There was a painted table, card table size, near the front of the store. It was unusual because it had a print of a flower arrangement on it. I figured it was from the 50’s, I liked the colors, but wasn’t sure I wanted it. After looking around, I went back to the table. I looked around the store some more, and went back a third time to the table. I figured it was a new arrival, but when I saw the tag, I knew it had been there 2-3 months, but I had never seen the table in the store. I saw it was marked down to $8 – so I thought I’d buy it, but even when I bought it, I wasn’t sure I’d keep it or give it to my daughter or a friend.
I took it to the counter, and I learned the table was also a fireplace screen. It had extra legs on the back to set it up in front of a fireplace. I thought that was interesting, and we have a fireplace, a gas stove is in it, but I thought it would be unusual. I put it in the back of the car.
When I got home, I decided I wasn’t sure if I wanted the table, if I wanted to bring it into the house. Now, if you know me, you would know that this is highly unusual. My “treasures”, my “finds” usually have a place the moment I buy them. I bring them home, wash them up and they join the happy mixture in our home. The table stayed in the car for 2 weeks.
My BFF ( best female friend) asked me what was up with that, because she knows me. So I took it out of the car, and put it on our patio in the backyard, leaning up against a chair. My neighbor thought it was “cool”, my daughter liked it and my husband wanted to know why I wasn’t taking this table in the house. There was just this feeling every time I looked at it. I pretty much had made up my mind to give the table away, when for some reason, I brought it into the house and put it in front of the fireplace. I couldn’t decide what was off with it. It was the soft old yellow I like, the flower arrangement was pleasing, so why did it just not set right with me?
A couple of days passed. I had some friends over for lunch, for one of my girlfriend’s BD. They all commented on the fireplace screen, they actually thought I had leaned a large painting there. I told them it was a table – screen, but that I was pretty sure I was going to get rid of it and give it to my daughter or another friend. That night I had a horrific nightmare. I dreamed I was being strangled, held up against the wall by a large, middle age male who was very angry. I kept trying to scream for my Mom & Dad, who have both passed away years ago. While all this was going on in my dream, I could hear my voice telling me over all this screaming & anger, Judy – it’s not real, it’s a ghost – Judy – it’s a ghost. I woke up terrified with my cat right up by my face, like he was trying to touch my mouth, which he never does. I believe I was screaming. I was terrified, but I passed out and when I woke later, my cat was laying right up next to me, as close as can be, even tho it was a summer night. The nightmare unsettled me, and I was edgy the following day. That night I kept waking up with a start, at least 4 or 5 times, with such a jolt that I was sitting straight up in bed. I knew now something was not right.
The following day, I was out all morning & didn’t get home till about 3:30. I never ate breakfast or lunch, and my husband was out of town so I decided to make an early dinner. I cooked it up, sat down in the living room, put a movie in and ate my dinner. It was around 4:30 in the afternoon. Our house is very old. Our living room & dining room are separated by an arched ceiling- so it is really like 1 long, big room. There are no doors between them. I was sitting on the couch, my back to the dining room, when the dining room lights came on, full blast. The light reflected in the glass objects on the fireplace mantel. I literally jumped in my seat, turned around and saw the dining room chandelier turned all the way up. The switch is a dimmer that has to be pushed in and turned to how bright you want the lights. I jumped up off the couch, stood up and said out loud, “Oh no you don’t. I have been through this before and I can not have a ghost in my house again. I can not live like this again. You will have to leave”.
I could not understand how, when we have the seeds over all the doors, the ghost got in. I got the phone, called my husband and told him what was going on. I knew I had to call Gina. I also knew I was not staying by myself in our house overnight alone. While on the phone with my husband, I went to where I keep important business cards. I have had Gina’s card for at least 20 years. Her card is always in the same place with my other cards. It was gone. I really started getting upset then. My husband said to get some things together for the night, call my BFF, and he would find Gina’s # on line. I got my stuff together, fed and watered the cats, told them I was sorry to leave them, and by the time I was ready, he called back with Gina’s #. I called her, left I’m sure, a rambling message about what was going on. How could this be because the seeds are in place. I know I’m not going crazy, etc. and I left the house and went to my BFF’s.
