A ghost ? You be the judge.

[John Winn]

OK, this is for Tina and by request:

As some of you know I volunteer at an historic cemetery. Yesterday I and my restoration partner met up to deal with some things and were for a time out walking around. Anyway, yesterday it was very foggy (we often get fog in the winter) and particularly so at the cemetery. We both remarked it looked a bit like something from an old horror movie. While we were talking about one of next year's projects I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and when I turned my head there was a young woman, dressed all in black with a full-length skirt and a large hat, slowly walking up the hill staring down at the ground. I was so amazed I said 'look - a ghost' and my partner looked up and gave me the strangest look. The woman kept walking and soon just sort of disappeared into the fog.

Now, we couldn't really see much of her face (we being to her side and some distance away and she with the large hat) so we'll not be able to recognize her. We've not seen anybody dressed up like her wandering around before though. This'll definitely go on our list of interesting cemetery experiences.

The really odd thing (to me) was that when I saw her she was right next to a block we restored a couple of years ago (a big deal project) and one of the things I'd found back then was a photo at the historical society of the widow of the two husbands buried in the block leaning against the large family obelisk all dressed in her black mourning clothes. For a second, the mystery woman looked the spitting image.

I don't believe in ghosts and the woman looked real enough to me but ... I have to admit she definitely looked like a ghost ! Maybe I've actually seen one.

Oh, and attached is the photo I mentioned. It's a long story but the block got re-built once in the distant past in addition to our re-build and the obelisk now no longer sits above-grade as in the photo but, rather, at ground-line. So when she walked by she was right next to the marker just as in the photo.

 

[dlofting]

I don't believe in ghosts either and if someone else wrote this I'd be skeptical....but coming from you I'm positive you saw something.

 

[John Winn]

I don't believe in ghosts either and if someone else wrote this I'd be skeptical....but coming from you I'm positive you saw something.

I definitely saw "something" although I think it was an odd young woman who just decided it would be a good day to wander around in her black clothes. My partner definitely saw "it" and was somewhere between surprised and amused. If you knew him, you'd know he doesn't believe in ghosts. Our host, though, is convinced I've had a visiting and requested I post about my experience. I thought of Monty Python and the witch scene. How do we know she's a ghost ? Well, she looks like a ghost.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Paging @Gary Morgan! Read this and what do YOU think? And paging @lupaglupa!

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Aristotle wrote in his poetics, "with respect to the requirements of art, a probable impossibility is better than a thing improbable yet possible."

I'm sticking with that!

 

[MRB1863]

Strange how things can happen. We say "don't question what you see" to the naysayers. We have caught things in photos that were NOT there at that moment, but may have been from another era. Who knows, perhaps there is another dimension that walks parallel to us??? Also off to the right background in your photo looks like there may be a couple of figures standing among the bushes....

 

[bayouace]

All dressed up in a nice, full-length black dress to go walking in a moist morning fog? That's not normal, for sure.

 

[Gary Morgan]

Paging @Gary Morgan! Read this and what do YOU think? And paging @lupaglupa!

What @John Winn describes is very different from what I saw on the two occasions when I saw something that I think might have been a ghost, and those two things were very different from each other (one was light; one was dark). So I guess my response is "I dunno...." Maybe it was a time slip?

 

[Woods-walker]

I ca

OK, this is for Tina and by request:

As some of you know I volunteer at an historic cemetery. Yesterday I and my restoration partner met up to deal with some things and were for a time out walking around. Anyway, yesterday it was very foggy (we often get fog in the winter) and particularly so at the cemetery. We both remarked it looked a bit like something from an old horror movie. While we were talking about one of next year's projects I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and when I turned my head there was a young woman, dressed all in black with a full-length skirt and a large hat, slowly walking up the hill staring down at the ground. I was so amazed I said 'look - a ghost' and my partner looked up and gave me the strangest look. The woman kept walking and soon just sort of disappeared into the fog.

Now, we couldn't really see much of her face (we being to her side and some distance away and she with the large hat) so we'll not be able to recognize her. We've not seen anybody dressed up like her wandering around before though. This'll definitely go on our list of interesting cemetery experiences.

