Ghost Stories - Part 2

My mom's house has been her home since she was 18 years old (1945). She moved to Brazil for a 18 months (she counted every minute until she was back home) and West VA for a few months, but other than that she's been in the same house. She doesn't believe in ghosts and almost always has an explanation for what her children proclaim to be ghosts.

My first bedroom to myself was at the top of the stairs in the front of the house. It was part of the original house that was built in the late 1700's/early 1800's. I lay in bed every night and waited for the "ghost" to come up the steps. I could hear the kitchen door shut - downstairs and all the way to the back part that was added on in the 1900's. I could hear the kitchen cabinet (the old, metal type that was popular in the 1930-1940's) drawers being pulled open and closing again. I could hear the piano stings jangle as if someone were walking down the hall past the piano. And I heard them come up the steps, 1..2..3.. and so on until they got to the top step, ...21. Then all was silent and I could go to sleep. My mother wrote this all off as the "house settling". You'd think a house that was that old would have settled.

Once, when my brother was in my room, he heard the footsteps and he refused to come into my room for quite awhile after that. His room was just across the hallway from mine, but he had never heard any of it. Years later, he, his wife and daughter spent the night at my mom's house. His daughter, my daughter, and I were sleeping upstairs while he and his wife slept downstairs. About 11:30 he heard a noise and went into the kitchen to investigate. He saw a tall man, dressed in all black, walk from the outside kitchen door into the family room. However, when my brother got to the family room - a very short distance - there was no one there. He immediately ran to the front of the house and alerted me. There was no one upstairs (except us) and a search of the downstairs did not reveal anyone there either. About ten years after that, I saw the same thing while house sitting for my parents. "He" walked from the outside kitchen door into the living room as I was in the kitchen. I knew what it was as soon as I saw it and if my son hadn't been in the family room asleep, I would have run the other way. But, being a braver mom than I thought I could be, I ran to my son. As soon as I got him, I called my brother (who lived next door at that point) and said, "I saw your ghost and I'm here alone." He said "I'm coming." and hung up. He was there within minutes and stayed with me until my husband returned. No questions. He knew what he'd seen and he knew I'd seen the same thing. I think it's the same "Abraham Lincoln" man that my daughter saw a lot of and the same one my son had a conversation with a few years later.