This is from a pure skeptic! (This post was written by my Innkeeper partner/husband)
We have had several "sensitive people" tell us that the room in the northwest corner of our house ( Union Room in the B & B) has a spirit.
The first occurrence of some note has been the 'odd' feeling people have shared when looking at the north window of the room - an eerie sensation that made them feel sad. I personally, began to weep while painting in that area over 8 years ago. (Maybe it was the paint fumes?)
Last year we had a 'ghost hunter' stay in that room but he experienced no sightings nor did he have any 'odd feelings'. But our youngest daughter claims that the lights flashed on and off one night while she was swimming in the pool and she knew for a fact that no one was staying in that room. She also claims that the bed shook one night as she slept in it. And now when she comes home to visit, she'd rather sleep on the sofa than in 'that' room! These occurrences were noted and ignored because of my skeptical nature and lack of belief in 'ghosts'. But a few days ago a much more detailed story emerged.
I was preparing for breakfast when a guest came down early for coffee. He struck up a conversation in which he claimed to be very sensitive to feelings and spirits. He began talking about two people he encountered in the room. He described one as being a woman in black mourning clothes waiting at the north window for a man who would not return. He had a strong feeling that the woman's name began with the letter F. The man was standing behind her but she could not see him nor feel him.
Now several months ago a neighbor told me the story of one of her ancestors, Francis Barnard McRoberts, who lived in this house in the early 1900's. It seems that her husband, a Pitt McRoberts, was bitten by a rabid horse and needed to travel to Chicago for treatment. A year later he died there, having never returned home to his house in Oberlin. The irony is that in the Union Room, where our guest saw the 'woman in black' she was looking in the direction of the Chicago/Buffalo rail line that went through Oberlin just north of our house. Could she have been Francis waiting for her husband, Pitt, to return to her, cured of his illness? Was he trying to comfort her?
The most compelling of facts in these stories is that they all occurred in the same room - the Union Room, with no corroboration between the tellers. If we do have a spirit visitor in our house, I'd like to meet her and charge her for all of the nights she has been in that room since we are now a Bed & Breakfast! (but I guess she doesn't eat much breakfast!)
Are you a believer?!! Have you been a guest in that room and did you have any 'strange feelings' or odd occurrences while there? If so, let us know. Do you want to book a night in the Union Room? It is almost Halloween night! Maybe the spirits will be up and about, weeping and wondering! Come for a visit and meet Francis. She wants to meet you!
