Grandpa Branson came home...

     This story is 100% true, you can believe it or not, either way to me it was real.  In 1985 my Grandpa Branson passed away, I was only 7 years old.  I never got to know him very well, and I have very few memories of him.  My brother and I used to spend the night at my Grandma Branson's house many times after he was gone.  We used to have lots of fun staying up late watching movies, eating pizza, and playing games.  This is the story of what happened one of those times that I spent the night.

     I remember this particular night all too well.  Travis (my brother) and I went to spend the night during the weekend.  We stayed up watching TV with Grandma.  We ordered a pizza and had fun all night long till around 11:00 p.m. when we all went to sleep.  My Grandma went to her room, my brother went to the spare bedroom, and I slept on the couch in the living room.

     I remember waking up around 3 a.m. and hearing the clock chime.  I was very thirsty so I got up and went into the kitchen to get something.  I got the 2 liter pop out of the refrigerator and poured me a glass of pop.  I drank my pop and headed back to bed.  I turned off the light in the kitchen.  When I looked into the living room saw my Grandpa Branson coming home, but I could see right through him.  He looked just like how I remembered him before he died.  There was a light blue glow all around him.  I remember that he appeared to be wearing coveralls and had some black spots on him.  He walked through the living room and into the bedroom. I watched him as he then disappeared.

     I was told later in life that he had worked in a coal mine which explained the coveralls to me.  I didn't tell anyone for a long time because I didn't know what they would say about it.  Still to this day I can remember the image of my Grandpa.  I will always believe in ghost as long as I live.

     My friend Jack's Mom used to live in a house that they thought was haunted, I too believe that it was haunted due to my experience.  His mom told me about lights that would turn on or off, and she would be the only person home.  Jack told me one time while he was washing his face he looked up and saw a man looking back at him in the mirror, but when he turned around no one was there.  There were other occurances such as things moving and stuff dissappearing, but I never saw it, and the siprit was not harmful.  Now that you know a little about what was going on in the house let me tell you my experience.

     One night stayed up late playing video games with Jack.  I remember it was really late when Jack headed for bed, and I crashed on the couch.  I remember that my stomach was hurting bad that night, it was probably from eating too much pizza.  I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a shadowy figure of a man standing in the kitchen door way, looking at me.

     I didn't have my glasses on so I just assumed that it was Jack checking up on me, I don't know why because it was in the middle of the night.  I heard the person say "How do you feel?"

     "My stomach hurts a lot", I answered, as I tried to focus my eyes.

     Then I heard him say, "you will be ok".  I tried to look up again and teh figure was gone.  I thought that Jack just went back to sleep, and I rested for a while before falling asleep.

     When I woke up in the morning I felt great.  I waited for Jack to get up to talk to him.  While I waited Jack's mom came out and was talking to me, I told her about talking to Jack, and she said that was nice of him.  When Jack came out of his room I told him about what had happened, and he told me, "I never got up last night.  I was dead asleep."  We knew that I must have talked to the ghost.  I get and eerie feeling everytime I think about it.

Late Night at Skyline Chili

Please allow me to give you a little bit of background information about this story. I started working for Skyline Chili in Kettering, OH in January of 1995.  I worked there for over a year and a half but I remember some of the late nights I worked, I didn't feel like I was alone.

     I remember many times that I would be washing dishes and I would feel someone standing right behind me.  I could feel their breath on the back of my neck, but when I would turn around nobody would be there.  I would go up to the front where the food was prepared and ask if anyone was back with me.  Everyone would say "No."  Now these are people that wouldn't play tricks on you without telling you that they did it to spook you.

     There was a big freezer in the back that held all of the chili cubes, onions, and that sort of stuff.  I never liked to stay in there very long, because I always had an eerie feeling like someone was watching me, even though I was by myself.

     Now for the most interesting story about my experiences at Skyline.  One night I was working late as usual, it was just me and the Shift Supervisor.  I was in the back washing dishes and she was in the front scrubbing the grill.  I was not paying too much attention to what was going on around me, and I saw a female figure walk toward the back office, I just assumed it was her.  I finished my dishes and went to the front to get a pop because I was thirsty.  As soon as I turned the corner she was turning at the same time and she scared me to death.  "What are you doing up here?", I asked.

     She asked me, "What do you mean what am I doing up here?"

     "I thought that you walked to the back office", I replied.

     She just told me that I must have been washing dishes too long and that I needed to sit down for a minute.  I sat and thought that maybe I was just seeing things and I really didn't think about it too much.

When I was four

    I believe I had my first encounter with the unexplained at the young age of four.  In my innocence, I awoke one spring morning and rushed to tell my mom that my Papa Riley had visited me the night before.  Baffled, my mother said "Kelli, Papa Riley wasn't here last night, you must have been dreaming."  "No," I argued, "not that Papa Riley, Great Papa Riley."  My mother was astonished, my great grandpa has been deceased since before I was born.

    My mother just told me this story about a month ago. Unfortunatly she couldn't recall many details.  I find this story so intriguing because although I have yet to this day to see a photo of my great grandpa, I have always had a vivid color picture of him in my mind.  I remember the first time I spoke of this "memory," I was eight years old at the time.  My mom, her sister, my brother, and I were just beginning our long drive home from my Great Grandma Riley's farm in Hillsboro, Ohio (where they had lived together for many years).  I told them that I remember Great Grandpa Riley.  Of course they argued with me, but I was convinced I had seen my great grandpa.  So, they explained to me that he had passed away before I was born.  I was still not convinced...confused...but not convinced.  I told them every detail I could recall of my great grandpa, to their surprise I described him perfectly.  Yet, it is impossible that I actually saw my Great Grandpa Riley right?  That is the question I have been pondering for years, but last month when my mom finally told me the story of when I was four, suddenly it all made since.

The Block Calendar

   My Grandma and Grandpa Ballentine have owned a trailor near Brookville Lake in Indiana for as long as I can remember. They lived in Engelwood, Ohio, near our home, but every summer our entire family spent every possible moment at the lake. After several years both my grandparents had passed away.  My father had eventually become the owner of the trailor and two lots (where the trailor sat).

   Inside the trailor there were two bed rooms, 2 baths, and of course a living room and kitchen.  On a hutch that stood in the living room, there sat a wooden block calendar.  It wasn't very big, it consisted of some wooden blocks and a wooden holder.  Two of the wooden blocks had numbers 1 through 9 engraved on them, and the others each had 4 months engraved on them (one on each side).   It had become a tradition to update this calendar at every visit.

      The summer after both my grandparents had passed away, my family and I returned to the trailor.  As any other summer, we could be found there almost every weekend.  Soon September came, and since there was no heat in the trailor, it was time for our last visit to the lake for that year.  Everything went as it typically does. We turned off the water, put stuff away, updated the date on the block calender, and finally locked up behind us.

      The following summer we retured to the trailor.  Everything appeared to be just as it should.  It was my mom who fist discovered anything unusual.  The block calendar which we had last touched in September, now read Jan, 02.  This was the day that my Grandma Ballentine had passed away.  Was it merely a cruel joke?  How could it be, no one had been to the house in almost a year?  Either way, no one has spoken of it since.