Greetings. I just got into newsgroups recently and have thoroughly enjoyed reading about the ghostly experiences of others. I also have an experience to share. My husband and I have kept this experience pretty quiet for fear of upsetting neighbors. This is due to the fact that we believe we lived with the ghost of a woman who was well known with many living relatives in our tiny community.
When my husband and I married 6 years ago, we lived in the home he had purchased from the family of Edna (name change to protect the family). Edna had been living in a nursing home for a few years and would not be returning to her home. Edna and her husband had built this house in the 1930s. She used to babysit for my husband and his brother when they were children. After we had been married for about a year, we received word that Edna had died. The following events began a week after her death.
It began with my husband. Several times while crossing the road to the mailbox, he heard a woman call his name. He would return to the house and ask me why I called him, which I hadn't. Then the radio in our kitchen malfunctioned--it began playing continuously even though it was turned off. We finally unplugged it and packed it away. After disposing of the radio, the television began acting up. First it would turn itself off. We assumed it was overheating. But then it started changing channels by itself--just random channels--in addition to turning itself off. I started calling surrounding neighbors to see if anyone had recently installed any new remote control devices such as garage door opener, satellite dish or whatever--no one had. After weeks of this, the TV started coming on by itself in the middle of the night and we'd have to get out of bed and turn it off. Sometimes it would come back on as soon as we had gotten back into bed. We took it to a repair shop 3 different times and it always functioned just fine there--but would always malfunction as soon as we brought it back home.
We own an antique 8-day wind-up clock that has never worked. Several times it chimed - it wasn't wound, there were no vibrations in the house, no causes we could find. The pendulum would begin swinging, the clock would chime 7 or 8 times then the pendulum would stop.
Finally one day while sitting at the kitchen table talking and having coffee with my husband, a dark but transparent form came from the dining room, walked behind my husband and disappeared. My eyes must have been huge because my husband immediately began asking me what was wrong. The form resembled a shadow--it had the shape of a person but no features. This happened again to me and twice to my husband--we would trade places at the table in hopes that we would see it. One morning at around 2:00 a.m. I got up to go to the bathroom. The bathroom had a door from the bedroom and also another door connecting to the kitchen. I had a strange feeling that I needed to go into the kitchen so I opened the connecting door to the dark kitchen. This time I saw a form but it was like a glowing white mist (I had turned off the bathroom light so it was pitch black around me). I t came towards me and I actually jumped out of its way and let it pass! I was terrified but didn't feel threatened.
A few nights later, I woke to the sound of jewelry moving around in my antique jewelry box. I woke my husband, turned on the light and the sound stopped. The jewelry in the box seemed untouched.
Another instance involved a coffee cup that my son had given my husband (his stepfather) as a gift. The cup said you are loved so very much because you are so very loving. It had been badly chipped but my husband didn't want to discard it for sentimental reasons. So we stored it behind some antique dishes on the top shelf of an old china cabinet in the dining room. One morning when I got up and went to the kitchen to fix coffee, that cup was sitting in the sink! I checked the china cabinet--the other dishes were undisturbed and unmoved. My husband and son swear they didn't get it out (my son couldn't have reached it anyway).
We have since moved to a new home. I must say we never felt threatened by this presence although it was scary. My husband and I have often talked about how, when one of us would be alone in the house, we never really felt alone. They day we moved, I stood in the middle of the house and invited Edna to come with us. When I later told my husband what I had done, he laughed and told me he had also invited her to join us. She didn't however--we love our new home but it certainly lacks the feeling of presence the old home had.