The Woman Who Protects Me

Witness: Katie McCarthy
Location: Stuart, Florida
Date of Encounter: October 15, 2005

I currently live in an apartment complex that was built in the 1920s. It used to be a hotel and a very well-known one in the area. The apartment complex still has many of the original features of the hotel. This includes wooden dumb waiters that run on either side of the building. The tubs and sinks are original, and there are massive black fire doors located in the basement that have remained intact since the 1920s. Up until recently, the windows remained in their original frame. There are a few items located in the lobby of the building that had been used at the hotel. One is a hand-held bell and another is a record player or phonograph. The wood floors that remain in the parlors and most of the apartments are the original wood floors. Needless to say it creaks and cracks.

When I first moved into the building in 2004, I had been told of a ghost that potentially lived in the building. I was skeptical of course. Who wouldn't be? But even the biggest skeptics still have "what if" clauses. Over the first portion of that year I began to feel things in the building. The building is separated into two wings, east and west, with a parlor joining the two on each floor. There are three floors total. The experiences began as a feeling of someone being behind me when I was walking between the second and third floors on the East side. It was so strong on many occasions, I would turn to see if anyone was there. It got to the point where I would avoid the East wing completely. The feelings became overwhelming over a period of a year, but at this point I had not experienced anything specific in my apartment. Only in the hallways.

A good friend of mine was living on the East side of the building on the second floor for about a year when she began to notice things would be moved in her apartment. She had experienced the hallway creeps, but until now her apartment had remained quiet. Then it started. She would go to sleep and figurines on her dresser would be out of place or pictures where moved when she awoke in the morning. Then one day when she returned home from work she found that every towel in the house had been hung over the doors. (I guess it was a pet peeve of hers). She moved shortly there after.

Another friend of mine lived on the first floor on the West side and around the same time she began hearing things in her living room at night. She had also been living in the apartment building for about a year at this point. So one night she set out three rows of stacked coins of different denominations in her living room and proceeded to go to sleep. When she awoke in the morning each stack has been swirled in a perfect circle along the floor. About a month or two previous to this occurrence she had a friend spend the night in her apartment. During the night, the stereo in the living room continued to go on and off all night. She was forced to unplug it just to get some rest. Until the coins, she had let the electrical stunts go. (She still lives in the building.)

Now comes my experience… We have all concluded that it takes about a year of residence to experience any serious paranormal activity within individual apartments. For me, my experience occurred a little over a year from my move-in date. At this point I had given up thinking that anything would occur in my apartment. I was relaxed. I no longer said "I know that you were here first, but please do not enter my apartment. That is my space." I had gone to sleep in my bedroom at around 11 PM. My cat, who had recently stopped sleeping in my room with me, was sleeping the in hallway. This was odd because he had slept next to me in bed since he was a kitten. I had started to take offense. Anyway, I was asleep… I realized that I was having an extremely vivid dream. I knew it was about my apartment building, but I realized that it was set in a different time. Then I realized I was shadowing the life of a woman living in the building many years ago. I recognized it as the third floor on the West side, which is were I live, however it was located toward the back of the West wing facing the water. I face the street, so I was aware that it was not my apartment. The woman appeared to be in her early to mid 2's. She had blond hair and was wearing a gray/blue satin dress with three white ribbons on the front. At this point she was walking to the window and I could tell that she felt someone was coming to get her. "They" felt she was crazy. She knew she wasn't, and that something in the building was making her that way. I then realized that she was staring straight at me and then was flung or jumped out of the window. At this point I woke up. I was totally freaked out. Because even if it was just a dream, I was aware that there was a ghost in the building and it could have been her. At this point I got up to use the restroom and then I laid down to try and sleep again. It had been about 5 minutes and I felt something in the room. I opened my eyes and could see something coming from the floor in the corner of the room. At the time I thought it was smoke coming from the apartment below and then I realized that it was more like light. I am sure you have seen what smoke looks like coming from the end of a cigarette. It usually has a specific pattern. This is exactly what I saw, but knew it was light, not smoke. It then formed into a young girl and then into a face. It was the face of the young woman that I had seen in my dream. At this point I realize that I am unable to move. I am under the covers and all I can see is my arm laying outside of the covers and then the end of my bed. Then I felt something else enter the room. The young woman was staring at me from the corner. I could feel this overwhelming sadness in her from her and toward me. And then the other thing took over. All of the sudden I felt my bed start to move in waves under my body. Sort of as if I had been sleeping on a waterbed and someone had jumped on the end of it creating a ripple effect. Then I lost control of my body. I could not move. I could not breathe, and I could not speak. I realized that there were two entities in the room and one was trying to control me. "She" was in the corner still looking at me, but "he" was in bed with me. All I could do was try to regain control of my body. So I stared at my arm. I thought if I could move it I could get up. Then my legs were lifted from the bed and were standing straight in the air. I couldn't move, I couldn't run… all I did was focus on my arm. And then I moved it. And my legs fell and I could breathe and I could move! I jumped out of bed and ran into my living room. I then sat on the porch for what felt like an hour and tried to calm down. I got dressed and left the apartment. I returned a few days later and I still reside in the building.

I have not had an experience on that level before or since. I did come to find that everyone on the third floor wakes at almost the same time from a deep sleep at least a few days a week. I wake at 5:42. My neighbor down the hall wakes at 6:00 and the one across the hall from her wakes at 5:55. This is not the time we set our alarms. This does not occur on a specific day when a noise would make us rise. But when it happens I get out of bed and try to fall asleep again on the couch. I can't go back to bed in the bedroom at that point.

What I do know, or have come to believe, as crazy as this sounds… I believe the first ghost to visit me that night in my dream and in the corner of my room came to warn me. I believe that whatever entered my room after her and proceeded to move me in my bed is what caused her to take her life many years prior. The amount of sadness that came from that figure was overwhelming. I honestly think she was a protector over me that night and for all I know remains there to protect others.

I still live in the building and every once in a while I think I see a shadow in the hallway of my apartment. I have heard that others have seen a shadow in their apartments in the exact space. Maybe she is still walking around just checking up to make sure we are all safe.