The Old Woman in the Hotel

Witness: Megan Walsh
Location: Somewhere in the North Rockies
Date of Encounter: Summer 1991

I was only 12 or 13 years old when this happened. My family was on this road trip covering California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and Arizona. So forgive the vague location.

I remember that we stopped at this resort lodge in the mountains. It was surrounded by the forest in a long valley which resembles the plains. The resort was enormous. We got a room at the top floor that could sleep all 6 of us. When you walked in the door, there was a brief hallway with the bathroom on the left and the room was long but narrow. The beds were against the walls on both your right and left sides. At the end of the room was this very large window that probably spans about 12 feet horizontally. There was a rocker chair in front of it.

That night we checked in, I was sleeping near the bathroom on the left side of the room. I'm usually a heavy sleeper, even at the age of 12. My sister was in the next bed and my parents were in the bed across from me. For some reason, I woke up and I remember looking out the window, which didn't have any blinds. It was also a full moon — at first I thought I saw the rocker chair moving back and forth and I squinted my eyes. And I realized that there was someone sitting in the chair. It was an older woman; she had salt and pepper hair pulled back in a tight bun. She wore a dark gray, almost black dress, it was like those dresses that uptight women wore in the old western times; it covered most of her neck with those big black buttons at the front of the dress; and she wore a wide black belt and a faded white shawl.

Her head turned and we both looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity. I couldn't move; even though my parents were on the other side of the room, only 10 feet away — I was paralyzed. Then the woman rose with her head still turned towards me, her eyes looking straight into mine. For the minute that we were looking at each other, I can't remember what her face looked like. She kind of faded away I think because of the moonlight but I knew because the rocker chair swung like it does when someone gets out of the chair. But then her form solidified a bit. I could still see through her and she wasn't semi-solid.

I freaked out when I realized she was walking toward me. I threw the bedsheets over my head and hoped that the woman would go away. I closed my eyes tight and this heavy feeling overcame me. It felt like a tremendous pressure just pushing me down and chills were running up and down my back. It lasted more than a minute and the instant that I felt something press down on my hip — a hand, I think it was — I literally jumped out of the bed, ran to the bathroom, and turned on the light which woke my mom up. And I jumped into her bed, whispering to her that there was a woman in the room.

She woke up my dad and he sat up, looking around the room. Then he gave me this look of disbelief and went back to sleep. For 15 years, I kept telling myself that it was my imagination. That is what the rest of my family believes after I told them the story the next day. But after reading all these stories, I'm more convinced that I had an encounter.