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The Apotheosis of Penelope Boothby (1796)
by Michele
Benedetti after Henry Fuseli
|
As a change of pace from
sharing my discoveries of 18th century life and in keeping with the season, I
will share another true ghostly encounter experienced by my down-to-earth
husband.
Several years ago when Bill
lived in Hanover, Massachusetts and worked as a graphic designer, he had a part
time office assistant named Mildred who worked off and on for him over a three
year period of time. Mildred lived in town, about a quarter mile from Bill's residence,
and often expressed her love of her home and the neighborhood. She experienced
personal challenges and found great comfort in her home and the kindness of her
neighbors.
Mildred was brokenhearted
when her husband informed her that the company for which he worked was
transferring him to Nashua, New Hampshire, about 70 miles away. She decided she had no choice but to join him
and, with great regret, packed up and moved away. Their house sold quickly to new owners who pretty
much kept to themselves. Occasionally, Mildred returned to Hanover to visit and
would stop by Bill's office to see how things were going.
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| "Welcome to Hanover" By John Phelan (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
About four years passed
when, around 10:00 on a lovely autumn Sunday morning with golden light shining
down on the brightly colored leaves, Bill drove from his house to a newsstand for
his weekly ritual of purchasing the Sunday newspaper. His route took him by
Mildred's former home and, to his surprise, he saw her out in the front yard
raking leaves. She looked up and they exchanged
a wave and a smile as he passed by. He couldn't imagine what she was doing
there, raking leaves in the current owner's yard, and when he came back by a
few minutes later he planned to stop and chat with her.
When Bill reached the house,
she was no longer in the yard. He looked in the driveway and only saw the
current owner's car. Puzzled, he pulled up in front of the house and walked to
the front door. Looking around for any sign of Mildred, he rang the doorbell
and a man he had only seen a few times, but who Bill recognized as the
homeowner, opened the door.
Bill answered his
quizzical expression with his own question, "Hi, I'm a friend of Mildred's
and when I drove by a few minutes ago, I noticed her raking leaves out in your
front yard. Is she still here? I'd love to see her."
The man wrinkled his
forehead, "Mildred?"
"Yes, you know, the
woman you bought this house from."
The man shook his head and
told Bill Mildred wasn't there. He hadn't seen her since he bought the place.
"I could have sworn
it was her I just saw out there," he said, pointing to the front yard.
"Is there another woman here who was doing yard work this
morning?"
"No," the man
said beginning to look suspiciously at Bill. "No one's here today except
me."
With that, he closed the
door leaving Bill standing alone in complete bewilderment.
 |
"Hanover Center Cemetary" By John Phelan (Own
work) [CC-BY-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)],
via Wikimedia
Commons
|
Once he returned home he
went about his usual Sunday morning routine but couldn't get the odd incident
out of his head. Several hours later he received a phone call from a neighbor
who asked if he had heard the news about Mildred.
"No," he said,
and before he could tell her about his experience earlier in the day, she
announced, "Well, she's dead! Poor dear was killed in a car accident
around 10:00 this morning."
"Here?" Bill
asked, "In Hanover?"
"Oh no," she
replied, "right near her house in Nashua."
So, dear Reader, what do
you make of that? Was Mildred making a quick, ghostly stopover to visit her
beloved home one more time before she went...wherever she was going? To quote
Shakespeare's Hamlet, "There
are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your
philosophy."
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"Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus
and the Ghost," 1796
by Robert Thew after Henry
Fuseli
|
I'd love to hear your
own ghost stories. Leave them as a comment, please, so we can all marvel at
them.
Have a good week, dear Reader. Thanks for stopping
by...Y'all come back now!
Kate
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