The really odd thing (to me) was that when I saw her she was right next to a block we restored a couple of years ago (a big deal project) and one of the things I'd found back then was a photo at the historical society of the widow of the two husbands buried in the block leaning against the large family obelisk all dressed in her black mourning clothes. For a second, the mystery woman looked the spitting image.

I don't believe in ghosts and the woman looked real enough to me but ... I have to admit she definitely looked like a ghost ! Maybe I've actually seen one.

Oh, and attached is the photo I mentioned. It's a long story but the block got re-built once in the distant past in addition to our re-build and the obelisk now no longer sits above-grade as in the photo but, rather, at ground-line. So when she walked by she was right next to the marker just as in the photo.

View attachment 423704

OK, this is for Tina and by request:

As some of you know I volunteer at an historic cemetery. Yesterday I and my restoration partner met up to deal with some things and were for a time out walking around. Anyway, yesterday it was very foggy (we often get fog in the winter) and particularly so at the cemetery. We both remarked it looked a bit like something from an old horror movie. While we were talking about one of next year's projects I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and when I turned my head there was a young woman, dressed all in black with a full-length skirt and a large hat, slowly walking up the hill staring down at the ground. I was so amazed I said 'look - a ghost' and my partner looked up and gave me the strangest look. The woman kept walking and soon just sort of disappeared into the fog.

Now, we couldn't really see much of her face (we being to her side and some distance away and she with the large hat) so we'll not be able to recognize her. We've not seen anybody dressed up like her wandering around before though. This'll definitely go on our list of interesting cemetery experiences.

The really odd thing (to me) was that when I saw her she was right next to a block we restored a couple of years ago (a big deal project) and one of the things I'd found back then was a photo at the historical society of the widow of the two husbands buried in the block leaning against the large family obelisk all dressed in her black mourning clothes. For a second, the mystery woman looked the spitting image.

I don't believe in ghosts and the woman looked real enough to me but ... I have to admit she definitely looked like a ghost ! Maybe I've actually seen one.

Oh, and attached is the photo I mentioned. It's a long story but the block got re-built once in the distant past in addition to our re-build and the obelisk now no longer sits above-grade as in the photo but, rather, at ground-line. So when she walked by she was right next to the marker just as in the photo.

View attachment 423704

I can add a little but it's going to be of little use in whether or not it was a ghost.
We live on hollowed ground. My wife and I both have seen unexplained "things" including horses we didn't have grazing in the pasture with our horses and soldiers in uniform. I also was painting shutters one day at a tavern built in the late 1700s and saw a woman in a black hooped dress. I even followed her until she turned a corner. I am convinced no one was there except me.
Now here's where we differ - in every instance my wife and I were not together. We were alone and we have determined that when we saw these figures our mind was completely open and we were not thinking of anything when they appeared. Also in every instance, as you described, we had a feeling to turn our head to see the "ghost ". So by you telling your friend to look and he saw the same thing, that is different than any experience we've had. Not saying you both didn't see a ghost, just saying I ve had multiple encounters but none like you described.
I am a believer!

 

[Nathan Stuart]

OK, this is for Tina and by request:

As some of you know I volunteer at an historic cemetery. Yesterday I and my restoration partner met up to deal with some things and were for a time out walking around. Anyway, yesterday it was very foggy (we often get fog in the winter) and particularly so at the cemetery. We both remarked it looked a bit like something from an old horror movie. While we were talking about one of next year's projects I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and when I turned my head there was a young woman, dressed all in black with a full-length skirt and a large hat, slowly walking up the hill staring down at the ground. I was so amazed I said 'look - a ghost' and my partner looked up and gave me the strangest look. The woman kept walking and soon just sort of disappeared into the fog.

Now, we couldn't really see much of her face (we being to her side and some distance away and she with the large hat) so we'll not be able to recognize her. We've not seen anybody dressed up like her wandering around before though. This'll definitely go on our list of interesting cemetery experiences.

The really odd thing (to me) was that when I saw her she was right next to a block we restored a couple of years ago (a big deal project) and one of the things I'd found back then was a photo at the historical society of the widow of the two husbands buried in the block leaning against the large family obelisk all dressed in her black mourning clothes. For a second, the mystery woman looked the spitting image.

