Ghost Story

I wanted to share a real story about a house I lived in when I was a kid so here it is...

I grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in a house that was kept in my family until my parents decided to sell it due to the high mortgage rates. It was an old house that was built by Dr. Sweetland in the1860’s, which was the first house, built on that street. It was sold to my ancestors and my mother was taken care of by her great aunt when she was 9 years old, after losing her father in a railcar accident in Quebec City. In that house, nine bodies were exposed due to the years when tuberculosis was a major illness. When we lived there, we could hear things, especially at nighttime. The house had an attic and we could sometimes hear someone walking. The entrance of the attic was in my bedroom, a door which was locked at all times that would sometime open by itself. I would come in my bedroom when it was time to go to bed and I would find the attic door open. Sometimes, I could hear someone coming down the stairs of the attic and stop at the door as if he or she wanted to come in my room. I tell you, I always slept with my head under the blankets because I was spooked. My father had a collection of paintings; he had at least 200 or more that were hung through out the house. I was in the living room on day when I heard a large bang on the wall and a painting just fell on some of my mother’s crystals. Of course, I was the only one in the living room so I was accused of doing it but even when I told my dad what just happened, he wouldn’t believe me and he would punish me even more because he would say that on top of breaking things, I was a liar…

I have 4 sisters and 2 brothers and they all witnessed something during the years that we lived there. The last thing that happened was very strange and I was happy to see that both my parents witnessed it as well and for once, they saw that all those years, when we told them that whatever broke, whatever noise they heard, wasn’t us kids but were actually ghosts. Here’s what happened…

Like I mentioned earlier, my parents had no choice but to sell the house because the interest rates were way to high in the early 80’s and my father, being the only one working, had trouble making the mortgage payments. The “FOR SALE” sign was up and one of my sisters found herself an apartment because she decided that at her age, it would be a good time for her to use this opportunity and tell mom and dad that it was time for her to move out. She bought herself some furniture and also bought herself a piano that she had delivered to the old house until she would actually move to her new apartment a few mouth later. My mother played the piano so she found some old music that belonged to one of her great cousins who died in the house like all the other eight from tuberculosis. She played some music but was playing one in particular that she liked very much. According to some text that was written behind the music sheet, it was also her cousin’s favourite that she played for her siblings when they were exposed and a few weeks before she died. Anyway, a few weeks after the piano was delivered, my mother noticed that the piano was playing off key so my sister called the store where she bought it and the salesman told her that he would send someone to tune it for her

The Piano Tuner arrived, started tuning it and when he was done, he asked my sister if someone had open the piano and played with the keys inside. She said no and the tuner said that almost all the keys were so tight that they were about to break. One thing he wouldn’t understand is that when a piano needs to be tuned, it’s because the keys get loose so they need to be tightened. That wasn’t the case, instead of loosening, they where tightening up. Anyway, it was fixed so the man left. One week later, the same thing was happening, the piano was playing off key so my sister called again and the Piano Tuner came to our house and again, he couldn’t understand what was happening to the piano. He fixed it and left. One week later, the same thing was happening, the piano was again playing off key. The Piano Tuner and the Salesman came to the house to look at the piano and again, the piano was having the same problem, the keys were very tight, at the point where they would break one by one. The Piano Tuner said that he’s tuned pianos for 15 years and he never saw or heard of such a thing, a piano that tunes by itself. He said that if he was to call the head office in Toronto, they would tell him to go see a Psychologist because it wasn’t possible. The Salesman decided to replace the piano with a new one and he would send the first one to the company who builds them and just tell them that it was defective. So, the next day, a new piano was delivered and guess what, a few days after we got it, the same thing was happening. The salesman did not send the Piano Tuner because my sister was moving the next week so he would rather send the Piano Tuner to her new place and take a look at it.

What I believe is that my ancestors who died and were exposed in that house, their spirits were still there and new that the house that was kept in my family for years was for sale and were probably not happy about it and it was probably a way to show us their frustration. Today, that house is a Bed and Breakfast and my sisters and bothers and I, spent a night at the B & B. The owners of the house told us that a Medium was once their guest and when she came in the house, she told them that she could sense spirits and she believed that there were nine of them and that they were good.

By: denis_cuillierrier@pch.gc.ca