaw one statement stuck out, and that was the description of the petticoat. You see, this house had been in the family for generations.  Margo’s grandparents had dutifully taken on the role of caregivers for their parents in their final years and Margo’s great-grandmother and great-grandfather had passed away in the bedroom across from her.  The girls were small toddlers at the time and not present when their great-grandmother passed, so there was no way they would have known that the same exact petticoat they had described seeing, white with purple flowers, was what she was wearing the night she passed away.  After revealing this bit of information that was previously unknown to the girls, all were convinced that the person who walked down the hallway and closed the bedroom door that summer night was their great-grandmother. 

Astonishingly enough, the happenings did not end there.  Throughout the years Margo recounted that it was commonplace for picture frames to “bounce” off the walls of the hallway, crashing to the floor, while the entire family sat in the living room watching television. Margo’s Papaw would lean back in his recliner and yell down the hallway, “Easy Dad!”.  According to everyone in the family her great-grandfather relied on his cane and would brace himself against the walls of the hallway as he walked, knocking frames to the floor as he went. 

The interesting thing about these encounters is that they were consistently experienced by multiple family members over several years. Margo admitted that she was never scared of living there because they were convinced the spirits were her great-grandparents. She never felt threatened, if anything she felt comforted knowing they were still there with them.  In her logical way of thinking, why should she be scared of her great-grandparents?

It truly makes you wonder if the activity people experience are the spirits trying to communicate or if they are reliving their past life on a repeating loop, oblivious to the fact they are dead. These two elderly spirits still roamed the hallways of what was once their home and carelessly knocked pictures off the walls just as they did when alive.  They weren’t malicious or interacting with anyone, they were just going about “their business” on the other side.

-----

Story by Amber McIntosh, for Beech Tree News.

Editor's Note:  This is the second installment in a series featuring scary stories of local origin.  We hope you enjoy.  Happy Halloween!