“Shadow Man,” and the woman who likes things neat: two ghosts reportedly haunting reader’s homes
LETHBRIDGE – A few weeks ago, we asked our readers to tell us their stories of haunted homes in the city. Two stories stood out: one about a home in the city’s southeast area, where the reported hauntings have affected multiple tenants, and another in one of the city’s oldest homes, where former lawyers and judges lived. Here are those stories.
Pat and Simone
Pat sent us a story describing a home she lived in more than a decade ago not far from Henderson Lake, and how badly it affected her family.
She described a “demon-like” figure in a basement bedroom, a shadow man there as well, who was like a “protector” of sorts to her three daughters, and the fact that no one-not even the family pet-would willingly go into an old storage room.
We met at the home and took a few pictures. Little did we know the current tenant was peering out of her window at us. We decided to knock on her door and tell her that Pat believed her home was haunted.
She said two word to us:
“Come in.”
We were both startled by what we saw inside the house; crucifixes, bibles and likenesses of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and rosaries everywhere.
What was even more startling, was when the two women-who had never met one another until that morning- began sharing their stories.
“This all makes sense now. We knew something was going on down there,” said Simone, the current tenant.
“My oldest daughter’s room was in the basement,” she explained to Pat’s gasps. “There was a lot of trouble in that room.”
Pat’s daughter also stayed in the basement bedroom and described seeing strange things occur.
“Nobody wanted to be home. Bad things would always happen. My daughter was in her bedroom downstairs and she started screaming. She said a chip bag moved. No one else was there.
“My three girls would not go into the storage room either, because they saw red, glowing eyes. We had a fairly large dog. And they would put the dog on a leash and promise it treats if they had to go into the storage room, cause they felt there was something evil in there.”
Pat went on to describe another “spirit” that was dressed like a cowboy from the 1960s who her daughters believed was a protective spirit. Simone’s eyes widened in agreement.
“Then there was one day I was sitting in the basement in front of the TV having a cigarette,” said Pat. “And my back was facing to the window, and the TV was off, and I saw a tall thin man walk across the screen. He was wearing a long rancher’s coat.”
“I’ve seen him,” said Simone.
Both women then described at times being pushed, their cheeks brushed, or their feet lifted while in bed.
“The aura in this house was so bad,” said Pat.
“When we were moving… my husband was packing up some stuff in the basement and all of sudden, he just left everything behind. I don’t know what we left behind, but he just felt he was not safe, so he got the hell out of there.”
For now, Simone says her family will stay. She believes her faith will overcome anything strange going on.
“It puzzles me, what happens here. But I try not to give it strength over me.”
Deedria
Odd things began happening in Deedria’s 117-year-old home in the London Road area when she moved in more than 20-years ago.
“A doctor had the house built in 1900, and a lawyer purchased it from the doctor, and then Judge Hoyt purchased it from the doctor, and I purchased it from Judge Hoyt.”
She says right away, things like keys would go missing, or clothing would be moved.
“It was just my husband and I, and my two daughters…When I first noticed that there were other entities here. I would put my keys down, and if I left them in a certain spot, my keys would go missing. There was nobody else that would take my keys. So I had my husband put up a little key rack, and I would put my keys on there, but if I didn’t, they would go missing again. When I put things down as well, I know to put a paper weight down, so they don’t move.
“They [spirits] seem to be very nit-picky, and they like things a certain way.”
That includes a woman who doesn’t like people in the home sleeping in.
“My second husband and I were in our bedroom and we heard a woman saying ‘time to get up!’ And he asked who I gave the key to, and I told him no one. Whoever that spirit is, they like people up in the morning.”
It’s not only Deedria, that notices odd things going on in the home. She says during a recent visit, while her grandson sat in the living room, he saw a little girl staring at him through the glass doors leading to the foyer.”
“He was just white. He said ‘when you left the room, you went into the kitchen, right? Is there a little girl visiting here?’ I said, ‘did you say anything to her?’ He said ‘are you kidding me?’ He’s not a child, he’s like, 30-years-old.”
Overall though, Deedria believes the spirits who allegedly haunt her home are friendly.
She says often she and others, including her daughter, hear children singing or laughing in a room where she makes her own dolls. And when no one is upstairs footsteps or the sound of boxes moving will also startle them. There’s also apparently someone in the kitchen, who likes to open cabinet doors.
“It’s fun, because obviously they want somebody to know they’re there. And I don’t worry about it I just acknowledge or validate that they’re there, and they’re good with that.”
