We had moved into the house on Chestnut Street in the winter of 1955. The day we moved in was like any moving day with one big exception. Pop who was well into his seventies had leaned into a swinging door which separated the reception room steps and the steps to the kitchen. The door swung open, and Pop fell down the steps into the kitchen and broke his hip. He never left his bed after returning home from the hospital. Pop insisted he was PUSHED! No one was on or near the steps when he fell but he still insisted that he was pushed.

Only a few weeks had passed when we first began to hear knocking, and rapping, coming from the closet in the front bedroom. Though puzzling and at times nerve racking, this did not really seem to be too much of a concern. Helen occupied that front bedroom, and since she did not seem to mind, no one else in the family paid much attention to a little knocking and rapping. The house was an old one, so what old house did not have its share of weird sounds at night?

A few more weeks passed and the noises seemed to be picking up an assortment of other sounds, to add to its repertoire. If you were downstairs, you heard footsteps above your head. When you were upstairs the footsteps were heard coming up, or going down the stairs.

After a few months in the house, things seemed to really start escalating. One night Helen awoke with a feeling she was being watched. A man dressed in a uniform from the World War II era was standing along the side of her bed. Just as the fright began to take hold, the apparition disappeared, from the head down like a wisp of smoke.

The frightening occurances, became not only more disturbing, but also more frequent. One night she had seen a mist come from across the room. It enveloped her as if wanting a kiss. This had a smothering effect on her. She started to pray out loud and again it disappeared like a wisp of smoke.

Soon the real horror began, she had awakened to feel herself being dragged from the bed. I myself had been laying awake, unable to sleep because of a very uncomfortable feeling which filled me with fear. I was laying in my bed across the hall from her room. Both myself and another sister, who was sharing my room, had heard footsteps going into Helen's room only seconds before she started moaning and sobbing. We jumped from the bed and stood in the doorway paralyzed; as we watched a heavy mist exit from Helen's room and disappear down the steps to the first floor.

Many times soft sobbing would be coming from upstairs, when NO ONE was up there. Did some unrequitted lover cry for her soldier boy, who never returned from the war? Was he coming looking for her? He was seen many times throughout the house. The quick glimpse of a womens dress flowing around a corner or through a doorway was seen by all family members.

Whatever entities were occupying the house,they would be seen at different times, in different parts of the house. Pop would mumble and chatter with someone that wasn't there. Did some entity perhaps push him down the stairs as he always claimed?

The house was finally sold a few years later. When I drive by the house, as I do many times I always wonder if this family has ever seen or heard anything. Maybe the RELIGIOUS GROTTO in the front of the house and another on the side is answer enough.