A Ghostly Welcome

In the blink-and-you'll-miss-it town of Lufkin, Texas, lies an old farmhouse that has, for decades, remained neglected. Neglected but not uninhabited. When Lola C. and her husband Robert inherited their family's homestead and moved in to renovate it, they soon discovered that they were not the house's only occupants.

Lola begins the tale: "My husband and I retired from the railroad in 2009, after he had inherited a farmhouse. We renovated the farmhouse and moved in during November of 2009. It was just the two of us." But it wasn't long before Lola started witnessing strange things.

The old farmhouse.
The barn on the ol' farmstead, where it's said the original occupants still wander, long after their demise. Photo © Lola C.

"Robert would be out in the garden or doing something out on the farm and I’d be alone in the house and sometimes I would see…maybe I was imagining it…somebody going by. I never said anything for a while. It felt like somebody was passing by between the kitchen into the living room."

Lola tells of the very first night in the old farmhouse, when she felt someone, or something, touch her: "The first night we stayed there, in the middle of the night, it felt like somebody pinched my big toe. I woke up and looked over at my husband, who was sound asleep. A week went by and I happened to mention it to my sister-in-law, who said, 'Oh, yeah. That’s what Grandpa used to do to Grandma.' So maybe it wasn't a scary thing. I guess Grandpa was welcoming us. It was our first night in the house and he was welcoming us, like we’re doing a good job renovating the house."

A week later Lola and her husband had another strange experience in their isolated farmhouse: "It was a Sunday around six in the morning and I nudged my husband. 'Do you smell that?' I asked him, and he said, 'Yeah, it smells like coffee brewing.' So I got up and walked out of the bedroom, and as soon as I stepped into the kitchen, the smell vanished. There was no coffee brewing. My husband told me that his Grandma had an entire pot of coffee every single morning, that’s how much she loved coffee."

Despite the bizarre nature of her encounters, Lola remains unshaken. "These experiences were nothing to scare me. I think it was just like, I guess we’re doing a good job fixing up the house, keeping their memory alive like that. I guess they approve."