To The Editor:
This is a letter about my friend, Jackson Grimes, who I believe has remarkable mediumistic abilities. I think he must have got these abilities from his mother, Mabel Grimes, who was reputed to have been born with a veil over her face, which is known to guarantee psychic abilities.
This account begins after the Grimes' family had left Florida and moved to Zanesville, Ohio. They purchased a house in the Putnam Street area in the late 1950's. At the time, my friend was around 8 years old. It was during the family's first winter in their new home that he began seeing a phantom child, who he deduced would have been a similar age if he were still alive. The ghost child began appearing to him in November or December of 1958. The first time he saw the specter he thought his mother had let one of his little friends in to play, until he realized the child had a glowing blank space where his face should have been.
Every night for about two weeks the spirit materialized at Jackson's bed chamber door, walked across the room, and vanished through the wall by the fireplace. I have no idea why he didn't tell his parents or anyone else at the time that these events were occurring but, it seems that he didn't. Nor did he understand that what he was seeing was a ghost, according to what he told me.
Eventually, the ghost stopped appearing, and another year passed by. The next summer, he was playing in the backyard with a group of kids to whom he happened to recount the +@!#! events of this tale. An old woman, whom he only recalls as Mrs. Baker, who lived next door, happened to overhear the story. Upon doing so, she beckoned the children to come over to her, and then explained to them that Jack had seen the spirit of a boy who had died the winter before in the home his parents bought.
As the old woman's story unfolded, the children learned that a boy, about the same age as Jack, got sick and died in that house sometime in the winter of 1957 (probably around November or December). As was the custom with Christian families back then, they laid the boy's body out in a coffin in the living room for a general viewing. As a witch practitioner, I can piece together enough facts from my friend's account to tell you what most likely happened. Joshua Grimes, my associate's father, bought the house from the boy's parents who may have sold it to escape this tragic memory. His son, Jack, was about the same age as the child that had died. Therefore, we can deduce, another child playing in the house activated a psycho-centric link between the spirit realm and the mortal plane of existence. Jackson Grimes, especially as a young child, inherited psychic abilities from his mother, enabling him to see ghosts. The phantom child, knowing my friend could see him wanted to make himself known, for whatever reason. I think, since the other boy died at a very young age he may not have known he was dead, and should move on. Or he was looking for his mom and dad wondering why new people were living in his house. It also might be that he simply wanted to play with another child, too.
Heather Goldsmith
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