Walking Ghost

From: Jennifer Shiel (dshiel@mail.charleston.net)
Story type: Ghost
Location: 915 East 9th Street, Erie, PA
Source: Form Submission

For many years, there had been rumors that the ghost of an older woman haunted my grandparents' home at 915 East 9th St. My mother had even heard the rumors while growing up there in the 50s. The elderly woman supposedly met her demise by falling down the basement steps into the old coal cellar. My mother had often told me that she had often heard what sounded like a barrel rolling down the cellar stairs. Even though I was less than 10 when I was hearing these stories, I already realized that ghost stories were often times fed by rumor. Therefore, while I found them exciting, I always kept an open mind about their legitimacy.

That was until an evening in the Summer of 1969 or 1970, when my mother and I were spending a few weeks with my grand- parents as we often did.

Mother and I retired to bed at, as I remember, about 11:00 p.m. Our bedroom was on the second floor, at the front of the home, while my grandparents' room was on the first floor, also at the front. There was a "family room" of sorts between our upstairs bedroom and the top of the stairwell. It was mostly void of furniture except for my grandmother's sewing machine. Mother and I both fell asleep almost upon hitting the pillows.

Shortly after, we both awoke to hear heavy footfalls coming up the stairwell. We both assumed that it was my grandfather coming up to check that windows were closed (there was no air conditioning and we were expecting rain that night). As we listened the footsteps came across the family room and stopped. As we both lay there waiting, there were footsteps returning downstairs. Finally, my mother held me close and told me that Grandfather or Grandmother were out there, and we eventually fell to sleep.

The next morning, Mother and I both asked my grandparents at breakfast why they had come upstairs during the night. Both claimed they had gone to bed together and had not left their room until morning.

To this day, both my grandparents, my mother and I believe that there was something else walking around the home that night. If it had been a joke on someone's part, it would have been confessed to long ago. We still talk about it and we all wonder if,in fact, it was the spirit of the elderly woman who died in the cellar.

By the way, this may sound like fiction, but it is absolute truth. It is the sole reason why, even today, I believe that there may be remnants of others still moving about the places they knew while alive.