Restless Spirit

I'm not certain how the family would feel about my retelling of this tale, so, for now, I will refrain from sharing any names or locations as this story is fairly recent.

My cousin was only 45 years old when he died, leaving a widow and several children. His death was sudden and unexpected. Fatal heart attacks in one so young are rare.

Beginning the day following his death his wife and all but one of his children noticed brown streaks on their hands. Off and on over the following weeks the phenomena inexplicably continued. Was the one child spared this trauma because she was adopted?

There were other odd occurrences that happened over the next several weeks. The freshly made bed would appear to have been sat upon, even though no one had entered the room. Items flew through the air; an ashtry, an iron stand, a laundry basket.

Several weeks after his death, his widow was preparing dinner and her finger started to burn, right under her wedding band. The skin under the band had turned a very dark brown color. She tried to scrub the stain off to no avail. The next morning the stain was gone so she replaced the ring upon her finger. And the stain returned. This cycle was repeated several times until she simply stopped wearing the band altogether.

Once she stopped wearing her wedding band for good there were no more stained hands or fingers, nothing flew through the air and the marital bed no longer appeared to have been sat upon. Had my cousin been urging his family (and especially his widow) to move on?


This was written for the 58th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Halloween Hauntings....Fact or Fiction? So is this story true? Or do I just have a vivid imagination? Leave your thoughts in the comments. I'll reveal whether or not my story is true on October 31st.