Are You Afraid to Visit a Cemetery?

I've never been afraid to visit a cemetery. After all, it's the living that we should be afraid of, not the dead, but I had an experience in a cemetery that I have never been able to explain. My goal of helping my child overcome a fear of cemeteries and the dead backfired terribly one hot summer evening, and what I learned taught me to never play around in a cemetery. I seem to have some sort of link to the paranormal, and this is just one of dozens of true stories of my experiences that I have chosen to share.

Afraid of the Dead

My oldest son was about nine years old when he was troubled by the prospect of monsters outside his window and ghosts in his closet. The apartment we were living in was most certainly haunted by the spirits of playful children, and although I tried my best to hide my uneasiness from my kids, my son had his own frightening experiences. One evening he was afraid because he saw what resembled a hand outside his bedroom window, and my husband and I wanted to do all we could to ease his fears.

A Trip to a Country Cemetery

Although I've had countless experiences with the paranormal, I never felt there was a reason to be afraid of a cemetery. In my mind, a cemetery is a place of peace where the bodies of the dead are laid to rest and nothing more. I figured if a ghost was earthbound it certainly wouldn't be in a cemetery. After all, who would want to remain in the cemetery if they could go anywhere they wanted without being seen? It seemed like a ridiculous prospect, and when my husband suggested stopping at a country cemetery to prove to my son that the dead weren't hanging around and there was nothing to be afraid of, I went along with his idea. I wasn't at all afraid, but I should have been.

While we were out for an evening drive, we stopped at the country cemetery that was surrounded by a medieval looking black iron fence. It was obviously very old, as was the church that sat next to the hundred or more gravestones that commemorated the lives of those who once resided in the area and attended the small brick church. Even still we weren't afraid. I pulled up in the grass just off the road, and in the dark, my husband proceeded to enter one of the many iron gates that provided access to the grounds. It didn't seem like a place to be afraid of, especially since a church was on the property. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Disembodied Voices

Before my husband got out of the car, I told him I would signal him if I heard someone approaching. Although we weren't really doing anything wrong, I was afraid someone would think we were up to no good. Cemeteries are sometimes targets for vandals, and if another vehicle happened to come along, I wanted to leave before they thought we were doing something wrong since well-meaning people don't usually visit cemeteries at night.

As I sat in the driver's seat with the windows down, my kids anxiously watched as my husband walked along the old iron fence just inside the cemetery. I became afraid when I started hearing what sounded like a mass of people all speaking at the same time, and I could tell one voice in particular was female, but I couldn't tell what any of the voices were saying. As I listened intently, the voices became louder, and it was then I realized I wasn't hearing a group of living, breathing individuals. I was afraid the residents of the cemetery were unhappy with our presence, and they wanted us to leave. We didn't belong there, and we were disturbing their place of rest.

A Frightening Ending

I knew my kids didn't hear the voices, and I was unnerved by what I heard. At that point I was very afraid. I knew we weren't supposed to be in the cemetery after dark, and I put the car in reverse to signal my husband. I wanted to get the car close to his location so we could leave as soon as possible.

When he noticed the car backing up, he thought I saw something, he became afraid and hastily tried to find the exit. At first he couldn't find the gate, and he was tripping over tree roots, and sinking into soft spots as he tried to find his way out of the cemetery. After almost falling, and after frantically trying to find a way out, he discovered the exit.

I explained that I heard what sounded like a large group of people talking all at once, and I knew we needed to leave. Unfortunately, this experience didn't help my son get over his fear of ghostly beings. This frightening experience at a country cemetery made him more afraid than ever before, and to this day I wonder what the voices I heard were actually saying.