Saturday, June 29, 2013
MY FRIEND PAUL *- A REAL GHOST WRITER
*name
has been changed
My good friend of 30 years, subject of my book
Estate of Horror: A True Story of Haunting, Hatred and a Horrific Family Secret, for in all intense and purposes is the ultimate and a real ghost
writer. Paul was an anthropologist, teacher, lecturer and most importantly a wonderful
writer until his sudden death at the age of 55 from a massive
heart attack in 2009. His articles for local newspapers spanned more than two decades
and included subjects in a wide scope of interests. He was well known in our
cultural community and it was a sad loss for us all when he passed away.
As Executrix of Paul’s estate I had to sift through
thousands of papers he left behind, some hidden, some piled on shelves, some
scattered on his basement floor and others stored in hundreds of boxes. He was a collector and world traveler but not
until his sudden death did I realize I was dealing with a hoarding
situation. Many of the papers I reviewed
were original, or duplicates of his original typed articles and hundreds of extra
copies of newspapers where his articles appeared. He was a gifted teacher, a
brilliant man, and a bit egocentric whose wide interests ranged from Monarch
butterflies to the European Monarchy. Paul had written an article about me for
a local newspaper in 2006 about my talent for restoring antique dolls and it
was well received. We had talked in length for several years of collaborating
together on writing a book based on a certain historical female figure, which
now with his untimely death, would never happen. I never imagined, that in a
few years, I would write a book about Paul!
As I mentioned my friend was an anthropologist and
he wrote numerous stories (on an old portable typewriter) and some topics were about
the origins and history of our modern holidays. Halloween was one of his
favorite times of the year and as it so happened I came across an article he
wrote about this holiday. His research
showed that it was a holiday adapted from early pagan traditions to a Christian
Holiday honoring the dead and how it evolved to become
one of our major holidays due to our cultural fascination today with icons
associated with it: witches, goblins, demons, monsters, and GHOSTS. He particularly singled out ghosts in this
article that were called “Poltergeists”. I think it had to do with the word being of
German origin (meaning- noisy ghost) and my friend was very proud of his German
heritage. Little did I know, at the beginning of my 10 months spent at Paul’s
house, to clean it out for sale, that ironically I would be confronting some of
the very subjects my friend had written about in his article!
I remember a conversation I had with my distraught
friend after the death of his beloved mother in 2001. He told me he thought he
felt her presence and that she was trying to contact him. I told him if it was
true, and I had no reason to doubt his experience, it was to comfort him and to
show him her love for the great and devoted care he had given her in her final
days. He then asked me to make a pact with him. If either one of us were to die
before the other would we try and contact each other and not be afraid? I was so startled and stunned by Paul’s
request, and told him, “Don’t be silly, we have many years before this could
ever be a possibility.” But, he was so insistent about this that I could only
humor my friend and quickly made the promise to him so we could get off the
morbid subject. Neither one of us could have known then that this promise would
be fulfilled sooner than anyone expected.
I would like to share this excerpt from my book, Estate of Horror: A True Story of Haunting Hatred and a Horrific Family Secret, as why I believe my
friend’s spirit was haunting his house. You will have to wait for the book to be
published to read the full and chilling story of my paranormal experiences so
you can draw your own conclusions.
Excerpt
from Chapter 15- Caught on Tape!
I walked into Paul’s almost empty bedroom and
retrieved the tape recorder that I had placed on his bed earlier that day. Only a clothes hamper, an old typewriter
covered with a towel, and a large portrait painting of Paul, leaning against
the wall, were left in his room. His large closet was emptied earlier of its
hundred boxes of collectibles. It was hard to believe it was the same room. I
brought the recorder to the dining room table and rewound it and found about
two hours of tape had recorded.
When I played it back, I could distinctly hear
voices on the tape. Had I captured audible paranormal sounds? Then I realized
they were our voices coming from the basement right below Paul’s bedroom. There
wasn’t any insulation under the hardwood floor and the room didn’t have
wall-to-wall carpeting to muffle the sound. I was sure our voices had
contaminated the recording until I heard something interesting. Over our
excited voices, and at the exact moment the poltergeist activity was happening
in the basement, you could simultaneously hear either a knocking or a banging
sound. I played the tape back for my son Chris and his friend Eddie when they
came upstairs.
“It’s definitely timed to exactly when things
happened in the basement,” Chris said. “But how come we didn’t hear those bangs
above us?”
It was a question beyond any rational explanation.
“I don’t know. What gets me is that the knocks are
coming right from Paul’s room,” I said.
I paused and looked around the room,
and noticed the portable typewriter covered with an old orange towel that had been
pushed aside on one of the window ledges. I realized we had never even looked
closely at it. To me, it was just another obstacle we moved out of our way to
clear Paul’s room. This time, something was drawing me to the typewriter to
take off the towel.
“Guys, you are not going to believe this. Look!”
Chris and Eddie walked up to view what was a sheet
of typing paper still in the typewriter’s roller. Several of the typewriter’s
keys were stuck up in the air and jammed together. The paper was blank except
for two typed words “the hell….”
“Dude, really?” exclaimed Chris.
We had no answers for this. My friend had to be the one who had typed the
words but I had no idea when or why. Was he trying to send us a message? I
wondered, was his room the source of the paranormal activity?
End
of excerpt.
The
typewriter as found in Paul’s bedroom and used in my book trailer. http://youtu.be/kA2_q6GWJjQ
For more info and ghostly updates go to: www.estateofhorror.com