Page 65 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

Why Do We People Believe In Ghosts? 65

Why Do We Believe in

Ghosts?

Is there any truth in a ghost
story?

by Sheila Kohler

When I was seven years old, my Aunt Hazel, the
youngest of my mother's sisters read me the first
two chapters of “Jane Eyre” in the big green
nursery with its black board across one wall, at
Crossways, the house where my father had just
died. You will remember how Jane is carried off
unceremoniously and locked in the Red Room
where she thinks she sees her uncle’s ghost.
It seems a strange choice of lecture for a
seven year old, though my sister who was
present was two years older than I.
It had a terrifying effect on me, one that
has lasted all my life, and perhaps led me, too, to
become a writer in an effort to render active
what I had submitted to passively. Mr Reed,
remembered how my father would say, “Money repeatedly at readings of my work. Have I now,
Jane’s uncle, in the book, like my own father just
does not grow on trees” and go out into the with the catharsis of writing this memoir, of
down the corridor from the nursery in the big
gloaming of the garden at twilight to check that writing down the truth as I see it, put all my
bedroom, with the mauve velvet curtains, has
all the taps had been turned off. Would he come ghosts to rest: my father’s, my mother’s, my
died in this somber, silent room with its crimson
back to see if the taps were left running? sister’s? Well, the answer as you can see by this
curtains.Jane believes her uncle has come back
As for this fortune, though my mother essay is no. Surely our ghosts, our memories of
to see if his wife, Jane’s cruel aunt, Mrs. Reed,
always told us as children that everything she our past, of those we have loved and lost, are
has carried out his death-bed wishes and is
had was ours, she did not ultimately leave it to what we have of most precious. They are the
taking good care of little Jane, his sister’s child.
her one remaining child. It went to her sisters only known parts of our lives. We cannot know
I was terrified that my father might be
and her younger brother and their families. What the future or interpret the present moment. Our
similarly inspired, that his ghost might come
would my father’s ghost think of this? What, ghosts give us our identity, help us to know who
back to make sure my mother was taking good
above all would my father have thought of his we are. Above all, they give us our ability to
care of my sister and me. This seemed a real and
elder daughter dying so violently, the mother of reach out to others, to love.
reasonable possibility, one that came to me in
six children— without a father to protect her
the night after the reading, when I lay in the dark
from an angry Afrikaans surgeon, and wife- About the Author:
beside my sister in the nursery and saw a
battering husband? Sheila Kohler is the author most recently
glimmer of light burning in the bay window and
Thus my sister's ghost and my father's of a memoir "Once we were sisters" published
was not able to cry out or move so frightened
came to haunt my life. Both these ghosts seem by Penguin.[]
was I .
close to me, my sister particularly watching over
What was the origin of this thought? Had
me as she did in the garden of our home where List of Popular Ghosts in
I overheard some critical conversation about my
we wandered as children. I have written of her
mother? Canada
and her life repeatedly in fictional form, and
There were various times when the
recently in a memoir. As so often happens with
women in our entourage dared to make critical
a book particularly with non-fiction there are • Emily Carr allegedly haunts James Bay
comments about my mother, despite the
those who have responded favorably, sharing Inn in Victoria, British Columbia.
considerable power of the money she inherited
their own tragedies and thanking me for what • Francis Nicholson Darke allegedly
when my father died . I remember the nanny,
they call my courage and honesty. haunts Darke Hall in Regina,
when our mother finally fired her, shortly after
Some have objected strongly to my Saskatchewan.
my father’s death, clacking the door behind her
book. I have had letters from some of my sister’s • The Dungarvon Whooper is a ghost
and firing her parting shot: “These children
children who protested at the public airing of the believed to haunt Blackville, New
would be better off in an orphanage,” she dared
private linen of their lives. In fact one of my Brunswick.
to say. And I still see my aunt putting her head in
sister’s daughters has told me in strong words • Charles Melville Hays allegedly haunts
the window of my mother’s Jaguar after a party
that her mother would not have wanted me to Château Laurier in Ottawa, Ontario.
and saying: “You should not drive with children
write this book. • The Headless Nun is a purported ghost
in the car in the condition you are in!”
What would my father’s, my sister’s believed to haunt French Fort Cove in
Whatever the reason, my father’s ghost
ghost say? What would she have wanted me to Nordin, New Brunswick.
hovered over my early childhood until Mother
do? My intention here was not to hurt anyone • Minnie Hopkins, wife of Edward
sent us off to boarding school on the suggestion
but rather to give voice to my silenced sister, and Nicholas Hopkins, allegedly haunts
of our head mistress who also seemed to think it
with her all the women or men who have been or Hopkins Dining Parlour in Moose Jaw,
was a wise move.
remain in her dangerous position, someone Saskatchewan.
Perhaps I believed Father was watching
killed thirty five years ago on a dry night on a • Alexander Keith allegedly haunts his
out over his domain to make sure his fortune
curve in the road, her battering husband at the brewery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
was spent wisely. My father, I was vaguely
wheel. My aim was to make people aware of the • Nils von Schoultz allegedly haunts Fort
aware, from the large house and garden where
danger of this situation. Henry in Kingston, Ontario.
we lived, the number of the servants and
Yet what right did I have to tell this story, • Aeneas Shaw's daughter, Sophia
mother’s continuing travels to foreign lands, had
where her dead father is not able to tell his my allegedly haunts Queenston, Ontario.
made a fortune in the timber business and left
niece asked. Why was I not able to move on? To • Lady in Red
his money to this much younger, less-educated
forget and forgive? Why do these ghosts still • White Lady
woman whom he had married after divorcing his
come to haunt me? This question comes up
first respectable wife of many years. I