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As I write this I have been trying to come to terms with what happened to me and my wife for a day and a half. We both experienced events that have left us shaken and wanting answers. We’re both big Halloween fans, and were married on October 31st nine years ago. We always take our vacations the last week of October to enjoy as many Halloween themed events as possible. This year was no exception. We reserved two nights at a supposedly haunted hotel in mid-Ohio. Landoll’s Mohican Castle. It’s really the first such trip we’ve ever taken. The Castle is a deluxe hotel literally in the middle of nowhere. It and the surrounding land are truly creepy this time of year. Right on the grounds, in fact only 50 or so yards right off our room is a dilapidated 200+ year old cemetery built on the remains of a burned down church where the original property owners, their family and farmhands are all buried. The headstones were all taken from the church ruins, and in fact one of the church cornerstones is still firmly in the ground.
After the long drive there we had settled in our room, then took a brief tour of the grounds, as much as we could since it ended up raining a lot. It did clear up though by early evening, and so we attended the ghost tour, led by one of the employees. We were the only ones on the tour. We spent over an hour in the hotel cemetery listening to ghost stories and attempting to communicate with the spirits. Nothing happened…at one point our guide even pulled out some dowsing rods to which I silently groaned while rolling my eyes. I’ve never believed in them…to me they’re pretty much nonsense. We stood by the grave of one of the hotels supposedly most active ghosts, a little girl named Samantha. She had a very creepy headstone…a small carved stone coffin with decorations at each end. Again, this cemetery is OLD. Many of the headstones are broken or toppled by roots that have grown under and through them by numerous trees throughout the cemetery.
As the tour concluded…it got strangely silent in the cemetery. The wind stopped, and an eerie stillness came over the grave of Samantha. I felt a strange feeling of sadness and loneliness for this poor little girl buried out here all alone on the hill for over 100 years...it really bugged me, and made me think about my own mortality. Our guide asked us if we had any questions or wanted to say anything before heading back. For some reason, I said aloud…”Samantha, I’m sorry you’re out here all by yourself. You must be very lonely. If you want you can come visit us in our room.” My wife in chimed in with a laugh…”Number nine!” No big deal right? After all, we did come here to have a spooky time and maybe see a ghost. Well, it was a decision I will regret for the rest of my life. I’m not a religious man. In fact, I’m an atheist. I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal, but purely from a scientific POV, not a spiritual one.
We returned to out room about 9:15 PM…got a bite to eat, watched some Star Trek Voyager, and went to bed around 11:00. Right after 3:00 AM I was awakened by a knocking sound. I rolled over and asked my wife, “What was that?” She said to me…”You heard it too?” She said it started at 3:00 AM pretty much on the dot. Faint knocking…always in threes. We both laid there awake for several minutes, listening to the knocking, which happened two more times. I was laying on my right side with my arm hanging over the bed, as I often do, when it happened. I felt a child’s hand take mine and tug on it with such a force, I was sent reeling backwards in absolute terror. I could feel each and every finger as plainly as if it were a living person, except it was ice cold and felt somewhat damp. I have NEVER been so scared in my entire life. I was very nearly hysterical…my wife was really scared by my reaction…she said she had never seen that look of terror on my face in over 15 years we’ve been together. My wife says I was nearly screaming completely unintelligible words. I was almost on the verge of tears. I cannot even explain what it’s like to feel something like this. We turned on every single light in the place and I sat on the edge of the bed shaking for 20 minutes. We both got back up, moved to the couch and turned on the TV for some noise and distraction. When I had composed myself I think it was shortly after 4:00. At that time we got out our camera and took about twenty pictures all around the room. About fifteen minutes later we heard a small thump and so we took another round of pictures. We didn’t notice anything at the time. More on that later. Whatever was in our room wasn’t finished with us yet. We both once again heard faint knocking coming from both corners of the room behind us. I was very shaken and my wife offered to stay up for a while if I wanted to try and get some sleep on the couch. She headed back over to her side of the bed and let out a muffled scream as she threw her hand over her mouth. She had taken off her earrings before going to bed and placed them both on her nightstand…a good foot and a half away from the bed, and one of the earrings had been placed right in the middle of where she was laying. She began shaking and crying.
We proceeded to pack our things and left at 5:00 in the morning. We just left our keys on the nightstand, and gave up $250 we had paid for the second night. There is no way we could have stayed in that room another minute. When we looked at the photos we took later, we discovered what made one of the sounds we heard. My wife’s shoes were sitting flat on the floor next to the closet by the front door. A full three feet away from the bed, and something tipped one of her shoes over on its side. To be perfectly clear, neither of us went near them. In fact we were on the other side of the room. One minute they were sitting there, the next one is tipped over. Having been home now for over 24 hours, it all seems so unreal. But it did happen. I took it all lightly with a laugh that I could handle anything. I invited a ghost of a girl dead for 100 years to come visit us…and she did. I was a skeptic who wanted to believe, and my wife had never experienced anything. We are now BOTH believers. I have experienced something quite frankly I wish I hadn’t. I now believe 100% there are spirits, ghosts, whatever you want to call them, and they can touch you. I am having a really hard time wrapping my head around this. It challenges a lot of my beliefs about the world and what is an isn’t real.
