An upmarket current ghost story

[eight bits]

Just in time for Hallowe'en, from

http://uncertaintist.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/a-real-life-new-england-ghost-story-for-halloween/

About ten years ago, a little girl living in the comfortable Boston suburb of Newtonville began talking with a nice grandmotherly lady upstairs whom nobody else in the house had met and whose feet always floated above the floor.

The girl’s parents researched the imaginary friend’s name, Mrs Woodman, along with another name they’d heard from their daughter, Gridley. They discovered that a real Jane Gridley Woodman had lived in their house at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The little girl’s Mrs. Woodman had seven children, as had Jane, with the same number of boys and of girls as Jane’s children.

The visits lasted for years. At some point, the apparition began to ask the little girl for a favor. It was just a hint at first, but Mrs Woodman became more and more insistent as time went on.

What follows is a link to about 7 minutes of current video from a regional cable news service, professionally produced and reported by a locally respected telejournalist. The blogger then addresses some of the unreported backstory and psychological issues, with emphasis on the "How could a child know those things?" aspect of the story. Other issues, like electrical and electronic phenomena, including the news crew's own problems, are left aside.

It is an interesting case study, I think, of a strong investment of belief in a squeaky-clean non-fraudulent paranormal situation. If anything, the episode seems to be costing the family money, both to comply with the ghost's demands and in the now stale opportunity to sue a remodeling electrician.

 

[Aepervius]

It is the very usual unsubstantiated story. Family pretend child could not have gotten the info otherwise. *shrug*. Those stories pop up all the time and very usually turn out either to be unverifiable, or downright hoaxed. As you can tell i am very jaded.

 

[eight bits]

Family pretend child could not have gotten the info otherwise.

I don't think that's what's going on here. I think Mom, the lawyer, was especially likely to have encountered the name Woodman, the fact of the marriage, and possibly the maiden name Gridley, in the real estate title search, as the blogger suggests. It is entirely possible that Mom forgot having done so, and so the name didn't register when her daughter fed it back to her, and it was a surprise that her daughter's imaginary friend had the same name as a previous owner.

As you can tell i am very jaded.

About ghosts, or about the sincerity and ordinariness of people who believe in them?

 

[MrBooglemaumau]

I believe mothers are like elephants...they never forget , and the older you get , the more you remember.!