My Ghost Story

L-R: Grace and Big Sis in Leslie County, Kentucky where I lived until I was ten years old.

In the late fall of the year, it rains a lot in the beautiful state of Kentucky. I believe it was in the late fall when we arrived home from school one day.  I had already pulled my boots off when mother said she wanted us to go to the store. It had rained a lot and the creek was deeper than usual. I didn’t want to take time to put my boots back on because I just knew Big Sis would carry me across the creek. The walk to the grocery store was perhaps two miles.  About halfway to the store, it was getting dusk and we were standing in front of an old dilapidated house that had a reputation of being haunted. The people who owned the house all died there and no one had ever lived there again. My sister did something I couldn’t believe, she crossed the creek to the other side where the house stood. I became a little frightened and called to her to come back and carry me across. She just kept on walking away from me. I looked over at the old house which had a front porch and there appeared before my very eyes a little old man who was sitting on a stool. In his hand was a hammer and he was hammering on something that sounded like it was made of tin. I called to my sis and said, “I see a ghost come get me!” She stopped, turned, and started running toward me. Just before she got to me I looked back at the front porch and that little old man disappeared just as he had appeared.

I used to work for the Ogden City School District and I would sometimes share this story with my students. They would say, “Ah, we know, you were so frightened it was a figment of your imagination.” I said, “No, it wasn’t a figment of my imagination.” Another question they posed: “Well, was it the little old man who used to live in the house?” I said, “I have no idea. The people who lived there died many years before I was born.”

A couple of years later Sis and I ventured on the porch of this old house. The front door was hanging on one hinge. Sis went on into the room and found an old trunk which she opened. Looking in she called out, “Grace, come look!” There were lots of dolls, which of course were antique dolls much older than what we were used to seeing. We were never tempted to take those dolls. We just left them the way we found them. We then walked on to where the old barn was standing. An adventurous day, much nicer than the day we had walked to the grocery store.

So, do you believe in spirits? Do you believe in angels? About thirty years ago a  friend of mine shared a story that happened to her one morning when she was praying beside her bed.  The Spirit spoke to her mind and told her that her grandmother was sitting in the corner of the room and that she could see her if she wanted to. I asked my dear friend if she looked to which she said, “No, I was afraid to look.”

I’ve read lots of beautiful stories where people have had experiences of being visited by a departed loved one.

I would like to share with you one of my favorite stories about Barbara Smith Amussen: President Ezra Taft Benson’s mother-in-law, Barbara Smith Amussen, was an officiator in the Logan Temple for twenty years and a widow for forty years. She was a woman without guile.

This choice woman knew the exact time she was to depart mortal life. Her husband Carl Christian Amussen, a Danish convert and Utah’s first pioneer jeweler and watchmaker, appeared to her in a vision. He said he had come to tell me that my time in mortal life was ending and that on the following Thursday (it was then Friday), I would be expected to leave mortal life.”

Her oldest daughter, Mabel, said, “Oh, Mother, you’ve been worrying about something. You’ve not been feeling well.”

Her mother replied, “Everything’s fine. I feel wonderful. There’s nothing to worry about. I just know I’ll be leaving next Thursday.”

As the time drew near, she attended fast meeting in her ward. She bore her testimony and the bishop said she talked as though she were going on a long journey.

As the days passed, she went to the bank, drew out her small savings, paid all her bills, and went to Bishop Hall’s mortuary and picked out her casket. Then she had the water and the power turned off in her home and went down to Mabel, her daughter’s home.

On the day of Barbara’s passing, Mabel came into the room where her mother was reclining on the bed. Her mother said, “Mabel, I feel a little bit drowsy. I feel I will go to sleep. Do not disturb me if I sleep until the eventide.”

Those were her last words, and she peacefully passed away.

This brings me to the topic of my next post which you will see in a few days. 🙂

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