Thursday, December 3, 2009

Producer Wanted: Ghost Documentary



Can spirits attached to beloved places?

I think I have a way to finally prove this with a "sure" thing. I’ve always wanted to go back to my childhood home, Aspen Grove, and revisit the haunting there from the Civil War soldiers who were injured and died in its walls when it was a field hospital. The home was haunted very actively, but what intrigues me even more is who has joined the cast since that time.

My father died when I was 16. He swore he would meet us at “Aspen Grove.” Soon after he died, the people living in the house told us they saw my father in his light gray suit and pink striped tie (his traveling suit that we buried him in). They had no idea he had died several days earlier. My mother died nearly 20 years later and vowed she would be there. After all, she was the historian who made certain the history of the house was revealed and it was placed on the historical register. She loved that place like nothing else in the world, even us children. We kind of knew that about her. The estate was very enchanting and surreal. It lured everyone in as if time could stand still there.

We siblings talked about our parents wandering the halls of Aspen Grove and vowed we would join them. When my brother was dying a few years after my mother, he took a nap in his hospital bed and woke up to tell me he had been flying around Aspen Grove and described in detail the awful changes since the condos were built around the mansion. He promised to be there when he passed. He died several days later.

My brothers death made me finally pursue something I started in childhood—ghost hunting. I felt him touching the other side and I wanted to see if the other side had any choice in interacting with us. My sister and I talked extensively about my ghost hunting exploits and she laughingly told me I’d see her at Aspen Grove. She knew how desperately I wanted to prove what happened growing up and what could now be going on at the estate. She died suddenly and I knew there was no doubt she was going to Aspen Grove.

A couple years later, I spoke with the professor from George Mason University who lived in a cottage at the end of our driveway and was the historian who assisted my mother in her research and a very dear family friend. We talked about the haunting and my research and my siblings and parents. He agreed that he too would like to haunt Aspen Grove. He died a few months later.

It sounds tragic, but when you’re significantly younger than your family on both sides, you tend to know you’ll be watching a lot of people pass, sometimes way too young (my brother was 43, my sister 50). I feel a strange comfort knowing they’re there to greet me. I wouldn’t want to be the first to go.

What intrigues me is the possibility that, not only soldiers that might have watched me grow up there would recognize me, but what about my family and family friend who vowed to be there, as well? What if they saw me arrive to try and contact them? If I were to go there and do a study, would they show themselves in amazing ways? After all, they know how I seek answers and want to communicate. The elements are certainly ideal from the geology to the underground springs to make a perfect storm for activity. If spirits can attach to a place, this is as much a sure thing as I can possibly imagine in terms of a location to prove this hypothesis.

If I can’t find ghosts at Aspen Grove, I would hang up my tools of the trade and give up, but I feel it deep in my bones that it would be a positively amazing study.

I vowed to myself I wouldn’t go without a good team to document and a film crew to observe. This is nearly a guaranteed haunting. I would not want to miss a moment of the evidence that would be gained. It would be a homecoming beyond compare. I even know the places they would most likely attach themselves. I can’t think of a better pinnacle for ghost hunting and I can’t imagine any situation that could provide more proof.

I've considered going myself and doing a study, but I would really need a team. I think this particular hunt would definitely need documentation for the types of things that would occur. So, if you know a producer who's interested, I'm more than ready for the ultimate ghost hunt. I'll keep ya'all posted if this ever materializes.

7 comments:

  1. you are mrs. claus!!! what a charming, funny story!

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  2. I should put that one up for Xmas on the blog. It is pretty amazing. My mother laughed about that a great deal "you chose your own fate, young lady!" Of course, he has a perfect body so not too Santa-like, but he did grow a beard (well, a very groomed VanDyke). And, no belly laughs, but he is good with kids and does have an electronics lab in the house where he tinkers, but he has no elves... Hmm... Oh, and he loves the desert. I should have been more specific. One Xmas I signed a thank you note for my son who left Santa cookies and I signed it "Santa Clauss" out of habit! Yikes! He looked at it and smiled "He's using my name!" What a relief! I thought for sure I'd been caught as the Santa signer.

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  3. I don't know of anyone but would love to watch the documentary on Aspen Grove. That place intrigues me ever since I have read your stories about growing up there.
    ~Julie~

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  4. Sounds like a great idea. In addition to the paranormal aspect, there's the history of the place, the stories of your family, and the "returning home" motif as well!
    Handled right, it would be most interesting.

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  5. Thank ya'all. I do admit that it has a symmetry that you don't see in ghost hunts. In fact, what ghost hunt show have you seen where they went looking for their family?

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  6. Your last comment reminded me of a memory from my high school days.
    I was drivng a girl home one night and we had to drive down an old dirt road past the old cemetatery. She said something about how creepy it was and asked if I was afraid. "Why should I be?", I replied, "Most of those are my folks!"

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  7. When he gets back in touch with you, you should talk to Chris Hambright about this one!!!!!!!!

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