I've been able to somehow receive information regarding certain family members and situations that I had absolutely no way of knowing. Situations which have not yet occurred, but then do in fact come to pass exactly as I have predicted, especially regarding deaths, illnesses, accidents and pregnancies.
Due to all of these experiences, it lead to me reading at a very early age, countless books on the occult, metaphysical, and all things ghostly.
Now that I am older I am far more comfortable with this so called "ability". I don't scare from what I see or experience as easily, and I strongly believe that death is simply a transition, that our soul carries on after our body dies. I believe that our loved ones can and do communicate with us after death.
However, as a child it was a different story.
I was all of 5 or 6 when I first experienced this. I didn't know where the trunk came from, and hadn't even given it any thought when I was a kid, it had simply been mine for as long as I could remember....and I hated it, hated the "feelings" I got from it.
It's a big black metal trunk with a latch to lock it, but my parents never had the key for it. The inside of the trunk is covered in what looks like faded printed wall paper.
I would keep my baby dolls, barbies, doll clothes and other toys in this trunk, and the trunk sat in my bedroom closet on the floor.
I was lucky as a kid, I had a huge double door closet in a big bedroom which I did not have to share with any sibling(s).
It wasn't until just recently in my life after doing some research, that I discovered that the trunk is called a "steamer trunk", since it was used by people who traveled on steamer ships. It dates back to the late 1800s to early 1900s.
I remember as a child, laying in bed at night and because of my fear of things I used to "see" I slept with two bedside lamps on in my room.
I'd be laying in bed trying to fall asleep and I would hear what I can only describe as muffled voices coming from within my closet. Of course I'd get out of bed to go tell my mom or my dad, and they'd investigate only to find nothing, telling me that it was simply my imagination or that I was dreaming. I would argue with them that it wasn't a dream because I had been wide awake when I experienced it!
I'd get back into bed and within minutes of my parents leaving the room, I'd hear the voices again. It would sound like muffled chatter, laughter and sometimes I'd hear faint music. There were times I'd hear the voices from within the closet.
I would lay in bed staring at my closet unable to move from fear, and would see the closet doors slowly opening. It scared the hell out of me and I'd run to my parents again, only to be reassured yet again that it was my imagination.
Sometimes I'd be brave and approach the closet, whip the closet door open only to hear the muffled sounds stop. Yet I would get a very eerie, negative sort of vibe from the trunk, and I didn't like it, it truly scared me.
It felt like something negative was connected with the trunk, not necessarily evil, but more of a bad, negative feeling, like something bad happened. I did not like it. In fact, I remember telling my mom "the trunk is evil", to which my mom would reply, "How can a trunk be evil"?
Of course I could not give her a good reason, even as a kid I knew it didn't make sense, so I would simply reply with, "Well, I don't like it".
One night it happened again, only when I opened the closet doors it didn't stop, and the muffled voices appeared to be coming from within the trunk! I threw the lid back and the noise stopped, and of course all I found in there were my toys.
The very next morning I told my parents about it, and my dad suggested that the trunk be moved into the storage closet in the hallway, which I happily agreed to, so my dad moved it right then and there.
While the trunk was stored in the other closet I no longer experienced the muffled noises from within my bedroom closet.
Years later, when I was probably 16 or 17 I got to thinking about the trunk and the experiences I had with it, and tried to believe I was simply young and had a wild imagination. Part of me told myself it was simply my imagination, but then another part of me argued that I knew damn well that I had experienced it.
But being much older, I had decided that I wanted to use the trunk to store some of my stuff in again, so I had my dad move it back into my closet in my bedroom.
I still felt negative "vibes" but never again experienced hearing the muffled sounds.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago I got talking with my parents about my experiences as a kid, and that old trunk that my mom said, "Well, maybe it's haunted, we don't know the history of that trunk".
I asked my mom in astonishment, "What do you mean you don't know the history of the trunk?" I had always assumed the trunk was my parents and they had simply given it to me to use.
My parents then informed me that years ago when I was only young, probably 2 years of age, they worked for a short time as Superintendents of an apartment building complex. Part of their job was cleaning apartments after tenants moved out.
It was during this time, an elderly lady from within the building moved out. My parents went into her apartment to get rid of any items left behind, such as unwanted furniture etc, so that they could clean the apartment and mop the floors. All that was left in the elderly lady's apartment was the trunk. In the trunk was a dress, and an old, large framed, antique black and white photo of two babies.
My parents tried and tried locating the lady to contact her, assuming the items had been forgotten, but could not find any forwarding address, and did not know where she moved to.
So, my parents decided that they would keep the trunk. The trunk then became mine for storing my toys in it.
My mom thought it was sad that the photo of the babies was left behind. My mom also thought it was a beautiful photo, and thought that one of the babies in the photo looked a lot like my dad when he was a baby, so she kept the picture.
The picture to this day, still hangs on the wall in my parents home. And yes, I still have the trunk.
The trunk
The photo that was left inside the trunk
*Update*
I have been informed that it is believed that the infant on the left in the photo is deceased, and that the photo is perhaps a Victorian Post Mortem photo.
The reason for this thought is that the infant on the left appears posed. Also, its eyes appear to be painted on, which was very common in post mortem photography.
As well, the infant's right hand has that familiar claw-like look that is common after death and is seen on many infants and children that were posed for this type of photo.
It is believed however that the infant on the right was alive at the time the photo was taken.
Personally, I believe both babies were very much alive when the photo was taken. I do not believe that either child was deceased when the photo was taken.
"The invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 made portraiture much more commonplace, as many of those who were unable to afford the commission of a painted portrait could afford to sit for a photography session.
This cheaper and quicker method also provided the middle class with a means for memoralizing dead loved ones.
Post-mortem photography was very common in the nineteenth century when death occurred in the home and was quite an ordinary part of life. Due to photography being a new medium, it is plausible that many daguerreotype post-mortem portraits, especially those of infants and young children, were probably the only photographs ever made of the sitters.
Post-mortem photography flourished in photography's early decades, among clients who preferred to capture an image of a deceased loved one rather than have no photograph at all.
These photographs served as keepsakes to remember the deceased. This was especially common with infants and young children; Victorian era childhood mortality rates were extremely high, and a post-mortem photograph might have been the only image of the child the family ever had.
The earliest post-mortem photographs are usually close-ups of the face or shots of the full body and rarely include the coffin. The subject is usually depicted so as to seem in a deep sleep, or else arranged to appear more lifelike.
Children were often shown in repose on a couch, or in a crib, sometimes posed with a favourite toy or other plaything. It was not uncommon to photograph very young children with a family member/sibling.
The practice eventually peaked in popularity around the end of the 19th century and died out as "snapshot" photography became more commonplace, although a few examples of formal memorial portraits were still being produced well into the 20th century."
Source, Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-mortem_photography
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