Back in the late '70's my family and I moved to England, to a lovely little Hamlet called Chorleywood, in Hertfordshire. We bought a house on an "unadopted road." The house was on the same lot as the previous one that had burned down, and had been rebuilt from the ground up. The lady who owned the previous house, had sadly, died in the fire. Our neighbors told us she was a very lovely lady. But sadly she had lost her life. I was a stay at home Mom, my children took the school bus every day, so I was alone. I began to notice things, at first not really paying much attention, and put it down to our dog moving around, or the wind in the trees around the house. Then over time, the dog started barking and growling. Still didn't pay much attention. Until one day while I was in the kitchen, I heard doors opening up, footsteps in the hall and on the stairs. Knowing that I was alone in the house, made me think that someone was in the house with me. I bravely took the dog with me, and we looked around, all the time, she was growling. Her ears up, but her tail wagging. Well we saw nothing and the sounds stopped. A few days passed, and I was sitting in the living room. I heard the door close. Then it opened, and I saw footsteps in the carpet, and they led to the patio door, which was closed, and then the footsteps vanished. Other unexplained things happened. Flowers would grow in places that I didn't plant them. I had the most beautiful garden anyone ever saw. I would smell perfume, and see shadows. A very funny thing happened one morning while driving my children to the bus, I noticed several pairs of shoes in the driveway. So I put it down to the lady who lived there before me. I am not afraid of "ghosts", and I wasn't afraid of her...as I knew that it was the original lady of the house. And I had a feeling she was a friendly ghost. After a while, she didn't visit me anymore. I felt that she was checking me out, and that was O.K. with me. I guess I passed the test.

Submitted by: Marilyn Woodworth