In mid August, someone came to visit me. Someone familiar to me. Someone who brings bad news. Someone who warns of death. Get the true ghost story after the jump.

Friday, August 9th

Something strange happened over the past week. An older woman kept appearing in my yard while I was outside watering my trees or garden.

Now, if you don’t know, the Pacific Northwest is dry and sunny all summer long, so you have to water your plants.

On Friday, August 9th, I went into our backfield to water some new fig trees. The field is nearly 2 acres with golden prairie grass and a collection of cedar, cypress and fir trees running along each side. Near the gate and fence that separates the field from the orchard and garden, I have a white shed.

I was watering my 12 fig trees and listening to the news when a woman walked out from the side of the shed.

Shocking aptly sums up my feelings about it. I dropped the hose and started walking toward her, but she turned and went back to the shed. When I got there, she was gone.

I searched the whole property looking for her and found … nothing.

Ok, so I panicked. A stranger? How’d they’d even get inside? All the gates on the property were locked. I had no idea how’d she be able to walk on the lot without my dogs barking. T

Unfortunately, I didn’t really get a good look at her face. I could only tell she was older, had dark hair (maybe auburn), wore glasses, and she was pale.

I went back to check my security cameras, and they didn’t pick her up. The shed area is too far from the house to get a crisp picture of anybody.

This concerned me because my home had been targeted by a hate church not so long ago. Some members tossed a small bomb over the fence. It blew a foot-wide and 6-inch deep hole in the ground. Luckily, they’re not as active anymore, but I did catch one member drive up and take videos of my house. It was reported to the police, and it’s been peaceful since then.

Monday, August 12th

On August 12th, the woman returned. This time, I was next to our shed watering a group of leyland cypress.

In our garden and walking along its white fencing, a woman with dark hair and glasses paced back and forth. She was about 100 feet away from me. I yelled to her, asking if she needed help or if she was lost. but there was no response.

Here’s the odd thing: Even though I have 20×15 vision (thanks lasik!), I couldn’t make out her facial features. It’s like I had fuzzy vision, but I could clearly see the rest of my yard. This woman was definitely a white female and probably older than 70, but I couldn’t tell much about her beyond that. Although, I have to admit, she seemed familiar.

When I opened the fence to enter the garden, I couldn’t find anyone in it, and I didn’t find any footprints. I walked around the full lot of the property to see if she was still there. Our only property entrance, the front gate, was locked.

Here are the other kickers: My dogs were outside with me, and they didn’t notice anything odd. And the security cameras? They captured nothing unusual.

This reminded me of my encounter with a Black-Eyed Kid, which I’m lucky nothing happened with that encounter.

Wednesday, August 14th

In the early afternoon of August 14th, I was watering the apple and pear trees in my little backyard orchard. The dogs (all 7 of them) ran around the backyard and wrestled with each other. They’d caused quite a ruckus, but they went silent. When I looked up to see why they’d gone quiet, I saw an elderly woman sitting on one of my patio chairs. This lady was no more than 50 feet away from me.

She had wavy auburn hair with a touch of grey peaking through, wore thick framed glasses and pearl earrings, had the shiniest red nail polish and wore deep red lipstick.

I recognized her immediately: She was my Grandma Jones, who died in January 2010.

When I approached her and called out her name, she stood up, turned to step off the patio, and vanished.

Let’s just say I got all the feels by this. My grandma was more of a mother to me than my own. I would spend all summer with her in Ontario, minding her garden, and watching trashy primetime soap operas, like Dallas and Knot’s Landing. Although, her favourite shows were Murder, She Wrote and MASH. After a long day gardening, she’d bake berry pies or oatmeal raisin cookies for me. I never wanted to go home.

Grandma Jones has visited me a few times over the past 14 years, and each time meant something bad had happened to a close family member. In this case, my mother had been in the ICU with E. Coli poisoning for 5 days. I had no idea until 1 day after these ghostly encounters. My brother sent me a text message explaining what happened to her. It turns out, the doctors thought my mother might die during 2 of those days.

An Omen

You might be wondering why Grandma Jones would bring death. Well, she doesn’t do it directly, and I don’t think it’s intentional. She’s more like an omen.

In 2010, she appeared as a crisis apparition when she died. I was sitting in a movie theatre when she appeared and told me to pick up the phone when my mother called with important news (grandma’s death). Next, she manifested in 2014 when my mother was in an ICU after a medical accident. Lastly, she visited when my uncle had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2018.

Still, it was nice to see her. I left out some of my ghost hunting gadgets and audio recorders to use for communication. But there were no messages left.

So, the next day, I turned on the TV, set it to Murder, She Wrote, and nestled in for a day with J.B. Fletcher.

Note: The feature image isn’t Grandma Jones. It’s a stock photo to use for effect.

Last Updated on November 3, 2024 by Jacob Rice