Walking With Ghosts. Lisa Yorio

This was amazing, scary, and shocking. I ran to the tombstone that she was walking towards. I thought maybe she cut through the woods to get to the main road. Then I looked behind the gravestone. There was a very steep cliff followed by a wooded area. There was no way she could have climbed down the hill that fast. She would have torn her clothing and possibly suffered injuries.

       That’s when I realized she was a ghost. I couldn’t believe I saw an apparition in broad daylight. Could this be a lonely wandering spirit visiting a grave of a loved one? Or did she die tragically there on the road? I never found out.

       Of course when I arrived at work, I told my friends what I had seen. They just laughed. I didn’t think they would believe me. Once again, I doubted myself. This incident triggered my memory. This is when I remembered about 10 years earlier that I had seen the ghosts at my cousins and my old apartment.

      ANGELIC EYES

      MIDDLETOWN - NEW YORK

      1987

       There was a period of my life when I was very depressed. This was in 1987 when I was in 17 years old. I was sad because I didn’t have a good job, a car, or a serious relationship. I was still living home with my parents. I felt very lonely and wondered when my life would improve.

       One day my friend and I decided to drive to Middletown, New York to go shopping. It was about a 45-minute drive to all the shopping plazas. She picked me up and we were off.

       Upon arriving, we stopped at an intersection. I was in the passenger seat looking out the window. I glanced over and saw an old woman with long white hair. I could only see the back of her but she looked about 70 years old. She was pulling a cart filled with groceries across the street. She was walking across a dirt walkway that was filled with rocks and she seemed to be struggling. The street she crossed was a very busy intersection. There weren’t any houses visible in that area, only shopping plazas and stores.

       I remember feeling sorry for her. I though to myself, this poor old woman doesn’t have a car or anyone to help her with her groceries. At that moment she looked up turned her head and stared directly at me. She had the brightest clear blue eyes that I had ever seen. Then she smiled, as if she was telling me not to worry, everything would be alright. I took this as a sign of better things to come.

       All of a sudden my spirits were lifted, I got an overwhelming feeling of happiness and believed my life would soon get better. I thought to myself, if this old lady can get by and still remain happy so can I.

       The light turned green and we proceeded on our way. I turned around to glance once more at the old woman but she was nowhere to be found. She just seemed to vanish into thin air. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Where could she have gone to so quickly? There weren’t any houses or walkways in that area. There was only the highway in four directions. There was no place that she could have gone in the matter of seconds that I glanced back. I was astonished.

       I asked my friend, “Did you see that old lady?” She replied, “What old lady?” That answered my question. I can’t believe she didn’t notice her. Was she really there?

       Had I just seen a ghost? Or was this my guardian angel? She had angelic qualities. Her face was so beautiful and her skin was so smooth like white porcelain. It made her look so young. She seemed very happy and peaceful.

       Whether or not she was a ghost or an angel, she definitely left a profound effect on me. I thought about the incident years later. This also peaked my interest in the paranormal. Eventually my life did get better. She made me think differently and have a more positive outlook on life. I just needed a little encouragement from the beyond.

      VIRGINIA’S HOUSE

       SPARROWBUSH - NEW YORK

      1987

       A weird incident happened to me when I was 17 years old. I was on a date with my high school boyfriend and I was sitting in the passenger seat of his car. He was taking me home after a movie. He pulled up in front of my house to drop me off. He leaned over to give me a kiss goodnight and his face brushed across my ear, knocking one of my earrings off. We both heard a ping as it fell between the seats. Since it was late and neither of us had a flashlight, he said he would look for the earring in the morning. I agreed and went inside.

       The next day, I called him and he said that he couldn’t find the earring anywhere. I had taken the other one off the night before, and left it on my dresser in the bedroom. That one also mysteriously disappeared. I looked everywhere but I couldn’t find the earrings.

       About a week later my best friend, Virginia called me. I had told her about the missing earrings because I was so upset. She asked me what the earrings looked like. I described them to her. They were small, gold, heart-shaped earrings. Then she said, “well when I came home today after school, I saw two shiny gold pieces in the center of my room”. “When I picked them up I noticed they were gold heart shaped earrings”. My heart started pounding with excitement. I had been so upset and I thought I would never find them. They were very sentimental to me because my boyfriend gave them to me for my birthday.

       Then I thought to myself, how could this be, I remember one earring fell between the seats and the other was lost at my house.

       I told her I would come right over to see if they were the same earrings. When I got to her house, she showed them to me, I was amazed. They were definitely the same pair that I had lost a week before. At first, I thought it was a joke that they were both playing on me. My friend kept insisting that it wasn’t and even she felt spooked out.

       I called my boyfriend to tell him that the earrings were found. When I told him they were in the middle of Virginia’s bedroom floor, he couldn’t believe it. He then asked me if I was playing a trick on him. I also denied it. He is a very skeptical person and does not believe in the paranormal. He found it hard to comprehend that this could possibly happen. He could not find any rational explanation for how the earrings were lost in his car and then appeared in a bedroom. At first he thought I was joking with him about the whole story. I was not. We never found out how this could have possibly happened or why it did. I was just glad that the earrings were found.

      Another strange incident that occurred at Virginia’s house was that she heard knocking at her bedroom door several nights in a row. This happened on a regular basis. There would always be three knocks and when she opened up the door no one was there. Some theories suggest that knocking sounds are a warning sign from a spirit. Three knocks at a door implies that something negative is about to happen such as death. A few years later her mother passed away in her house. This to me was a strange coincidence.

       I think that perhaps my friend had a ghost in her house. I was there so often it could have followed me home. It could have taken my earrings and brought them back to her house. Some playful ghosts tend to do this, usually a child ghost looking for attention. Another theory could be that there was a portal into another dimension located in her room. This is an entryway from one world or higher plane into another. This passageway allows a spirit or several to enter into our world.

      Another eerie thing that occurred at Virginia’s house was when she purchased a gargoyle doorknocker at an old five & dime store on Jersey Avenue in Port Jervis, New York. The five and dime store used to be a JC Newberry, Woolworth’s, and a JC Penney catalog center many years ago. Since the doorknocker was on consignment there was really no way to find out who owned it previously. Shortly after purchasing it, she hung it at the foot of her bed and started experiencing knocking sounds at night.

       We used to joke around and say that the doorknocker was causing the unexplainable knocks coming from her door. Sometimes in the middle of the night, she would hear three knocks at her door, and then the door would fly open. I also heard it a few times when I was sleeping over. We always assumed it was her sister trying to play a trick on us. Then we would just go back to bed. Until one night, we heard the knocks but her sister wasn’t home. That’s when we started thinking that the doorknocker was causing these strange occurrences.

       This happened back in the 80’s, and Virginia has moved a few times since then. She had packed this doorknocker away many years ago. Recently, she moved back to Port Jervis, New York and has hung it up on a wall in her new house. After doing