Newfie June - Aggie's Ghost




Most families, at the turn of the twentieth century in Newfoundland, were large. My Dad's family seemed to be an exception. His mother was an only child. His father had one brother and two half brothers from their mother's second marriage. So, there were only a handful of cousins.

One of them was a girl named Agnes (not her real name) who was about five years older than Dad. She was an only child herself and was doted upon by her parents. Aggie, as she was called, was a little "odd" most of her life. She seemed a little ethereal…that's the only way folks could describe her. Don't get me wrong, she wasn't slow mentally nor stupid…just different.

Aggie was only a young teenager when her beloved mother passed away. Aggie was determined that she could look after her father and all thought their lives could get back to some normalcy until…Aggie started sensing a presence. There was no other way she could describe it! She could "feel" someone else in the room with her at times.

Her poor father didn't know what to do with her. He tried to talk to the parish minister about it but the Good Reverend thought it was just a shock reaction Aggie was having after the sudden, untimely loss of her dear mother. He advised that all would be okay after a while. Aggie needed some time and attention and her "spells" would eventually go away. All the townsfolk agreed that this must be the reason; poor Aggie had had a terrible shock. It sounded good in theory, anyway.

Several months passed and instead of going away, the sensations became more pronounced. Her father was fit to be tied and was greatly concerned that his Aggie was losing her mind. After a year or so it got to the point where Aggie said she would feel a cool draft around her and the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck would stand on end when "it" was nearby. Then she would feel an ever so gentle touch…gentle as a breeze, but definitely a touch.

At first, her father didn't believe her. Then one day he was sitting across the room from her when a strange gasp escaped Aggie's lips. He looked over and said he could see that she was pale and that she had goosebumps up and down her arms. He spoke to her but she didn't respond. She seemed not to hear him. He got quite a fright himself and wanted to leap from his chair to come to her aid. He just felt leaden, as if to move would involve an enormous effort. After a brief time, less than a minute…it was like a switch was turned off. Aggie looked at him and asked if he could feel it. The poor man was frightened to death and hardly knew what to do. He hadn't "felt" anything, but it was obvious that Aggie had. She had not even been aware that he had spoken to her, nor that she had "frozen" momentarily.

Back to the minister they went. He became quite worried for Aggie's soul and started holding special prayer vigils for her. He was convinced that Aggie was losing her mind in grief over the loss of her mother. No one wanted to voice the other possibility for to do so would lend credence to it...and it just couldn't be possible.

Years passed and Aggie's "spells" became more frequent. Folks in the community stayed away from her as the whole situation was just too weird for them. They didn't quite know what was going on with Aggie, but just in case it was contagious…they were not going to be in "catchin' range".

When Aggie was in her late twenties, her father died. Aggie, of course, inherited the homestead. Neighbours made sure she had food and other supplies delivered to her but no one wanted to get too close and friendly. Aggie's "experiences" increased somewhat and the poor girl just seemed to get more and more crazy.

Finally, after a few years of being on her own, the neighbours had to call in the doctor to have Aggie examined. They had seen her, on several occasions, wandering along the cliff tops in the moonlight, dressed in her nightgown. Folks were afraid she was going to fall over the steep cliffs and drown.

The doctor saw her and didn't know what to make of her so he decided to have her sent into The Mental Hospital (I swear, that's what it's proper name used to be) in St. John's, to have her assessed.

Well, needless to say, poor old Aggie never got out of there. She didn't seem to mind though. I remember my parents making a trip to go see her at the hospital a few times but it seemed that she didn't even know that they were there.

The story goes that the house fell into terrible disrepair and had to be demolished. The townsfolk were afraid to tear it down in case someone would take some of the lumber to burn and "release" whatever the heck was in the place. So, one calm day (which is rare in Nfld.) they put a match to it and burned it to the ground.

There was no one else who wanted to rebuild there so it lay fallow for many years. Some of the old timers of the town say there was a Beothik Indian graveyard under the old house. No one was going to dig around to find out. There is nothing built directly on the site to this day. A gas station is built adjacent to it so the homestead site is actually the parking lot for the garage. No one has complained about any odd happenings since Aggie left the community.

What about Aggie? She lived in The Mental Hospital until she reached her early seventies. She died peacefully in her sleep. My mother says the last time they saw her, just the year before she died, Aggie looked to be only in her forties. She lived in her own little world with not a care or a worry. She always talked to herself (or maybe it was to a companion no one else could see). Was Aggie suffering from mental illness and eventually dementia? Who knows…but then how would you explain those goosebumps?

Happy Hallowe'en from Newfie June.

© Newfie June




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