I don't believe in ghosts and the woman looked real enough to me but ... I have to admit she definitely looked like a ghost ! Maybe I've actually seen one.

Oh, and attached is the photo I mentioned. It's a long story but the block got re-built once in the distant past in addition to our re-build and the obelisk now no longer sits above-grade as in the photo but, rather, at ground-line. So when she walked by she was right next to the marker just as in the photo.

View attachment 423704

The image is striking and poignant in this setting.

The mind can believe anything it wants to see.

The person's image in the photo looks too definitive and solid to be an apparition. To me, it's a real person.

 

[infomanpa]

Since you asked what I thought, I will state that there are no ghosts.

 

[Sheltowee]

Compelling story and photo. I like it!

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

OK, this is for Tina and by request:

As some of you know I volunteer at an historic cemetery. Yesterday I and my restoration partner met up to deal with some things and were for a time out walking around. Anyway, yesterday it was very foggy (we often get fog in the winter) and particularly so at the cemetery. We both remarked it looked a bit like something from an old horror movie. While we were talking about one of next year's projects I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and when I turned my head there was a young woman, dressed all in black with a full-length skirt and a large hat, slowly walking up the hill staring down at the ground. I was so amazed I said 'look - a ghost' and my partner looked up and gave me the strangest look. The woman kept walking and soon just sort of disappeared into the fog.

John, yet again... this almost identical to a phenomena down here.

This "sighting" has not changed much in 160 years at a local chapel.

A good video tour of this little church at:

Although this kid missed many facts, such as Henry Gray was actually Henry Gray Vick.
( son of the family that incorporated Vicksburg ... and Henry was killed in a duel in Mobile, Alabama after "racking-up" gambling debts in New Orleans). He does know how to film !

Anyway, that church is very active and very traditional.
( the congregation still digs the graves and such).

Sorry to ramble, but a dear friend of mine was once the Priest of this little Anglican Chapel.
One afternoon, he and his wife were out there while a new grave was being dug, when they a saw a couple in the distance.

He said both were wearing a black "costume".

As everything at that chapel was his responsibility, his first thought was they were only locals " playing a joke ".
He and a few others approached the couple, but they walked into the pasture, stopped... looked back ... and slowly faded away.

My friend never said he thought it was a "ghost" ... but he did say they drank two bottles of bourbon that night.

 

[CowCavalry]

My friend never said he thought it was a "ghost" ... but he did say they drank two bottles of bourbon that night.

How many had they had that day?

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

How many had they had that day?

LOL !

Knowing his wife ... my first guess would be nothing.

But now that I think back, I believe she even went through a cheap bottle of White Zinfandel ... after what they saw earlier that day.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

LOL !

Knowing his wife ... my first guess would be nothing.

But now that I think back, I believe she even went through a cheap bottle of White Zinfandel ... after what they saw earlier that day.

Forgot to add, I do think there is something to the sightings at that chapel.

Over the years (within my lifetime) many people have had very similar experiences out there.

When built , it was a private church on the grounds of Annandale Plantation in Madison County, Mississippi.
With only a few acres donated to the Episcopal Diocese.

Once the antebellum Annandale "big House " burned during the early 1900's, a few more
unexplained "events" have been reported at that site as well.

But that might be better for a future thread.

 

[Story]

I think it was an odd young woman who just decided it would be a good day to wander around in her black clothes.

Not seen at that distance were the earbuds

 

[TerryB]

Is it possible there was a film crew somewhere out of sight in the fog?

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Forgot to add, I do think there is something to the sightings at that chapel.

Over the years (within my lifetime) many people have had very similar experiences out there.

For anyone interested in this story, I found a new account :

The Bride of Annandale

. . .the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. . .(William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child”, 1886) From what I’ve read and observed, it’s far more comm…

fairweatherlewis.wordpress.com

The only difference is the reason for the duel.
Other than that, the primary recollections of these unexplained "events" have never really changed much.

 

[Kurt G]

Here's an image from 2009 at Gettysburg . A ghost ? A ghost horse ? Not likely .I showed this to a friend who has been into photography since the 1960s . Her immediate reaction was a slow shutter speed had captured a person , possibly a child , running . If you look in the background you will see blurred movement as well . I was setting up my camera to take some sunset images and had it in landscape mode .