As we end our spooky story series, we make our final stop at Newton, Massachusetts where four-year-old Julielle Kahn claimed that a ghost named Mrs. Woodman lived on the third floor of her new Victorian home.
It started when she and her parents first moved into the renovated house, where most of it was rebuilt except for the third floor. When Julielle found her, the ghost was an older woman with gray hair kept in a tight bun, a long dress and stockings.
Everyday, Julielle would visit her and the ghost would be floating with no feet, emitting a blue or white glowing light. The ghost would also speak to her without moving her lips, telling her to call the ghost Mrs. Woodman. The ghost also told Julielle that when she was younger, she used to live here and loved children. Julielle became comfortable with her.
One day, all of a sudden, Mrs. Woodman told Julielle that wearing pants was unladylike and should dress like her instead. When she told her parents, they were shocked. They didn’t believe her.
Mrs. Woodman would also appear in Julielle’s drawings in her kindergarten class. Her teacher called Julielle’s parents saying that her drawings were of Mrs. Woodman, she would be illustrated as invisible or floating. This prompted Julielle’s mother to search into old city directories.
She didn’t come up with anything until she found 1889. The directory showed the names, Dr. George and Mrs. Woodman. Finally, her parents believed Julielle.
As they looked through the archives, they found that Mrs. Woodman was Jane Gridley who grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. She married Dr. George Woodman, who built the Newton house that the Kahns are living in.
Some other things Mrs. Woodman said to Julielle were: she had seven children and was friends with a poetry lady. According to archives, that poetry lady was Emily Dickinson.
Dickinson had mentioned Woodman in her letters and they also went to Amherst Academy together. Gridley was also known for her piano playing and singing. Coincidentally, Julielle also played the piano which, according to her, made Mrs. Woodman happy.
However, after five years of communication, Mrs. Woodman started asking questions. One of them was asking the family to buy something but wouldn’t say what it was. The family drove to Amherst to see where she was buried. When they got there, they found her spot but there was no headboard.
After that Mrs. Woodman’s spirit seemed to disappear. Instead, random events occurred in the house, like the TV and dishwasher turned on randomly that no electrician could explain. There were also problems with electronics on the third floor. Also, an NECN report from 2014 said when they were filming, they only had audio issues on the third floor.
Even though those events were odd and continuously happened, it was always a positive experience for Julielle. She loved talking to her and thought of Mrs. Woodman as a grandmotherly figure. She continues to miss her and sometimes the family would put soap in the dishwasher and let her start it.
Whether you think ghosts are real or not, Mrs. Woodman is definitely someone to believe in. For more information on this story, go to https://www.necn.com/news/local/_necn__the_spirit_of_mrs__woodman_necn/58282/