A Halloween Story

Today is the perfect day for me to share a creepy story from what feels like a lifetime of living above a funeral home. During the ten years of living here, I have heard a many of noises, things that go 'bump' in the night.

Here's one example....

On a night, not too different from one we'll experience tonight, I went to bed for a 'normal' night's sleep. All the lights were out and I was tucking myself, and my dog, in bed. Chandler, my dog, always slept with me until the day I got married. He would always jump up in the bed, crawl to the foot of the bed, curl up between the sheet and the comforter, and sleep like a log until the next morning; much like his master. I just didn't curl up in a little ball. Anyway, at 1 AM Chandler woke up and started a real low growl accompanied with a cautious "woof." I woke up, startled, and soon realized why he was "woofing." It was none other than sounds of someone walking up the inside stairs of the apartment. I could hear the creaking and popping of each step as they grew closer and Closer and CLOSER to the top. Once the creaking reached the top of the stairs, we heard them stop! It was almost as if someone was looking for where we were.

At this point, I think I joined Chandler in a little ball at the foot of the bed. I don't know which one of us was shaking more! What was heard then would scare us even more!! The funeral home building is approximately 100 years old and has the old brass doorknobs with the key hole plate. The older the knob, the more noise it makes when you open it. Well, I heard something grab the knob and begin to shake it, as if to let us know it was RIGHT THERE!! Chandler went nuts barking and I couldn't take it anymore! I jumped out of bed, grabbed my "Souvenir Branson Specially Carved Baseball Bat" with "Lynn" branded in it and was ready to put a backwards Lynn across somebody's forehead. I jerked open the door and much to my surprise, there was NOBODY there! All I could hear was those same creaking footsteps headed back down the stairs. I never heard the noises again from that day to this.

Legend has it that "Old Man Tanner", the previous owner of the funeral home who once lived in in the apartment, was having what we now know as a heart attack and ran to the bottom of the stairs where the telephone was to call for help. He made the call, turned to head back up the stairs. He was found, dead, at the foot of the stairs.

Maybe it was "Old Man Tanner" who was trying to make it back to his room that night I heard footsteps. I'll never know, but Chandler does. He still, to this day, will go to the stairs and get that deep growling "woof," and he knows who it is making their way down the corridors of the funeral home, coming to the stairway for one last journey to their room. In fact, go back to that first picture. I didn't notice when I took it, but it seems as if two eyes were captured when I took the photo. Did "Old Man Tanner" visit, looking for a photo opp, or did the Tanners have a dog who kept watch at the top of the stairs as well? If they did, then maybe it wasn't "Old Man Tanner." We'll never know.....

Happy Halloween everyone and sweet dreams...

-approved by Farley Wells, CMDI who is cleaning up an unfortunate mess he made on the floor.