visiting a house in mechanicsburg for the very first time i sat waiting on the wife as i was watching my husband in the next room putering with this woman's husband.  the room at some time must've been a dining room as it was large with built-in cabinets with glass doors and lots of drawer space.  now, however, it's their childrens' playroom.  as i sat there i noticed a young boy walk into the room and stand there as he looked around at all the toys strewn about the floor.  he looked very sad with his head hanging down and seemed to put off a deep lonliness.  he was about 10 years old and it didn't occur to me until he'd just vanished that this was someone no longer living.  ok, you might say that's very weird but let me tell you, it's been going on all my life.  that being said, i can now tell you the short time he was there i got a very good look at his clothes, shoes and haircut to allow me to give an estimation of when he may have been living, uh, on this earth, like us, lol.  it appeared to be around 1930 and he had some sort of soot around his mouth and nose as well as on his clothes.  his quick departure, i assume, was due to the fact that i looked right at him and smiled.  you see, i've learned from many experiences that they go through their existence without anyone doing that, anymore.  so it shocked him, judging from his reaction to it.  in a little while the woman's little girl's came to play with their toys in that room.  as i sat there just waiting and keeping myself amused i saw a man come out of a sort of makeshift doorway.  as he came into the room i could see steps leading down to an unfinished room like a basement.  the man looked like a grown up version of the boy right down to the haircut and the clothes.  he had soot around his mouth and nose as well.  odd, i thought, how they both appeared to "feel" to me to be the same person.  even the deeply sad look of lonliness was in his eyes.  he too was only there for a few seconds before disappearing.  he'd made eye contact with me and when i smiled at him he smiled back shyly.  the woman of the house came and we discussed things of interest to her.  we got on the subject of ghosts as my husband told the woman i had an interest in them as well from first hand experience.  the woman explained how she'd seen a man in her kitchen doorway to the back yard.  it startled her to look up and voila' there he was.  then just as fast as that happened he faded quickly to disappear.  discombobulate?  lol  yep!  anyway, she'd not said a thing about it to anyone, as is usually the case.  i mean, you don't want to alarm the kids by discussing a person who can disappear and come into your house doing things you don't want them doing.  in time one of their girls began discussing a man she'd seen in the house and how she'd talked to him.  it alarmed the mother as it would any parent.  she began asking the little girl to describe him, where he'd been, how he got there, how he'd left, and what he did while she saw him.  yep, you guessed it, the same guy the mother had seen in the kitchen doorway.  she wondered why he was there.  i asked if it was ok for me to tell her what i'd picked up from just sitting there.  she put the kids to bed and said i should talk quietly.  i asked her to tell me if her daughter was at any time scared of this man.  she answered no but that her daughter felt sympathy for him.  although it's difficult for me to remember everything it was determined by all that had been gathered that everyone saw black soot on him.  the first thing i'd asked the woman was where there was evidence of fire having occurred in the house and then stopped her adding ........"in the attic?".  yep, that was exactly where it was.  i added there would be signs in the walls or near the doorways in the downstairs as well as in the basement.  i told her there used to be a woodburning stove in the basement, the boy, from what i'd seen, had stoked the stove a bit too much in an attempt to warm a member of the family, which appeared to be his mother.  she was very ill and kept begging for more warmth.  somehow i picked up that others had died of the same around the same time and he also kept the fire for them.  he took it to heart that they were cold when they passed on.  he felt terrible then that his mother was now feeling that same chill deep in her bones.  thinking that stoking the fire to past it's maximum safe level would keep her from dying he had no idea what the outcome would be.  his only thought was for this woman, the love he had for her ran very deep.  what occurred?  i can guess it wasn't good.  i felt where the evidence of the fire could and should be found, saw it in my mind.  her husband, in renovating the house had found it in exactly those places.  one of these was in the basement around the floor joists.  i asked if they'd seen a big black area on the floor down there, very sooty.  yes, they had but there was also a bare spot where something big had once sat which didn't show this sootiness.  it was thought to be a woodburner or coal burning stove, maybe both.  i've seen coal miners as a kid who'd just come home from the mines and their noses and mouths were covered with coal dust.  this is the stuff that clogs the lungs to cause "black lung" in miners.  it's a terminal disease.  it's also not one that takes very long to set in.  the boy and the man did not appear to be coal miners by any stretch of the imagination but looked more like farming folk.  their boots showed dirt like you'd see on someone coming out of working in the fields.  the same dirt was evident on their clothes, which by the way, were blue denim overalls made in a certain style from the 1930's, with long sleeved plaid shirts buttoned all the way up to the neck.  the boots were of a style most consistent with those made in the 1930's as well.  my assumption was that this boy has died from inhaling smoke and soot from that fire, from what he'd shown me of this house and the woman who was cold.  he suddenly found himself all alone in the house and could not explain it.  he showed me that in time he noticed other family members were in the house.  as he tried to talk to them they seemed to be ignoring him which caused him much consternation.  