The Bedtime Ghost From: Dorothy Ettinger (Truro)

by Hattie Dyck

Dorothy was not the least bit surprised when she saw a ghost for the first time. Neither is she surprised when it returns to visit with her. But, she wonders why the female spirit she sees always chooses to appear in her bedroom in the early morning hours.

   She learned to believe in the spiritual world from her mother, the late Elsie Neil of Densmore’s Mills. In the years when she grew up in that rural community it was common for people to believe in the supernatural and she has retained that belief over the years.

   Sometimes she believes the spirits are premonitions of what’s to come. An example happened in the summer of 2013 when she was ill. She was lying in bed in the morning but wasn’t asleep. Something told her to look towards the bedroom door which was only partly open. To her surprise she saw a young, blond woman looking around the edge of the door. She stayed only a short time and then disappeared into the morning light. Four days later her cousin, Margie Bushie died. Dorothy thinks her appearance was a forerunner.

 Another time, again in the early morning, she saw a grey haired woman peeking through the crack in her partly open bedroom door. That was shortly after her son-in-law’s mother, Harriet Talbot of Truro died.

 Another time in the early morning, a statue that looked like a biblical light bearer appeared just between her bed and the ceiling. It came down from the ceiling just above her head. After her initial surprise she reached her hand up to touch it and

asked “What are you doing here?”

There wasn’t any answer and the statue disappeared into the air. Later when she got up she called her sister Betty and related the experience to her. Betty said it was probably God trying to tell her something.

  Years ago when her mother lived at Densmore’s Mills she was walking home from the post office one clear evening just at dusk. The post office was only about a quarter mile from her home. On the way she passed the home of Vesta and Roy Densmore. At that time they were caring for their son who was dying of cancer. As she came near to their house she saw a man coming towards her. As he passed her she said good evening and he didn’t answer. She found that odd because in a small community people are usually friendly and known to their neighbors. She looked around to see if he went into Vesta’s driveway or kept on going down the road. To her great surprise he had done neither. He was nowhere to be seen, he had just disappeared into the air. She hurried home to tell her family about it. They couldn’t enlighten her as to who it might be as they didn’t see him nor did anyone else in the neighborhood. For the rest of her life she told the story of the stranger whose identity she never learned, nor the face she never saw again.

  It was the end of the day when a policeman parked his police van in front of the station. As he gathered his equipment, his K-9 partner, Jake, was barking. He saw a little boy staring at him. “Is that your dog you got back there?” the little guy asked. “It sure is,” the policeman replied. Puzzled the little lad looked at him and then towards the dog. ”What did he do?” he asked.

From: Great Nova Scotians published in 2014