OUR HAUNTED HOUSE C2009 Jojo

I have a sort of a ghost story. My family and I lived in a gold mining community in a tiny village called Morro Velho, located in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The mine was owned by an English company named the St. John Del Rey Mining Corporation. My Dad (an Episcopalian Priest) was hired by the company to minister to all the English miners and their families.

The Company provided free housing for all their employees, and we opted to live in a magnificent house built on the top of a hill. It had originally been built for the mine’s superintendent, George Chalmers, in the early 1900’s. George was an odd man, very reclusive and had the strange hobby of keeping snakes in a large cage out in the garden. He was married, but had a wing built onto the side of this home,where he could go to get away from his family. Such was his desire for privacy, that he had a toilet installed in this room, so he wouldn’t even have to go into the house to go pee or what have you. I know very little about Mrs. Chalmers, but either she left George (for which I wouldn’t blame her) or she croaked, but I do know that eventually, George was on his own in that big house, and he hired a Brazilian lady to be his housekeeper, a Dona Carolina.

Poor Dona Carolina had many strikes against her: she was ugly as sin with a big hooked nose, skinny as a rake, with squinty eyes and as if that all wasn’t bad enough, she was a hunchback. Miners are deeply superstitious people, and they all firmly believed Dona Carolina was a witch, and they were terrified of her. She was an avid gardener, and had the unfortunate habit of darting out unexpectedly from behind a rose bush when anyone came to their door. This scared the living daylights out of everyone, and according to miners, she wasn’t just digging up weeds in the garden, oh no, she had the ability to “materialize ” in human form and jump out at them, any old time she wanted to.

After both she and George passed on, although it was by far the grandest house in Morro Velho (it even had a walled in swimming pool – God forbid anyone see George taking a dip), nobody would live in it, because it was believed to be haunted by Dona Carolina’s ghost.

Well, Dad wasn’t having any stuff and nonsense about ghosts, so we moved in to this house with very little ceremony.

Morro Velho is high up in the mountains and it got really cold at night, so most homes had fireplaces, as indeed, did our new home. Dad was going out on parochial visits, so before he went, he lit a fire in the fireplace, and off he rode on a mule provided by the Company, for his use. My sister, Mum and I sat in the sitting room near the cosy fire. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was the most terrible sound we’d ever heard. It sounded like someone’s dying breath, with wheezing gasps and rattles. Well we shot out of that house like bats out of you-know-where and ran down the hill to our nearest neighbour, a swiss gentleman named Mr. Froes. We told him what had happened, and he put his two dogs on a leash and back up the hill we went to investigate what was happening in the house.

Mr. Froes and his dogs went through the entire house and perimeter, but found nothing. Finally he told us whatever had caused that dreadful noise, it was no longer around and off he went. The three of us stood shivering in the garden, and finally screwed up the courage to go back inside.

Two days later, Mum was in the kitchen following supper, when that horrible noise occurred again. It came from the pipe up the wall,leading off the wood stove all our meals were cooked on and the cause was simply that it was partially blocked, and those wheezing gasping sounds that we heard was the steam forcing its way past the blockage!

However, strange things did happen in that house which we couldn’t account for. Lights would go on and off without human involvement, doors opened and closed and sudden chills would be felt from time to time. But we got used to Dona Carolina, and told her she was welcome to share our home with us! We even got fond of the old girl!