The Woman on the Bed

Witness: Laurie Nelson
Location: Melrose, Minnesota
Date of Encounter: 1975-1980

I am a 45 year old business woman of three grown children and 26 years of marriage. Throughout my life, my family always told "ghost" stories of our old farm house, so I had grown up with such "stories." However, I now have my own stories to tell. 

In 1975, I was a teenager living in Melrose, Minnesota. Over the course of four years, a young lady started visiting my bedroom. Our house was not old at that time and we lived on a lake. I would wake in the middle of the night for no explainable reason. I had a completely lit up bedroom as the door was always open and the hallway light on. At the end of the hallway was my parents' bedroom who always left their door open as well. The young lady came through my bedroom door, just like you and I, and came over to my bed, sat down, and stared at me. She never tried to communicate or move her mouth. At first, of course, I never gave her a chance! I would jump up, go running for my parents' room as fast as I could go. She did, however, come back over and over again through the course of four years, at which time I graduated and moved away.

To go back to my ghost, she was around 17 years old, wore a blue satiny or velvet long dress, quite form fitting, and she had long, straight blonde hair. She always came in my bedroom door and would sit on my bed until I either moved or tried to talk, and then she went across the room and out the wall toward our lake.

It took many times before I was comfortable around her. I finally realized she wasn't going to hurt me. I would do things to make sure I really was awake and not dreaming. I put a journal by my bed and wrote down everything I could hear or see during the encounters. I could always hear, for example, my parents breathing, snoring, the grandfather clock outside my door ticking, the time, etc. 

I eventually came to think of my ghost as a guardian angel. I couldn't think of any other reason she would keep coming back. Now I wonder if she may have drowned in our lake or had been murdered and buried around it. I guess I will never know except that the experience has changed my life and that of my children's.

We now travel to bed and breakfasts and even went to The Myrtles Plantation in Louisiana for a vacation. 

I mentioned that this has changed my children's lives as well. We have had a couple of occurrences in our home after my dad died several years ago. He too was fascinated by ghosts and died at the age of 87!

One day soon after he had passed away, my daughter, 14, and son, 16, were in our dining room. We heard a noise toward my dad's old bedroom — he lived with us for 13 years. We all walked out toward the living room and one of my daughter's hard headbands rolled out of my dad's bedroom, across the living room floor ,and laid down by his chair. There was absolutely nobody else in the house at the time and it was the middle of the day. 

We have also had the usual things occur such as the lights go on and off, the dog act weird with growling and hair on end, and somebody going up and down our stairs of our two story home. 

One day I was home alone and had the TV on. I was reading and watching TV and heard the front door open, someone run up the stairs, and walk down the upstairs hallway. After what seemed like a long time, and thinking that my son had come home, but hadn't said hi to me, I went to investigate. There was not a soul in the house (living anyway) and the kids weren't even home from school yet.

In no way ever have I felt threatened. I enjoy telling my ghost stories when my kids' friends stay over or when I chaperone them on camp outings with others from their classes. 

They are all grown up now and my daughter and I just got back from staying at a couple of "haunted" bed and breakfasts in Minnesota. Unfortunately nothing happened, but we did have some great experiences at The Myrtles.

Happy Ghost Hunting all… Laurie