When I was at her house, my husband & Gina had been e-mailing back and forth and Gina confirmed there was a male presence in the house, and she believed he had come in on an object. I went to sleep at a friend’s knowing I wasn’t crazy & knowing I would talk to Gina the next day. The next morning, true to her word, Gina called and we talked about what happened. She asked if I had brought any new furniture in the house. That damn table! I told her about it, how I kept not wanting it yet still bringing it in. How all this started after I had said out loud to my friends that I wasn’t going to keep the table. Everything made sense. Gina kept seeing a mirror or a silver circle on the man’s face – the flower arrangement printed on the table was in a large, round silver container.
Gina told me to take the table out of the house, put a letter on it telling the ghost to go to the funeral home at the end of the street, there would be a white light there, that he would not be judged, we are all welcomed when we cross over. We also put a dish of sea salt on it, tarped it over and left it outside in the backyard.
When my husband came home and we had taken care of the table, Gina said we needed to smudge every inch of the house. I always have smudge at home, once you go through a haunting, you always keep sea salt, smudge & extra seeds at home. My husband and I started in the basement with the smudge. I never realized before that, that I always keep a white light around myself & my family – it’s always in the back of my mind, this white light circling us. We carried the smudge around and I told whoever was listening that they couldn’t stay, that this was our home, my family has been through much heartache and through it all, we have tried to keep a happy, safe home, where peace and love and friends and all are welcomed, and that we want the same things for our family that the ghost probably had wanted for his, that no matter who he was or what he did, someone was waiting for him on the other side. We all have people that loved us, and he would be surprised to see who was waiting for him. He should go to the light. We are meant to cross over. We smudged the house top to bottom, then took the still burning smudge & put it on a plate under the table that was now under a tarp w/the sea salt & note.
Gina called us that evening and said that she was not picking up any negative energy, that our house felt calm & peaceful. She was pretty well convinced that the table was possibly a portal and it would need to be purified, unless we didn’t want it here, and we wanted to take it to the curb. Believe me, we wanted to take it to the curb, burn it, stomp on it! But, that wouldn’t take care of the bigger problem, closing the portal and helping the ghost to the light. Gina said she would be in town in a couple weeks and could we wait? She assured us that if ANY activity resumed, if anything scared me, she would rearrange her plans to help us. How can you say no to doing the right thing. The table is outside waiting for Gina.”
As Judy stated, when we talked and I realized the table was the source of the paranormal disturbance, she then realized the “circle” I had seen was part of the painting on the table. At that point, I not only knew the table had a ghost attached to it, but that there was likely an open portal on the table as well. I told her to put it outside and what else she could do to clear her house and deal with the table until I got there.
When I got to Judy’s house, she was her usual happy self and her home felt good to me. I went outside to deal with the haunted table. As I approached the covered table, I could feel the strange energy around it. I uncovered it and looked around for a place to make the white light. I found my spot and began to make the light. I then said, “if anyone wants to go into the light – here’s your chance”. A young man with short hair, looked like he was in his 20’s/early 30’s, came up to the light. I got the sense he had been into drugs- a “tweeker”, a “meth head”. He said his name is Jim. He asked me if he could bring someone else into the light. I said”yes”. He grabbed a young gal- late teens/early 20’s. She had a “goth” look to her- pale skin, dark makeup. Jim grabbed her hand and they went into the light together. No one else came to the light so I closed the portal and took negative energy off the table.
The ghost that had scared Judy, the one she had the nightmare about, wasn’t there when I made the light. He either stayed in the other realm when I closed the portal, or he took Judy’s advice and sought out the light, associated with the deceased at the funeral home down the street or he could have decided just to move on down the road.
Even though the table was cleared and it was restored to being just an interesting kind of thing, Judy absolutely didn’t want it. In addition to gifting me the table/fireplace screen , Judy took the time to write down her experience. Her story continues below.