Well, I'm a Catholic and was always taught to believe in the Holy Ghost many years ago. I think now it's the Holy Spirit.

My father was dead several years and my wife was newly pregnant. My mother, a devout Catholic who made about five Masses a week and was slinging hash and working as a mid-town Manhattan waitress, says to me one day while at my apartment in Flushing:

Mom: "Larry, I saw Pop last night."

Me: "Mom, you were traveling with a shovel if you saw Pop."

Mom: "No. I woke up and I saw Pop at the foot of my bed. He said, 'Barbara, you're going to have a nine-pound grandson' and everything is going to be fine.'" She got rattled a bit but told me it was true.

At that time nobody knew if the baby was going to be a girl or a boy. My mother was a tough hard-working girl from the 1918 crop and worked in a Manhattan restaurant until she was in her mid-70s. She wasn't a "nut", she could make $10 a week from hard labor and would always lay away a deuce. She hated the horses and was the glue that held our family together when the old man got busted for taking book.

John was born at 9 pounds even. I didn't broach the subject with her again after the birth of my son and maybe I should have.

Dog Ghosts:

Susan and Sandy lived here a lot of years. Across the tile floor in the kitchen you can hear a dog's nails tapping on it.

When the dogs were dead of old age I used to hear them trotting across the floor. My son heard them. My safe, sane, and sober former daughter-in-law heard them. The huge rottweiler Sandy used to come down the stairs from the top of the house two by two and go ka-thump, ka-thump down the stairs although she could take them on a gallop. People at my house have heard a large dog come down the stairs and yet the dog is dead and nobody's there.

I am not a ghost-freak. I am not a paranormal pansy puffer but some things do happen that defy explanation.

Please kick into this thread if you have have had anything strange happen to you.

My family home was inherited by my Dad in 1962. His father bought the house in 1917. My grandparents lived there along with their immediate, extended family until they died in 1960 and 1962. The house had NEVER been empty of people for anymore than an hour or two for 60 years...until 1968. ( even rarely for the prior 25 years since my grandparents were 93 and 89 in 1960/62)

In 1968, my parents went on vacation to Barbados along with my two younger siblings. No one went to the house except for a a "quick check" for 10 days. One sister was married and the other two were away at school.

The first night back, my sister was in her room on the third floor when "someone knocked loudly on her closed door". My sister said, "Mom what are you doing"..no answer. She opened the door...no one there.
This happened twice again. By the fourth time, my sister ran down the stairs and asked my mom "why are you knocking on my door?" MY mom looked at my sister like she was "touched" "What are you talking about"

My sister told my Mom about the knocks and my mom shook her head writing off my sister's story.... MY dad and my youngest sister were not home.

This sister is pragmatic. Not prone to hysterics or exaggeration. Not mystical. No hocus pocus. She was HS athlete and not a "fraidy cat'. The least likely to believe in "ghosts" She was in high school at the time

To this day, she still shakes her head when I mention this story about the knocks.
No one has an explanation.

I have several ghost stories, but by far my most intense and freakiest was this one -

Many years ago when my father was getting out of rehab and remarried, he renounced his visitation rights on weekends. We went to my grandma's house instead. During the week, someone tried to break into the house in broad daylight with my uncle in the bathroom. Startled, he went out to take a look and came out to see the door frame all busted up and the perp ran away. Grandma told me about the incident Friday when I was dropped off and told me be careful with the door.

My buddy Donnie came over that night to stay for the weekend with us. We were up late watching things on cable we shouldn't have when my little annoying sister woke up to try to be cool and hang out with the older kids. Karah started getting all annoying and started talking about the ouija board that we all played with as kids.

Donnie, ever the pessimist, said, "that thing is a joke." He put his hands up in the air and said, "If there are any ghosts in this room right now, they'll give me a sign." No sooner had he finished that sentence that every single light in my house went off and left us in pitch blackness. A second later, there were four BANGS! on the damaged door, like someone was outside trying to beat it down. After the fourth bang, the lights came back on. I did not sleep that night and never quite did look at that house the same way after that. We were living with my great grandmother at the time who always said she saw my deceased great grandfather walking outside or sitting on the bed. Never once did I doubt her.