True Ghost Story: The Ghost of James

Location: Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada

The following report was sent into our website by Kenneth on Dec 14, 2006:

 “Well it’s not much of a story as it’s me recounting some eerie things that sparked my interest in ghost research in the first place. We lived in a house that was close to 100 years old, it was a nice early 20th century home with big rooms and a nice hard wood floor. The house itself was built in 1905 and it had a fire sometime in the 30’s or 40’s which took out the back wall of the house as well as a chimney.

That was just to place you at the scene. When I was young there were some very strange things that happened in this house. There were numerous occasions where we would all be sitting downstairs in the living room of the house and we could hear heavy boot steps going from one end of the house to the other. They were definately boot steps. This was not an old house settling. I would know those sounds anywhere. This was distinct foot steps going from one end of the house to the other. They were really frequent at times especially at night. Being the rational person I am I have tried to rule out the possibility of a ghost in my house but it always creeps back.

One night my brother awoke to seeing a Hand crawling up the wall with a reddish tinge. My dad ran in and turned on the lights and no more hand. Now I was not a direct witness to this at all I was not even 2 years old then. I don’t know how to explain this one at all. There are many possibilities.

Last but not least, James saved my life in a way. I was very inebriated after a party at my house and all was done and over. I was alone in my room there was no-one else in the house as they had all left for the night. It was about 3 AM and I was definitely ready to crash. As I did, I had not been asleep for ten minutes when I was jerked awake by a cold force. And I heard MY NAME called three times. As I was really freaked out I was still inebriated and I rolled over. The point is that I was praying to the bucket all night long after that. If I had not have rolled over I would have choked on my own stupidity for sure as I was lying on my back. Strangely enough that is the only thing I can remember from that night.

Any who to conclude with my all too common account I did get some closure and that is also how I put it all together. I came Home from College with my Wife and our son. I had asked my mother if she had heard the “footsteps” lately as a joke. She quickly replied that James was still around in the house and keeping an eye on things. I asked her how she knew his name and she mentioned that in a particular part of the home she would always get images flashing in her head of a WW2 soldier. One time she just got a name, so she looked it up and sure enough the parents of James were the first owners of the house. I asked the living family members about a soldier and they verified that he had been shot in the war. Had he come back home to the place he loved. I will never know but its how I became interested in ghosts and paranormal activities.”

Kenneth sent the following update into our website on Nov 2, 2007:

“Its not much of a story per say more just to follow up on the story I wrote in 2006 about “James”. I found out his actual name is Norman D. Tysick. He was a private in WW2 and died at the age of 26 somewhere in the Italian campaign. Dug up some old census records and voting records. According to his relatives he had fought with his parents before leaving for the War.

Just to correct some of my mistakes. This information is actual government recorded  as there were only 2 casualties with the last name Tysick in WW2 and none in WW1.

For all those people out there. A ghost can be a scary experience, but now that I know who mine was I feel more respect for him than FEAR.”

Submit your true ghost story here