As we navigate life and keep trying to learn and evolve, we always have areas we are “working on.”
My Haunting
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of discussing my weight, my macros, and whether I worked out today. For the record, I am doing all the above, but I’d rather dish about something else I am working on.
I am working on figuring out the ghost that has haunted me for years. Okay, haunting is a strong word. It’s more that I believe a ghost has been making his/her presence known, only to me, for years and specifically while I am at my parents’ house.
For years, we have called my ghost, Rose, based on some research my older sister did about 20 years ago. She worked in the courthouse for a while, and found out that someone named Rose owned the property my parents built their house on years prior. That’s it. That is all we have known all of these years except that I am haunted or crazy.
I’m not crazy. Crazy stuff just seems to happen to me when I’m at my parents’ house. It started when I was about 20 years old, was at its peak when my girls were small and continues today.
I have experienced anything from knocking on the bathroom door, horns honking, lights going out only in my room, hair dryers turning on and doors opening and closing. None of these things in and of themselves are terribly scary but when you add them up, sometimes in a matter of days, you realize something is going on. Someone wants their presence to be known.
My sisters used to tell me to be open to the possibility that “the ghost” wanted to communicate with me.
No, thank you.
I used to audibly say, “not today, Rose. I don’t want to see you or hear you so just keep to yourself.”
I finally decided to see if I could figure out if anyone died on the property or any clues as to why I have been haunted all of these years.
I began by just trying to see how far I could trace the property back online. It’s not easy because the property description changes many times over the years and there were a lot of owners. Just as I began to wonder if I was even looking at the right property, the next grantee was, “Rose Haynes Estate.”
BINGO!
Rose was real, and she owned the property. The online records only go back to 1922 when Martin and Rose originally purchased the property.
I felt like I had just won the lottery. So far, I have discovered where Rose and Martin are buried. I know Rose did not die on the property, I have seen census details dating back to 1880 when Rose was a servant for the Haynes family. By the 1920 census, Rose is listed as Martin’s wife. We can speculate, but servant girl turned wife, to a man 20 years her senior doesn’t necessarily sound romantic. Rose and Martin never had children, and Martin died one year after they purchased the land.
While I know more about the property and that someone named Rose actually owned it prior to my parents, I still have more questions than answers.
Did anyone ever build a home on the property?
Did Rose and Martin live on the property?
Did anyone ever live on the property prior to my parents?
Did Martin die on the property?
Did anyone else die on the property?
Needless to say, I am no closer to understanding why I have been haunted all of these years or by whom.
If you have any thoughts of how to proceed, please let me know. Until then, I will be continuing down this path, searching for my ghost, who I will continue to affectionately call Rose.
Lowi & G 