Oak Parker Kelli Kline doesn’t see dead people, but four of her nearby neighbors have seen and heard from dead people … and still do.
One of the haunted dwellings in the area is Wednesday Journal’s own building at 141 S. Oak Park Ave. A few past and present employees have divulged how they have seen and felt the spirit of a little girl who sometimes tugs at their shirt late at night, says Kline, the president of the board of directors at the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest.
And, yes, there are more local ghost stories that are ripe for the telling.
On Friday, Oct. 28 (7 p.m.), four logistically located haunted dwellings, including Kline’s own historic Victorian digs, will be the backdrop for the second annual Spirits in the Night Haunted Housewalk, a unique fundraiser the historical society piloted last year to rave reviews, Kline says.
Local ghost stories
Multiple organized walking groups will gather that night, stepping off from the parking lot of Oak Park Township, 105 S. Oak Park Ave. The lobby of the Wednesday Journal will be the first stop where everyone will meet local and long-time ghost busters — their words, not this reporter’s — Mary Louise and Joe Stefanic. The duo is expected to set the tone for everything else, as well as provide feedback as to what exactly should be considered paranormal activity.
“We used to say we did house blessings, and one of my daughters said, ‘Mom, say what you are. You are ghost busters,’ although I’m not too fond of that name, but it is what people respond to,” says Mary Louise, 80, a working yoga instructor.
Always on call, the couple arrives at a homeowner’s front door ready to urge spirits out of the house.
“Joe and I compliment each other,” she says. “I go in with a piece of obsidian in my pocket, because I found out after years of doing this that it transmutes negative energy like a magnet.”
In a suitcase, Joe carries several ghost busting tools, including a smudge stick, a pendulum, candles, and other things, says Mary Louise.
Important to know about ghosts, she adds, is that for a spirit to manifest itself in any way on the physical plane, such as doors or drawers opening and closing or an entity standing at the foot of a bed, the other-worldly being must pull some kind of energy from a human host.
“Our main intention is to let people know that ascertaining a ghost … or, scary as it may be, finding a pet ghost in a house, the ghost first needs to get in to some human to stay, and that is the imbalance. It is not good for humans to let their energy go like that,” she says.
In recent years, a small fee, or barter, is attached to the services the Stefanics provide, according to Mary Louise.
Waking up in black
Each of the ghost stories on the walk will be told from a stoop by actors who will emulate the spirits. The houses and spirits featured on the walk, says Kline, have been thoroughly researched and the facts are backed up by historical documents.
“We didn’t make these things up,” she insists. “They are real people with stories.”
Featured on the walk is a house on South Euclid. The homeowners have lived there since 1997, and have experienced some pretty strange things.
The first night they were in their new home, two window panes inexplicably, and simultaneously, cracked. In their bedroom the next night, they heard a man’s voice whispering in the room. One of them got up to see if the voice was coming from outside. But no one was there.
On Grove, there are said to be two homes that have experienced such spirits from beyond, one visited by shadow ghosts and another haunted by an 80-year-old female spirit wearing black Victorian-style mourning garb. From the front porch, an actress who will emulate the spirit, will reveal the historical clues that might play a part in the ghost’s presence, says Kline.
Featured at Kline’s beautiful Victorian home at 209 S. Grove will be a re-enactment of a wake with all the trimmings — real coffin, flowers, blackened mirrors, mourners and wailers who will be bemoaning the passing of the master of the house, Mr. Jones. In somber tones, the undertaker will explain the history of such a Victorian wake, and Mrs. Jones will regale the back-story of the house, while the ghost of her dead husband is “hovers outside greeting guests.”
“I live in an old, Victorian house, and people always ask when it was built, and if it is haunted,” explains Kline. “I have not experienced this (seeing a ghost), but I would love to. Who knows, maybe some of the people who attend this haunted housewalk have experienced things in their homes in the past.
“I am told that the ghosts are not there to hurt anyone; most of the time they are just confused. They don’t know it is okay to cross over to the other side, and until they are set free, they are stuck in limbo.”