|
By JO ANN BOBBY GILBERTJournal Staff
Writer
EAST LIVERPOOL — With its rich
history, the city would seem to be an ideal source for ghostly
happenings, and the Beaver County Ghost Hunters set out on a
recent dark Saturday night to see if that is true.
With
the much-appreciated help of local businessman Ian Braslawsce,
members of the group spent several hours in a building he owns
on Devon’s Diamond, a building with a rich history of its
own.
In its past, the towering brick structure that
features a rounded turret-like front has seen many occupants,
and if walls could talk, what tales it might tell about those
occupants.
The upper floors include several rooms that
served over the decades as apartments, a hat store,
slaughterhouse, trucking company and radio station. The
Morning Journal once had office space in the storefront which
also has served as an antique store and, most recently, an
accountant’s office.
Half the building also once served
as a brothel, Braslawce related.
Armed with just a bit
of this history, flashlights, cameras, tape recorders and
video cameras, BCGH members Rose St. John, Frank St. John,
Bernie Shipley, Yvonne Mangano and Paige Seybert headed for
the upper stories of the now-for-sale building, this reporter
tagging along.
With no electric in the upper stories,
the building was pitch black as we ascended into what once was
a well-appointed building but which is much the worse for wear
today.
After a walk-through, Braslawsce left the ghost
hunters and me on our own to explore at will, and each member
scattered to an area where he/she either felt, heard or saw
something on the first trip around.
Yvonne decided on
the “turret” room with its rounded walls, where she had
immediately sensed an old scruffy-looking dog.
“He was
not taken care of,” she described, adding, however, “He might
have come with one of us.”
Using a common digital
camera, Yvonne snapped two shots in quick succession down a
dark stairway. The first showed nothing but the stairs and the
landing; the second contained a bright, perfectly round, white
orb in the center of the photo, where no lights
existed.
Days later, Rose e-mailed a photo she took of
the building’s exterior after we had it locked and no one was
inside. A light image appeared in a window that looked
suspiciously to me like a scruffy, collie-like dog.
Strangely enough, I called my husband in to look at
the photo and asked, “Do you see anything in that
window?”
“It looks like a collie dog,” he told me. He
had no idea about the dog entity Yvonne described.
With
a bit of psychic ability myself, I half expected to “feel”
something as we toured the structure, and that I did, getting
a goose-bumpy scare as we entered what appeared to be a
utility room on the third floor.
Not wishing to revisit
that room myself, I accompanied Rose and Paige to a room that
had seen much better days whose worn drapes and torn wallpaper
provided a forlorn and spooky backdrop for what promised to be
one of my eeriest-ever experiences.
At 14, Paige is the
youngest of the BCGH group but also possibly the most gifted,
having the ability to actually speak with spirits, which, in
turn, speak through her.
Sound unbelievable?
Doubters need only stand in a pitch-black room with
the teen-ager as I did, listening to her commune with another
young girl, and they might quickly become
believers.
With no dramatic flair or flamboyancy, the
wraith-like teen simply walked into the room, stood with
dousing rods commonly used for finding water sources, and
waited while Rose posed a question: “Is there anyone here with
us?”
Suddenly, one of the rods swung around with no
discernible movement by Paige, and she spoke softly in a voice
that, while her own, sounded somewhat
disembodied
“Francine Elizabeth Taylor,” Paige uttered,
and the spirit of a young girl was welcomed by Rose saying,
“We’re happy to meet you.”
Picking up on her own
feelings, Rose posed more questions: “There’s a little boy
with you; is he your brother?” “There’s another girl here, is
she your sister?” “Is her name Sally, Sarah?”
In the
same quiet, not-quite-her-own monotone, Paige responded,
“She’s her older sister; she doesn’t like to talk about her.
She’s jealous because her mom gives her sister more
attention.”
Asked what year she lived in the building,
the spirit appeared to answer through Paige, “1906,” followed
by the observation, “She has freckles.”
Told that she
could “go to the light” to be with her family, the spirit
seemed to balk, with Paige saying “she likes it here with her
brother” and, “I’m not stubborn, I just know what I want.”
The atmosphere in the room was almost heavy, making it
somewhat difficult to breathe as the questioning
continued.
“Can you see how things have changed (in the
city)?” Rose asked.
“She doesn’t know what you’re
talking about,” Paige replied softly, adding, “She says she
can hear you,” as Rose asked if she could see
them.
Asked if they can return to talk to her at some
other time, Francine asked through Paige, “Why
me?”
Told they were interested in her still being in
the building, Paige pondered, “Where else would I be? This is
my home.”
When told they were going to just sit there
quietly for a spell, Paige responded, “Do as you
please.”
In a kitchen area, Rose sensed a woman,
possibly named Phyllis Graham, and a large group of hungry
children, clamoring for potato soup in what seemed to be the
Depression era.
Later, she and Paige returned to the
kitchen and Rose asked for Phyllis.
“She won’t talk,”
Paige said, then mumbled to herself, “I can hear
him.”
Suddenly, the two of them were apparently
speaking with a man and Rose asked, “Do you polish
shoes?”
“He’s ashamed of it,” Paige related,
continuing, “It puts bread on the table.”
Asked why he
was still there, Paige replied, “This is where I
work.”
Told his family missed him and they could help
him find them, Paige asked, “I’d like to see them but how do I
believe someone I don’t know?”
Told they could help him
go to the light, Paige questioned, “Tell me where this light
is.”
“It’s heaven,” Rose told him.
“Are you
sure?” he asked through Paige.
“You’ll be fine. Are you
ready to go?” Rose asked.
“Sure,” Paige said with some
doubt in her other-worldly voice.
With her head down,
Paige continued speaking, “He said thank you. Half way up he
saw his family. They gave him a hug. There are two little
kids.”
As we left the kitchen, Paige dropped against a
nearby wall, looking exhausted (no easy feat when you’re only
14 years old).
“That took a lot out of you,” Rose told
her.
“I’m ready to go home and get a bath,” she
admitted.
Meanwhile, Bernie and Frank were exploring
the rest of the building and came down to report they had
heard footsteps in the upper area where no one had
been.
Yvonne had to exit the building after suddenly
becoming ill and gagging in one portion, a sensation she lost
as soon as she left the building.
I went in with an
open mind and came away with a sense of wonder.
Do
ghosts exist? Was Paige really relaying words from beyond? Who
was walking around in an otherwise empty building? What was
the image in the window?
I don’t have the
answers.
jgilbert@mojonews.com
|
