M.L. Woelm - The Ghosts on 87th Lane: A True Story

About the Author

M. L. Woelm has experienced paranormal phenomena since she was a little girl. A grandmother, she enjoys exploring popular haunts around the world. She lives with her husband and their dog Max, who loyally alerts her of every ghostly visitor.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

The Ghosts on 87th Lane: A True Story 2007 by M. L. Woelm.

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First e-book edition 2011

E-book ISBN: 9780738717661

Book design and layout by Joanna Willis

Cover design by Gavin Dayton Duffy

Cover image PictureQuest

Interior photographs by the author

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Llewellyn Publications

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

A Memoir of the Early Years

My First Look Around

Getting Acquainted

Settling In during the Seventies

Eek-ing through the Eighties

A Rough Start to the Nineties

My Journal of a Haunting

Afloat on a Psychic Sea1995

Ninety-six Brings More Tricks1996

New Visitors, New Light1997

Peace and Quiet and... What Was That?1998

Patience1999

A New Century Begins2000

Retirement Cant Come Soon Enough2001

Max and Mom2002

A New Attitude2003

Stick with What You Know2004

Enough Already!

Preface

Its fairly quiet these days, but back in May of 1968, the first night we spent in our house was anything but quiet. For the next several years, almost every night was filled with supernatural mischief. There were nights when my body was paralyzed with fear, yet other evenings would find me laughing nervously at the paranormal antics going on all over the place. Until my daughter became an adult, I had no one within my immediate family to lean on for support. I rode this psychic roller coaster all alonequietly screaming to myself and hanging on for dear life, never knowing what to expect. I tried to put my experiences down on paper many times, but something always stopped me.

My home is not a glamorous Hollywood mansion or classic English country estate with long, sweeping staircases down which ghosts silently glide. It has no fireplaces, hidden passages, balconies, or walled-up skeletons. This is why I wanted to tell my story: to prove that ghosts can and will haunt anywhere they wish. Location, style, or size of home does not concern them.

During the years of 1968 to 1978, when I was experiencing the heaviest ghostly activity in my house, I avidly sought information on the subject. Of all the books I read, my favorite was Spindrift: Spray from a Psychic Sea , by Jan Bryant Bartell. Ms. Bartells story helped me deal with my scary days and nights. Granted, she was a stage actress and writer married to a successful restaurateur and living in a third-floor walkup in a Greenwich Village brownstone, and I was a housewife and mother married to a munitions-plant worker and living in a small house in a Minneapolis suburb, but we had a close, psychic bond. We had shared many of the same experiences as we reluctantly began our separate journeys into the world of the paranormal. Each of us had hoped to find a credible explanation for what was occurring in our respective homes. In the end, logic escaped us, and both Ms. Bartell and I had to reluctantly accept the fact that our homes were inhabited by something we could not see. It was a tremendous relief knowing I was not the only one being drawn into the baffling world of the supernatural without my consent. I wanted to write to Ms. Bartell and tell her how her experiences helped me cope, but unfortunately she crossed over to the Other Side in the early seventiesafter she completed her book. (Although our lives followed parallel paths up to a point, I do not wish to share that final coincidence with her, at least not yet.)

At some point, things here quieted down quite a bit. I thought my ghost had finally tired of tormenting me and had moved on, but in the autumn of 1995, several more incidents occurred, which resulted in my decision to finish this book. Some names have been changed to protect the identities of persons who wish to remain anonymous, especially the skeptics in my life. I also changed the names of those who have crossed over during the writing of this book, on the off chance they didnt wish to be identified. There are enough spirits haunting me now as it is!

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my daughter, Kristen, who deals with phenomena more sensibly than I ever will; to Nancy Letson and my other special friends who never shut me up nor shut me out; and, finally, to Ms. Bartell, who unknowingly held my hand through some scary times. I also wish to thank Grandma Gladys, who encouraged me for decades. Her earthly journey has ceased, but her enthusiasm remains tucked away in my heart. I also want to acknowledge the skeptics I encountered along the wayespecially my husband, Paul, and son, Scott. Roadblocks, although exasperating, often serve a useful purpose. In my case, these hurdles were real character builders.

Everyone has a right to his or her own opinion. I believe in the psychic presence that Ive seen, felt, and heard over the years, and no one will ever convince me that ghosts dont exist. Whether youre a believer or not, I invite you to enjoy my own personal ghost story, which is part memoir and part journal.

Back Story

The year is 1995, and Im determined to publish my story. Its become my own personal quest, my Holy Grail. Around midnight some weeks ago, after far too much caffeine, I was lying awake upstairs in bed and recalling all the events that have happened in this house over the years. I remembered what I could and decided to go for it.

Back in 1968, I started writing twenty-page letters to a family friend who lived in Omaha, Nebraska, documenting each occurrence on the precise date and time it happened. He kept the letters in a three-ring binder and teased me that he was going to publish them. Wed often argue over whose property the letters werethe authors or the recipients. In the end, he refused to return them to me for my own documentation, despite my shameless begging. Unfortunately, our family lost track of him in 1984, so I must start the memoir section of this book over from scratch. I am not amused!