Lighthouse Road Apparition

Contributed to the Ocracoke Current by Gary Davis

First of all, I don't believe in ghosts and I chalk this up to an illusion and NO, I was not drinking or smoking wacky-tobaccy.

A couple of years ago, before the new house across the street from us was built and before our new neighbors cleared their yard of all the brush, I was standing in our office area looking out as dusk was about to turn to dark. The area where a forked tree still stands had brush close up to it and pretty much over the entire area that is now lawn.

I saw a woman walking down the street on the opposite side coming from the Lighthouse direction. She was wearing what I would call a housedress and I thought it was Paula Schramel. As she walked along the still wooded area and approached the forked tree, she turned into the yard, went around the forked tree and disappeared into the brush behind it. I stood there for a couple of minutes thinking she would re-emerge and continue her walk. After about five minutes, I decided to walk over to see if something had happened to her, but there was no sign of her and there was no evidence of her having pushed through the heavy brush.

The next day, in order to satisfy my curiosity, I put on my boots and walked around the brushy area and into the marshy area behind the brush to see if I'd find a dead body or some evidence of this woman. Nothing! For weeks afterward when we walked our dog down Water Fired Road, I expected the smell of a rotting body to waft across from the marshy area.

Never have figured it out and never found any evidence of the lady in the housedress. Paula denies any part in this!