I have changed names to protect the dead. This really did happen to me, Virginia G. Vassallo, author of Unsung Patriot.

What was she doing here? I thought a ghost haunted one particular place. Not that I was an expert on ghosts, mind you.

Millie had haunted a house I owned in New Jersey. She had owned the house for years and, upon her death, she expected her family to maintain the house exactly as she had left it. That was not to be – especially in these times. The family moved on, and Millie moved into the attic on the third floor.

A loving woman in life, as a ghost Millie was angry. She did not want the house sold and her possessions scattered. Consequently the third floor and, particularly the attic, was a cold, forbidding place. One didn’t linger there.

Eventually I sold the house and moved to Casey County, Kentucky. Millie was only a memory. Occasionally I would tell someone about her and wonder if she were still haunting that New Jersey house. But mostly I never though about her.

One October around Halloween and All Saints (Souls) Day, our preacher’s sermon dealt with ghosts. Well, he didn’t call them ghosts. It might have been souls of the departed or lost souls. The preacher said these lost souls had some reason for not having gone to heaven – something was tying them to the world of the living. And then he gave some examples from people he knew who had experienced a haunting.

Now this was promising. I thought of Millie and wondered if she could be helped to reach heaven. After church I spoke with the preacher. He suggested I talk with Millie’s relatives who were already in heaven and ask them to encourage Millie to let go of this world and move on to heaven.

It sounded a bit far fetched but I thought of Millie and the present and future owners of her house. Wouldn’t it be great if Millie could move on and find peace – as could the homeowners?

So I spent the day talking in little snippets to Millie’s husband … her mother … her sister … her brother. All had died and all seemed to have gone to heaven. At least, I had never heard any tales of them haunting family members or any previous places.

That night I woke up and could not get back to sleep. Finally I decided to get up and go do some work on my computer.

As I left my bedroom, I felt a cold wave of anger and hostility strong enough to almost force me to back into the room. In the fifteen years I had owned my home in Kentucky, I had never experienced anything like that.

As I stood there, the sensation heightened. I had a banshee swirling around me, screaming and threatening me. I felt I was in danger of being pushed down the stairs. There was nothing to be seen, but there was definitely a very angry person in the hallway with me.

That’s when I recognized Millie – an angrier Millie than I had known in New Jersey, but Millie just the same.

I began talking to her. What was she doing in Kentucky? Why was she so angry? After all these years had I done something to upset her? She screamed, “I don’t want to leave my house.”

That’s when I realized that, in just one day of ‘talking’ to her relatives, they had communicated with Millie. They, too, were encouraging her to let go.

While Millie’s anger swirled around me, I explained to her, as calmly as I could, that she needed to let go and move on to heaven. Gradually the feelings of anger subsided and then I heard crying. Millie was sobbing; she didn’t want to leave her daughter.

So, I thought, that’s why Millie has never passed on. She doesn’t want to leave her only child. It was clear what I had to do.

I explained to Millie that, when her daughter died, she would go to heaven. But Millie would still be stuck someplace between heaven and earth. Millie needed to let go of her daughter and move on to heaven if she wanted them to be together, with the rest of the family, for all eternity.

Millie balked. She didn’t want to let go. She sobbed. She cried. Then she began to quiet down and I felt other spirits who were encouraging her. Gradually they all departed.

I never felt Millie again.

Virginia G. Vassallo
www.krazyduck.com
www.unsungpatriot.com