After the long drive there we had settled in our room, then took a brief tour of the grounds, as much as we could since it ended up raining a lot. It did clear up though by early evening, and so we attended the ghost tour, led by one of the employees. We were the only ones on the tour. We spent over an hour in the hotel cemetery listening to ghost stories and attempting to communicate with the spirits. Nothing happened…at one point our guide even pulled out some dowsing rods to which I silently groaned while rolling my eyes. I’ve never believed in them…to me they’re pretty much nonsense. We stood by the grave of one of the hotels supposedly most active ghosts, a little girl named Samantha. She had a very creepy headstone…a small carved stone coffin with decorations at each end. Again, this cemetery is OLD. Many of the headstones are broken or toppled by roots that have grown under and through them by numerous trees throughout the cemetery.
As the tour concluded…it got strangely silent in the cemetery. The wind stopped, and an eerie stillness came over the grave of Samantha. I felt a strange feeling of sadness and loneliness for this poor little girl buried out here all alone on the hill for over 100 years...it really bugged me, and made me think about my own mortality. Our guide asked us if we had any questions or wanted to say anything before heading back. For some reason, I said aloud…”Samantha, I’m sorry you’re out here all by yourself. You must be very lonely. If you want you can come visit us in our room.” My wife in chimed in with a laugh…”Number nine!” No big deal right? After all, we did come here to have a spooky time and maybe see a ghost. Well, it was a decision I will regret for the rest of my life. I’m not a religious man. In fact, I’m an atheist. I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal, but purely from a scientific POV, not a spiritual one.
We returned to out room about 9:15 PM…got a bite to eat, watched some Star Trek Voyager, and went to bed around 11:00. Right after 3:00 AM I was awakened by a knocking sound. I rolled over and asked my wife, “What was that?” She said to me…”You heard it too?” She said it started at 3:00 AM pretty much on the dot. Faint knocking…always in threes. We both laid there awake for several minutes, listening to the knocking, which happened two more times. I was laying on my right side with my arm hanging over the bed, as I often do, when it happened. I felt a child’s hand take mine and tug on it with such a force, I was sent reeling backwards in absolute terror. I could feel each and every finger as plainly as if it were a living person, except it was ice cold and felt somewhat damp. I have NEVER been so scared in my entire life. I was very nearly hysterical…my wife was really scared by my reaction…she said she had never seen that look of terror on my face in over 15 years we’ve been together. My wife says I was nearly screaming completely unintelligible words. I was almost on the verge of tears. I cannot even explain what it’s like to feel something like this. We turned on every single light in the place and I sat on the edge of the bed shaking for 20 minutes. We both got back up, moved to the couch and turned on the TV for some noise and distraction. When I had composed myself I think it was shortly after 4:00. At that time we got out our camera and took about twenty pictures all around the room. About fifteen minutes later we heard a small thump and so we took another round of pictures. We didn’t notice anything at the time. More on that later. Whatever was in our room wasn’t finished with us yet. We both once again heard faint knocking coming from both corners of the room behind us. I was very shaken and my wife offered to stay up for a while if I wanted to try and get some sleep on the couch. She headed back over to her side of the bed and let out a muffled scream as she threw her hand over her mouth. She had taken off her earrings before going to bed and placed them both on her nightstand…a good foot and a half away from the bed, and one of the earrings had been placed right in the middle of where she was laying. She began shaking and crying.
We proceeded to pack our things and left at 5:00 in the morning. We just left our keys on the nightstand, and gave up $250 we had paid for the second night. There is no way we could have stayed in that room another minute. When we looked at the photos we took later, we discovered what made one of the sounds we heard. My wife’s shoes were sitting flat on the floor next to the closet by the front door. A full three feet away from the bed, and something tipped one of her shoes over on its side. To be perfectly clear, neither of us went near them. In fact we were on the other side of the room. One minute they were sitting there, the next one is tipped over. Having been home now for over 24 hours, it all seems so unreal. But it did happen. I took it all lightly with a laugh that I could handle anything. I invited a ghost of a girl dead for 100 years to come visit us…and she did. I was a skeptic who wanted to believe, and my wife had never experienced anything. We are now BOTH believers. I have experienced something quite frankly I wish I hadn’t. I now believe 100% there are spirits, ghosts, whatever you want to call them, and they can touch you. I am having a really hard time wrapping my head around this. It challenges a lot of my beliefs about the world and what is an isn’t real.
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