Seeing Ghosts - First of a Series

I don't know whether it's because it's nearing Halloween and the conversation drifts towards the supernatural. Perhaps it's because SYFY's "Ghost Hunters" and other series are encouraging ghostly conversation, but I've found myself several times over the past week discussing ghosts with friends and family. I felt that it would be interesting reading for my other friends if I shared my ghostly encounters here, and I hope it encourages you to share yours as well.

Nearly twenty years ago, I actually saw - with my own two eyes - a real ghost. I had recently moved into an apartment in a renovated silk mill in my hometown of Manchester, Connecticut. This mill had once been a flourishing weaving mill of silk cloth owned by the Cheney family, but as with all the New England manufacturing industry, it was abandoned for cheaper manufacturing in other parts of the world. Thank goodness that the building was of sturdy construction as to be attractive enough to be renovated into apartments by developers.

One evening early into my tenancy at this apartment, I returned home from work and entered the small foyer, flicking on the light switch which illuminated the foyer, living room and dining area. I headed into the living room and as I did, I saw a semi-transparent figure of a Caucasian man with brown hair who appeared to be in his 30s or 40s dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and work pants walking from my dining into my living space, left to right. From his dress, I gathered he was a worker from anywhere between 1920 and 1940 or so. As he walked in front of me, intersecting my path, he stopped, looked at me and gave me a friendly nod. He then continued in the direction he was heading and walked through my living room wall, disappearing and never seen by me again!

Strangely, I was not afraid by this odd encounter, but at the same time I never felt at ease to share it until recently. My feeling at the time was that he may have been a guardian of the mill and was checking out the new tenants, so was just dropping by. As I took the utmost care of the unit while I lived there, there was no reason for him to ever return. If he did return, I never saw him.