It’s said that home is where the heart is. And that’s undoubtedly true. But, sometimes, in some homes, much more can be found there, too, as seen in the following shared experiences.
Latchkey Kid
“I was a latchkey kid back in the 1970s. When I’d get home from school in the afternoon, the house was rarely as it had been left. I was an only child with no siblings. My parents worked long hours and were gone from early morning to early evening every day of the workweek. There were just the three of us living there, and during the work/school day, no one else was ever in our house while we were gone. Everything should have been in the same place as we’d left it.
But that was not what happened repeatedly. For some reason, most of this weirdness seemed to be targeted at my Mother.
It wasn’t unusual to find random things strewn about the house when I got home first at the end of my school day—usually belonging to my Mother. Small things from the bathroom, like her toothbrush or one of my mum’s hair curlers, would be on top of the family room’s television or a kitchen window sill. And a point to make here: my Mother, God bless her, was a neat freak. She always ensured everything was in its proper place. When it came to her own personal care items, she was finicky about them. Yet it was usually just her own personal items, used for grooming, etc, that were found in this manner. It was harmless enough, like a childish prank. But very odd.
One of the strangest experiences was returning home after a summer holiday. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, we could hear music (and static, like it wasn’t properly tuned into the station) blasting away inside our empty house.
Everything was turned off, and it was quiet when we left. My Mother made sure of that. Another compulsion she had. She unplugged the TV and kitchen radio as usual (as a safety measure she did before trips out of town because she feared electrical fires since such a blaze destroyed her childhood home). But the unused old radio in the rec room had been forgotten, though it was not turned on before we left (and probably not for years prior to that).
But it was still somehow turned up to its full volume, blasting out static and music. We were all pretty shocked at that. It was impossible to dismiss it away like we tried to do with all the other weird happenings.”
Grandmother’s Light
“Grandmother split a large parcel of her farm into two parts after her husband had died. Both sons were given an equal part. She kept the family farmhouse, and both boys built across the road from her. It is what she wanted that her family should be within sight of her and each other.
Grandmother came down with a bad flu and had to be hospitalized. The boys made sure that the house was locked, heat down and one light left on over the porch entrance.
About three nights after Grandmother had taken sick, the light over the porch was out. One of her sons went over to change the light, and no sooner was he back at his house than the light went off again. So, he went back and checked the light. It was fine, shining brightly. This time, he stayed outside and watched the light, and sure enough, the light went out.
His brother went over to solve this mystery once and for all. After checking the wiring and bulb, he was satisfied that it was okay. But he, too, got as far as his house, and again, the light went off.
While this was going on, they got a call from the hospital. Their Mother had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. After that, the light never went out again.”
Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde Energy
“Can a particular property’s negative energy affect not only its residents but also the neighbouring houses? I think it can.
We once bought a beautiful house in a nice neighbourhood for a surprisingly good price (the owners were motivated to sell, we were told). It seemed idyllic. However, looks can be deceiving, as we quickly discovered. A hard-to-describe creepy “feeling” became apparent almost immediately after moving in.
At the first walk-through, we noticed, and discussed with the real estate agent, that every window on (only) the west side of the house, on every floor, including the basement and attic, was covered with the heaviest blackout curtains you’ve ever seen (to cancel out light and noise). They were even hung outdoors on the enormous front porch, but only along the west side.
And yet, the rest of the porch was wide open, and all the other windows in the house, facing the other exposures, had only lace or sheer curtains or nothing at all. It seemed like an odd contrast, but we didn’t give it as much thought as we should have because the agent quickly dismissed the question by assuring us that the curtains were irrelevant because they could easily just be removed or replaced as soon as we moved in.
There was nothing obvious about the look of the neighbouring house on the west side to explain the need to block it out as much as possible. It was an attractive-looking home, immaculately maintained and seemed very quiet. We were told it was rented to a widowed grandmother and her adult granddaughter, who just lived there with her occasionally.
When they saw us moving in, both women from that next-door house came over separately to welcome us to the neighbourhood. The grandmother couldn’t have been friendlier, and the granddaughter gifted us a basket of freshly picked strawberries. All seemed completely fine. So, those heavy blackout curtains facing only their house made no sense, and the first “improvement” I made was replacing them with sheers.
But even by the next day, we realized something felt out of whack. A dark energy was palpable, and it seemed to adversely affect all of us. It wasn’t just an adjustment period to a new home—it felt much worse than that.
I also noticed that passersby often crossed the street when walking larger dogs when approaching that house. Pet owners of smaller breeds would sometimes physically pick up their dogs and carry them past the home if the animals refused to walk by it. I’d never seen anything like that before.
But with those blackout curtains removed, it was hard to ignore the neighbours’ shocking transformations from Dr. Jekyll (outside of the house) into Mr. Hyde (when back inside again and constantly screaming loudly at each other).
Needless to say, we reinstated those blackout curtains and understood why the previous owner had installed them on those west-facing windows.
But one day, those neighbours just disappeared without a word of explanation. They were there one day and gone the next without any sign of a move. Other long-term neighbours told us that that house had always had a constant renter turnover. When the grandmother and her granddaughter left so abruptly, we were surprised (though relieved), but no one else on the street even questioned it.
A few neighbours had mentioned how awful all of the past occupants had turned out to be. It was a disturbing pattern at that property. Tenants initially moved in and always seemed normal and pleasant, only to quickly turn into raving maniacs.
“There’s something about that house…” we heard time and again from others on that street. ,
When the next occupants moved in just days later, we met them as they unpacked a load from their vehicle and exchanged pleasantries. They seemed pretty friendly, so we hoped for the best.
Within days, though, they became duplicates of the last neighbours (and all the ones before them, apparently), going from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde, too. During one of their rage-filled arguments, we heard the wife shriek that she couldn’t go on living there because of how it was affecting them. The same effect it seemed to have on everyone who lived there. They quickly left, and at least three more tenants moved in and out again before we moved away, too.
At times, our house and even that whole street had an eerie energy. But the next-door neighbour’s house was the epicentre of whatever was causing all that strangeness.”
Many thanks to those who shared their experiences for this month’s column of Mystical Manitoulin! Do you also have a tale to tell? Whether you’ve experienced a haunting, a mysterious cryptid sighting, or a brush with the inexplicable, please share it with Canadian author Dorah L. Williams at dorahlwilliams@gmail.com
Whether it’s an inexplicable foresight in a dream or the mystical behaviour of animals, these first-hand accounts are great examples of all the unknowns surrounding us.
Your story, too, could be featured in an upcoming column of Mystical Manitoulin!
by Dorah L. Williams
