Читать книгу Startled from Their Graves... - Jan BSL Langley - Страница 2

Many people pass on quietly to their eternity, but then there are those who are startled from their graves. Resting in Peace is not their idea of the hereafter. What binds their spirit to an earthy abode can be many things: “...an incorrect or absent funeral ritual can leave the soul of the departed uneasy and unable to make the transition to the next realm and now it has nothing better to do then hang around here and make life miserable for the rest of us....”

Perhaps the departed left suddenly and are not quit sure that they are dead; on the other hand, a house they once lived in and loved is under restoration and they do not like it. Not one bit. Some spirits are insistent that the place they are haunting remain the same as it was in their lifetime and will do everything they can to make sure that it does. This includes scaring the living daylights out of you. Or could be that lovely broach they once were so fond of, given to them by a beloved husband or lover has just been auctioned off to a lady who will use it to decorate her silly pink sweater. Sorry, they want it back. Others seem quite content to repeat their lifetime behaviors such as swinging on a porch swing, watching you from a window or hitchhiking to eternity on US 2.

Glimpses of spirits are often unexpectedly caught in the oddest of places; for instance, you encounter your dead uncle standing directly in front of you as you climb the stairs at grandmother’s house or as you turn on the lights and enter the dining room ... there sitting at the table is — long dead Aunt Martha waiting for dinner! Then they are gone, leaving a misty cold spot, or the smell of a cigar or the lingering stench of a corpse.

That there are ghosts among us is undeniable. I know. I have seen their misty substances and their shadows. I have smelled the odors that they drag from their graves along with them. I have watched their antics, their ringing of bells and moving furniture. I have seen the result of their efforts of trying to manifest. Yes, ghosts are among us but I will not attempt to make you a believer. Trust me; you have to encounter one and then you too will be a believer in the afterlife...the netherworld.

The following tales are the result of interviews and investigations. Some are enhanced to scare you to death. Several of them required historical research, especially the Point Aux Barques Lighthouse and the Whitefish Point Lighthouse where phantom footsteps follow tourists as they poke their noses into places long unoccupied by the living. Several phantoms were found in Huron County along M-25. There were great fires in this area and many people died in the conflagrations. Remember the mysterious orbs that traveled M-28 in my first book, A Ghostly Road Tour of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula? You will find these same orbs in ditches along the back roads in Michigan’s Huron County. Many people believe they are spirits of the people who died in the fires.

In my search for interesting hauntings, several more ghosts were surprised from their graves in the Upper Peninsula: Sault Ste. Marie, Whitefish Point, Delta County’s Ford River area, Ispheming, Houghton and Marquette. You will not find a village or small town in Michigan that does not have its share of ghosts in its houses, saloons, restaurants, museums, theaters, hardware stores and churches.

Do ghosts have a separate reality other than our imagination? You decide as you read the following accounts of regular people and their encounters with the supernatural. When you least expect it, you too will encounter a ghost. I can almost hear your screams.