DO I BELIEVE IN THE GHOST OF NELLY BUTLER?
Photo credit: Sullivan-Sorrento Historical Society
My book “The Gathering Room - A Tale of Nelly Butler” has turned out to be a popular book club selection and I find myself speaking in front of book clubs more and more often lately. I love these because they are informal, personal kind of events. I love in person events!!
Recently I was speaking to a book club at a library and one of the gentlemen there asked a question of me that I didn’t know how to answer. The question was “What do you think really happened?” Honestly I was completely taken aback. No one had ever asked me that. When I failed to reply immediately he tried rephrasing his question. “Do you think the ghost of Nelly Butler was real?” I appreciated him trying to clarify the question for me but I still didn’t have an answer. I think I answered something like, “Truth be told I guess I never really thought about what I think of the situation.”
When I first came across the history of Nelly Butler and then began to research it further and deeper, I think I was to caught up in wanting to know about the people involved. So I didn’t think to much about if the ghost itself was real. And as I began to write the story that I saw in my imagination I was focused on making sure it made sense, that the characters were developed, that I had the history accurate, that it was authentic. Again I never thought much about the ghost itself. The past year, since the book was published, has been a whirlwind of activity and my attention has been focused on promoting and marketing the book. Of course now too I’m working on the next book. So I guess I’ve never really stopped to think much about if the ghost was real.
I’ve said this many times since the book was published last year, I am not a paranormal expert. I’m not a paranormal investigator that happened to have stumbled upon a historical ghost. I am a historian that wrote a story about a ghost. There is a difference. Honestly until everything happened with the book I never really thought much about ghosts.
Do I believe in ghosts? I will tell you that never, ever, ever in my life have I seen anything that I would call a “ghost”. Nope, no white wispy visions of women drifting across the room. No dark shadowy figures of men lurking in hallways. To me those are the descriptions of what a ghost is. Scary and unexplained and I can categorically state I have never seen a ghost in that sense!
That’s not to say I haven’t experienced strange happenings myself, such as the recent event with the sound machine at Lumley Castle or the voice I heard right behind me at Skipton Castle both while I was in England. As much as others have said to me “Oh my gosh you saw a ghost!” I don’t think of either of those experiences as a belief in ghosts. Certainly I experienced something! That is for sure! But would I call them ghosts? No I would not. To me ghosts are scary and I was certainly not afraid in either one of those situations. Befuddled and confused by what was happening sure! But I never felt uneasy.
Years and years ago I had an experience one night. I’ve always described it as I wasn’t dreaming but I wasn’t awake either. I saw a group of people, all dressed in white, standing at the end of my bed. One woman in the group spoke to me, calling me by name and then gave me very specific instructions. It was a very interesting experience and her instructions proved to be remarkably accurate when I put them into action the next day. So much so that I have never forgotten the experience or her instructions to me. Then, a few weeks later, I received a handful of old family photographs that I had never seen before. They were mailed to me by a distant cousin. In this packet of photos was one taken of an old oil painting. The painting was of the woman who had spoken to me that night in my bedroom. She was my great, great, great grandmother. I had never known what she looked like but realized at that moment she was the woman who spoke to me. But was she a ghost? I never thought of that experience as a ghost sighting either.
In the early 2000’s I bought an old house in Bangor that had been built in the 1850’s. Over the years it had been cut up into four apartments. I bought it with the plan to turn it back into a single family home and I set about doing just that. I worked on renovating the house myself in the evenings after work, or on the weekends. A lot of the time I was there in the house by myself late into the night. Often while I was there working I would hear footsteps in one of the bedrooms upstairs. It was clearly someone pacing back and forth. I would go up there and look, but of course there was never anyone there. I later learned that the original owner of the home, Ephraim Sweet, had lost his first wife shortly after moving into the home. She had died in childbirth. Since all births were home births in the 1850’s it’s likely she died in that house. Probably in that room as it was the largest of the bedrooms and had a fireplace. So was this another encounter with a ghost? Some might say yes, but I didn’t view this experience in that way. Again I was not scared by the sound of these footsteps. Rather the feeling I got was that who ever was walking up there was very happy that I was returning the house to it’s original state.
Many of you reading this might say that I have seen or heard ghosts, I’m just in denial. Fair enough. I guess I just feel that to claim you have seen a ghost you need to be scared, like we are as children hearing ghost stories. I’ve never been scared in the situations above or in countless others that I have experienced in my life. For me these experiences hold a deeper meaning then just a ghost sighting or a story. To me what I have experienced proves that there is something supernatural in our every day world. Something we cannot explain. I believe each of us has the ability to participate in this unseen, unknown world. If we would just slow down and take a look.
So do I believe the ghost of Nelly Butler is real? I believe something supernatural definitely happened. I don’t believe it was a hoax or mass hysteria. I truly believe that those that said they saw something…saw something. And those that said they did not see anything….did not see anything. I believe that those that thought Nelly’s instructions were a message from God were experiencing something according to their own belief structure. Was it a ghost? I’m not willing to use that word because I don’t think I would have been afraid had I been there. I’m willing to say I believe that a supernatural, unexplained event happened and yes I believe it was real for those that were open to it.
How would you answer the question? “Do you believe Nelly’s ghost was real?”
While you are thinking about that let me tell you there will be no blog post next Friday, June 23rd. I’m taking some time away as my youngest son is getting married next week and I’m focusing on family. See you all when I get back and I’m sure I’ll have an interesting story or two from the wedding to share with you on June 30th!
All my best.