he began yelling to get their attention and could not understand why they'd treat him this way.  he began to believe he'd done something unforgiveable to deserve and could only think of the coldness of the woman and how he must've failed her.  in his mind, the fire was in the house but the events were so traumatic and scattered that he could make no sense of it.  he just wanted to run from it.  in talking with him mind to mind i found he had not given thought to the fact that a fire had ensued from the over stoking of the stove that heated the house.  he felt bad when he realized this but i explained that he was young and couldn't have understood that this could even happen or he surely would never have done it.  further i explained quickly that a great burden had been placed on his shoulders because no one older could do what needed to be done.  his judgement then was a result of being too young to know, he could not blame himself.  when realization of this hit home he looked up at me and smiled.  he looked greatly relieved.  he celebrated for some time before he came back.  he wanted to know how i could see him and talk to him when no one else had been able to.  it was simple, i had died more than a few times during my own life and come back.  for me it was as much a part of the real world as anything else.  he asked if it scared me as he'd felt so very scared when the current occupants came into the house to live there.  i asked why he should be so scared, they seemed like good folk, kind and considerate.  he agreed and said he liked the man's wife very well, but dared not show it in case she decided to be mean to him.  these are the apprehensions of a ten year old and of an adult man.  were both of them one in the same person.  yes, but it's not clear to me right now why he appears as both.  the fire occurred when he was young.  maybe the older he shows up when he feels he has to fend for himself and he's scared.  at any rate the girls like him, are not in the least afraid of him.  the mother on the other hand is unnerved by his presence.  he knows this and that she's protective of her girls.  he was unsure of how to proceed.  i asked how he'd treat guests to his home when he was young, how had he been taught?  he understood completely.  the manners he'd been taught came back quick as a wink.  i reassurred him that this was scary to the woman of the house.  she didn't have the childlike innocense of the kids.  she had to look out for them and protect them from things and people, such as himself, a stranger, who might come in the house and hurt them.  i told him that not all who have remained after their death have been nice.  he bowed his head in shame.  he realized that his appearance in the kitchen doorway had scared the woman.  more like, the look of defense on his face had scared her.  i asked him what did she know?  she had no idea one of the owner's of the house was still living there, in a different way than she was.  to him, they were coming in and taking over his house.  just as the care of the fire had been his, in his kin's absence since the fire, he found himself in charge of the family's house.  simple as that.  next i asked him to change places with them, see things from their side.  they see him but he vanishes into thin air, they hear him but don't see anyone there, and their daughters saw and talked to a stranger not known to them.  i asked what if you had to protect those girls from you.  it made sense then.  he laughed at the comic nature of this.  if they only knew what he knew.  i told him it would be best not to appear or make noises when they were in the house.  they needed a normal life.  if, however, he could not bring himself to do that, out of lonliness, then he must respect their space as he would anyone else's.  make entreaties by smiling at them when he wanted company to ease his lonliness.  don't make loud disruptive noises that scared them.  when he appears, don't do it close up to them.  that would scare anyone.  i discussed this with the woman of the house and she laughed but had sympathy for the boy who had the died in the house with the responsibility of a man on his shoulders.  she felt sad for him.  he cried at her compassion for him.  i told him it would not take long for him to understand that he could go on to the other side soon.  the only thing he needed to understand was that God forgave him a long time ago and loved him yet.  a broad smile spread across his face, one of renewed self-respect and gladness.  so, when i left, everyone who needed to understand the situation did.  i know the outcome will be good for all concerned.  each will learn what they need to learn and it will make them better people for it.  before i left i told man ghost that he should return to his boy nature, as he'd been when his body had died, learn to have fun, learn to forgive himself as others alrethe ady have.  i made him look at me in the spirit when i told him done his very best with the situation he was given as a boy.  he'd done admirably to say the least.  i added that adults then and now would have a very hard time doing any better.  he seemed very suprised by that but knew i meant it.  he thanked me, i told him i loved him, he returned much thanks and love and that was that.  the house has been calm ever since and that was about a month ago. 

i hope this helps all those who are finding themselves in the same situation as my new friends in mechanicsburg.  know that i've lived through some harrowing hauntings myself in the past and that experience has taught me to talk to them as i would another living person, because in essence, they are still living and should be accorded due respect.  they have all the emotions that we have so get used to it, lol.  some are not welcome and will not leave, it was afterall their house first and they believe it still is, so give it respect and make the best of the situation by working a compromise if possible.  know that some will not compromise and the only thing left to do is to leave the place yourself and go somewhere esle or find someone who can throw out the ghost and keep them out.  the latter has not seemed to work for very long if at all. 

patty1019