Tell me a story - a ghost story

My friend Amber hit me up today for a mission of sorts. Check out her blog here - Amber's House Full - and if you feel so inclined, share your own ghost story. Read hers first - it's creepy awesome!

I love a good ghost story, & like Amber, I'd rather hear something that will make me wonder as I'm falling asleep at night, maybe even keep me awake because it seems so possible.

I'll preface this with the fact that I know digital cameras can occasionally display some odd things if the photographer was moving at the time of the snapshot. I've seen these anomalies often, especially when the photographer is a spritely 7 year old. On to my story...

On Labor Day weekend, I spent the better part of 2 days at my inlaws (hub's parents) lake house. It was built in 1934 (or around there), but not by anyone in our family. It's a beautiful piece of property. Both of the younger families have lived there at different times.

My brother in law & sister in law lived there for a while in the early to mid 90s. My hub & I lived there from 1997 to 2004. It is a fabulous house & since we've moved, it's even better (and bigger - additions since we moved) because it's truly vacation property now.

My sister in law told me about some spooky occurrences there. All of them in the bedroom we call the "lake" bedroom. Obviously, this bedroom has a wonderful view of the lake and it's the only bedroom in the house that does. It's also an addition, not an original part of the original house. I can't remember her experiences, but I do know that they scared her so bad, my brother in law had to threaten the "ghost" to leave.

When we were living there, before I knew of her experiences, I would hear noises coming from that room. At first, no one slept in there (from the time we moved in, until the Kyle was 4 or 5), it was a guest room where the inlaws stayed when they dropped by. When Kyle moved into that room, for a while, there was nothing.

At the time, we had 2 cats. One outside & one inside. The inside cat was still quite young & prone to playful behavior & knocking things off the dressers, playing with little toys, smacking them with a paw so they sail across the floor & then chase after them. This was common, especially at night. The cats always slept in Kyle's room.

On a few occasions, I would hear things fall off the dresser. I would hear toys skitter across the floor. I would hear moving around. I would go to get the cat because that was what I typically did, afraid he would wake up Kyle with his noisy silliness. These particular occasions, the cat would be sleeping under the table or in the kitchen. These were the times I really had a hard time sleeping at night & of course my mind filtered in much more than what was really going on.

Fast forward to Labor Day weekend, 2008. My kids love to take pics with my camera. Especially Dew & he really does take some amazing pictures sometimes. I placed the camera around his neck & told him to go for it. He took pictures of the lake, of the dogs, of the cars in the driveway, of all the people at the barbecue, of the house across the street. He went into the bedrooms & took pictures in the nearly empty closets, of the things on the floors, of the area rugs & the bedroom furniture. He was having fun (even though I was getting a camera full of junk photos).

So, after I get my camera back, I'm perusing the pics. I come across this one:

I'm looking and wondering what it is, I show my father in law, he doesn't know what it is. The next day I showed my sister in law & she had mentioned before this weekend that she felt our grandfather in law has been "with" them since he died. He died last year in June. He was 88. My brother & sister in law have been going through some major hardships for quite some time, so maybe he is a guiding, protective spirit, I dunno.

Anyhow, I show her this & she gets real quiet. She whispers through a strained voice - "That is Dziadek (jya-dek - Polish word for Grandpa.)." Then her eyes well and she has to turn her head.

I get home & drop it on my computer so I can look at it full size (and now, of course I have the idea planted in my head that it's Dziadek - so that is what I see.). I am baffled & trying to think of what it could be, what kind of movement could do that with a digital camera & I don't know. I do know it's weird & I do know I can't explain it. I'm not going to point it out. You tell me what you see.

Edited to add - Yes, this is taken into a mirror. The hands on the camera belong to Dew. He is behind the camera on the right, angling the camera to left.