Sue Darroch and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

Each Friday we will have a look at the stories and experiences that have been related to us over the years that are amongst our personal favourites. These will include Crypto, Ghosts, Hauntings, UFO's, and other strange events that may be considered Fortean, from in around the Toronto, Canada area .... and since they are from our own personal files will likely not be found elsewhere on the web .... enjoy!

I'm writing about one of my childhood homes that my family resided in from 1978-1989. The house on (deleted for privacy) was once a single family structure that my father had converted into apartment in the 1960s. The apartments were rented out to numerous tenants over the years until my family lived in the whole house again as one unit; that is using all the units for our own use. During that time my family had experienced some things which make us believe to this day that there is someone else sharing the apartment house. Most of the sightings were in the back half of the house on lower and upper floors.

My mother claims that some old tenants of the apartments said that they would see a woman with short hair wearing a dress and a shawl. My mother never had seen the woman herself however had an experience while removing dishes from a kitchen cupboard she had dropped plates as she had felt as if someone/thing had forced her arms downward.

My sister saw the woman in the back apartment on the second floor which use to be a bedroom in the original layout of the house. During the conversion to apartments my father had added on to the back and had created a 2 story addition where access ways to new rooms were once windows or doors. My sister used this room as her bedroom. She had seen the woman in the room and had something loom over her while in bed. She had seen her many times while she lived in the house until she moved out and married in 1981. One time she had seen the woman during daylight hours in the kitchen, pointing to her with my brother and mother in the room but they could not see her.

Myself, I had seen a dark shadow on the wall in that room while was going up to sleep one night. I had to pass through the room to access my room through a new doorway where a window would have once been. The shadow was strange as the light source into the room came from behind the wall I on which saw the shadow on. It was a huge silhouette of a woman with short hair.

A few years later my Grandmother had moved in with us and had used a room at the back on the main floor as her bedroom. Let it be known that my Grandmother had all her mental faculties and had told past stories of her encounters of with ghosts and thus claimed to have had no fear of them. It's also important that I emphasize my father restructuring of the house to explain what my grandmother saw. My grandmother in the middle of the night saw the woman standing by her bed looking at her. My grandmother motioned her to shoo and she watched the woman walk through the wall where a doorway once was. The next morning after my grandmother telling us of the event, my mother phoned my sister and confirmed with her the same woman in appearance and dress. My Grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep while living with us in 1982. She never doubted that there was someone besides the family in the house.

My mom's father had moved in with us in the mid 1980s. Unfortunately he did not have all his faculties but would every once in a while say that That woman came by again last night . Grandpa used the same room that my Grandmother had used as a bedroom. Before the conversion of apartments this room was an enclosed like porch/pantry that my father used as the base of the two story extension built onto the back of the house. The doorway which was now a wall with shelving unit instead of door would have been a well traveled path in the house by previous residents to the back garden and garage.

After moving out of the house in 1989 my father resumed renting out the units. My brother and his family lived on the main floor for a few years. He doesn't claim to have seen anything but always talk about how there is the feeling of being watch in stairwell going upstairs (original stairway of original structure) the two upper apartments. He claims that a tenant had claimed to see things in back unit where my sister and I had seen the woman/shadow.

It has been many years since my family lived in the house. My father sold it in the mid 1990s. But it still is a topic discussion with my family. In fact it was topic of conversation over the past holiday with my sister, brother and mother. Events that have must have made a big impact on me as I still think about it 20 years later. There are many theories and other stories. But the appearance of this woman to my sister and grandmother where actual events. I'm sure that it would be interesting to know if other people living there have seen the woman. The apartment house is still there.

Our thanks to this witness for writing in and sharing their experiences with us. Have you had a similar experience? Do you have any information that you would like to add? If so, please contact us at submissions@ontarioghosts.org

Do you have a real life ghost story, an encounter with a UFO, or other paranormal experience/s you'd like to share? If so, we'd love to hear from you! Post your own experiences in our comments section or send us an email. Please post only true life experiences ... we love good fiction, but there are other fantastic blogs out there to post fictional accounts to.