Growing Up in a Civil War Hospital

1860s - post Civil War

My upbringing in a Civil War hospital in Northern Virginia changed the course of my life. I lived in the big scary house on the hill, known to be haunted, and I was never going to be able to feel quite like the other kids who grew up in tract housing with modern furnishings. Mine was a Munsters existence in a bedroom community of Washington, D.C.
I chronicled my family's and my own experiences with ghosts at our estate in my award-winning 5-star rated book, "Growing Up With Ghosts." My family knew I'd be a writer and they were eager to share their own encounters and for me to share the ones we had together in a book format some day. It was late in coming, but when I sat down to finally write about the experiences, I realized something had changed: Instead of being ashamed of my odd upbringing, I was proud of what I got to experience.

Mom and dad bought the estate in the early 1960s, seeing the potential for five kids to run free, but also because mother loved history and she was certain the home had that. It came with a barn, stables, two carriage houses, two boxwood mazes, an orchard, a creek, and over 7 acres bordered by woods.

1897

The couple selling the estate to us did let mother know that it came with the blood stains of soldiers on the wood floors and perhaps a few bones rattling in the closet, as it had a particularly bothersome ghost that liked to climb the stairs at night. 

when we lived there in the 60s and 70s

Mom and dad smiled at the charm of local legend and happily moved in, beginning to tear things apart, clean up, and repair the house, yard, and outbuildings. Father tinkered with the ancient McCormick tractor to get it running.



I was a baby, so I took to it happily, toddling around the grounds and up and down the creaky stairs.  My siblings were older and they recognized something about the house that they referred to as "ghosts." I did not have the same concept about what the house possessed. To me, it was part of nature, like wind or thunder. It was just a law of nature at work. As I had never known a quiet house, I assumed all homes were like mine - full of surprises. 

Over the years, we kids would use metal detectors to dig up artifacts, mom put her head to the books uncovering more about the history of the house and its significance, and we all learned to live with the occasional apparition, voices, objects moving, footfalls, doors slamming and more. 


The grounds were as actively haunted as the home. In fact, even today the people living in the condos that were erected around the home are reporting the same apparitions in the same places, even with buildings being there. 

The thing to understand about the estate is - the land never forgot.

I didn't know it growing up, but I had psychometry skills that were exceptional. I dug up artifacts and immediately rattled off to mom about the person who last had contact with them, even down to naming the person. My mother smiled and thought it was creative. What I wouldn't realize until I was in my 20s was that it was a psychic skill and when mother handled the item, she did not get all this other information. 

This is kind of like being told the world does not see colors and you realize you not only can't describe color to others who have no reference, but that color has become a way to immediately identify the world and the condition its contents are in and without that color world knowledge is lessened.

My connection with the spirit realm and with all things intuitive were keenly developed living in an active environment since I was a baby. It also left me pondering, "why was it active today and it's been quiet the past three months?" Or "why is hell breaking loose now?" I wondered often about the rhythms of the house's activity. I pondered the ebb and flow. It was then that I began to form the person I am today - one who objectively observes, focuses on what instigates and alleviates, what is repeatable.

I began Ghost Hunting Theories because to me all "ghosts" are anything we study that we cannot explain. We hunt for the answers. We form theories. This blog has been the natural expression of who I am, who I have always been. 

This fall, I plan to go deeper into research with my team that studies all the variables, looks for repeatability and patterns, and forming experiments to narrow down the path and moment at which this launches into our world. Once we seize the doorway, we hope to pry it open a bit longer.

And, as always, I will be sharing every step with the public, as I believe good researchers share so others can verify, test, and perhaps be inspired by the concepts.

Thank you for being a regular reader of the blog and for understanding my passion and determination when it comes to the entire arena of the unknown - all types of "ghosts" or unexplained activity, be it Bigfoot, monsters, cave dwellers, UFOs, aliens, and the locations that experience them. 

Together, perhaps, we will begin to unfold the clues to the doorway....



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