Ghosts: Living with Uncle Bob

by Robert
(South Pasadena, CA)

My wife and I are renting a very small home (one bedroom, one bathroom, a living room and a kitchen) that our homeowners insurance company tells us was built in 1901.

Our neigbors are Dutch Indonesians and my wife is Chinese Indonesian.

After moving into the house, we noticed that we would hear unusual rattling sounds from the kitchen and then our coffee pot would rattle as well. I came home a couple of times to find the television on, although we both recalled turning it off before leaving the home and it was curiously set on sports stations - hockey games, basketball games, etc... We also noticed that we would lock the windows from inside the house only to find them opened when we arrived home.

About three months into moving into the house, I returned from a business trip to have my wife tell me that she had seen a ghost like figure walk by the backside of our house. I asked, of course, if it was something else, like a trick of light in the backyard. She assured me it was not.

The very next evening we both saw him walk past the house. It was a male figure wearing what appeared to be white clothing. He seemed to ignore us and was just walking by the house. That night we prayed and asked our Episcopal priest about possibly coming by to bless the house.

We then went away on three day trip only to learn that our neighbors' son had seen his deceased "Uncle Bob" sitting on the front porch. It turns out Uncle Bob had lived in the house for over 40 years before he passed away. Now anytime Uncle Bob rattles some dishes we politely ask him to stop and he does.

This last summer by wife and I were in the bedroom and we both heard a male voice - we said "hi" to Uncle Bob and we have not heard from his since. We now view Uncle Bob as someone who is still looking out for his old house. We no longer fear him, but give him respect and he gives us respect as well. We have told the Episcopal priest about what occurred and he then told us about the ghost at our church.

The lesson we have learned is that living with a ghost like Uncle Bob is like dealing with the history of our house. When replacing a fuse in fuse box the other day I could not help to think that I was doing something that Uncle Bob had done many times over the years. We now view him as something like a guardian angel over this property. Who knows - if we were to live here another 40 years maybe we would be visiting after we pass on.