Here we were again, my youngest daughter and I, back in Oregon in 1997.  It had been less than a year and half since we left and moved to Roseville, California, then out to Austin, Texas.  I wished I had never left.  After all that, after the nightmare, the stalking, the fear … I could breathe again.  Suddenly the darkness disappeared.  Having got back to work at the real estate office, we were able to move from the tiny little rental house we’d lived in for many months, and into a home I was able to purchase in the country on an acre of land

It was a dream come true.  A client of the broker I was working with had sold him a 5 acres parcel with a little timber on it.  He had surveyed off a one-acre parcel with the home and a very old and nearly falling down barn, logging some trees but not all.  He did log the entire four acres, and sold each separately.  The broker told me that the client had made such a good profit on the timber that he was practically giving the house and acre away.  The property was surrounded by BLM land, thick with tall timber, wildlife, and peaceful.  I thought I would live there forever. 

The home was a cute and cozy two-bedroom, one bath, with lots of windows.  It was mostly flat ground, located way out in the country.  Each year the pasture had to be mowed for fire hazard.  I thought about putting in a garden, with the excellent water well I had, but never did get around to doing it.  The distance from town made for longer drives to work, which at first was kind of nice.  My daughter took the bus to school which she didn’t mind.  By then she was in Jr. High.  She really didn’t much care for the country life – it was lonely and she missed hanging out with her friends - but things were going well for the first couple of years.  Then I started thinking it was time to move back into town.  Besides facing the long winter drives back and forth to work that got harder to endure, the cost of upkeep on the property, and my daughter needing a life, a life that was in town, it seemed the best decision to make. 

I mentioned to a few agents at the office that I was thinking of selling after the new shop/garage was completed.  I had a great opportunity by a client who had purchased 20 acres to build a home, and on the property there was a huge metal shop/garage they wanted tore down.  I made a deal to remove it at no cost, and take all the material to reassemble on my property.  I hired a guy to do all the work, and the project was near completed.  I knew that would add great value to my property, though it was a long and tiring job.

I really hadn’t mentioned it but a couple of times, and several weeks had passed on when one day I got on a knock on my door.  It was my day off when two ladies stood outside my door, and at first, I thought they were solicitors.  When I opened the door, the older lady introduced herself as Katherine, and her daughter Janet, telling me one of the real estate agents at my office had told them I was looking to sell my property.  Before I could say a word, she said with such heartfelt emotion that it was exactly what they were searching for.  She said it would be a dream come true, then immediately stated, “We want to buy your house!”  I was quite surprised and speechless at first, and a bit stunned.

I looked at her with a sorry expression and replied that I wasn’t selling my house, explaining that I had entertained the idea a while back, but hadn’t seriously considered it.  She said she would pay above any asking price to have it.  I told her I would have to think about it.  They hadn’t even seen inside, and I didn’t invite them in.  After they left, that evening I talked to my daughter about the offer and she was thrilled to think we might move back to town.  After seeing how happy the thought made her, I decided to have a chat with Katherine and see what we could work out.

Katherine invited me to her residence, a place she had been renting for quite a while hoping to find the perfect home.  She explained that they had left California after her life-threatening transplant, when things got bad between her and her husband … which ended in an awful divorce.  She was awarded a very large settlement, telling me she would be paying cash.

Since I was in the process of having the shop/garage built, I would need to factor in the additional cost, do a CMA to determine a price, plus find a home in town I could buy.  It was a slow process, and during that time we became friends.  She would come out to my place sometimes where she could hardly wait to be living, and I would go to hers.  We shared stories of our past and had a lot in common (both being California born and raised).  Her daughter was staying with friends at the time, so I never really spoke to her much.  Though I never asked her age, she looked to be in her twenties.  Katherine was a bit older than me.  She said she nearly died waiting for a transplant, in which she said was a lifegiving blessing (I think it was her liver, but it escapes me to be sure). 

After her unpleasant experience, they left California to seek a new and peaceful life.  She was very open in sharing how her transplant had slowly changed her, in a strange and eerie way.  What she thought was a blessing, had sadly turned out to be a deep spiritual suffering.  I saw the signs but I did not act upon them.  I could only try to comfort her, to give her strength in words of faith.  She was a devout Christian, so we prayed together many times.  Up until then she had only talked about her mental and physical effects after the transplant, like her hair changing from being straight all her life to turning curly.  And how the feeling that she wasn’t in her own skin was disturbing, but what concerned her the most was having thoughts that were not hers … dark thoughts.  She felt a battle inside her that she had to cope with every day, and staying close to God was her way of finding some comfort and protection.

I began to share with her some of my own dark experiences, and how I had turned away from getting involved, which made it even harder for me to ignore when she revealed to me her terrify nightmares.  She was afraid to tell people about them, fearing they would think she was crazy or possessed… she feared she was possessed.  Shortly after her transplant she began to have gruesome nightmares that were so scary that it got to the point to where she was afraid to go to sleep.  She said she felt the spirits around her all the time, but they only came out at night in her dreams.  She said she tried to take naps during the day, but was so tired all the time from lack of sleep.  Her story was so familiar my heart felt such sorrow for her … I knew her fear well.

Although I could sense her intense fear, I didn’t try to help her in any way other than praying.  I told her unless the Holy Spirit called upon me, I would pray for such a way to help her.  She was hopeful for that calling, and continued to attend her a local church for strength.  It was right after we had the conversation at her house, that things got worse.  Until then, the spirits had been hiding from me, but they weren’t hiding no more.  When I left her house, I was fully aware of darkness in her home, and I silently rebuked them, outwardly showing no awareness, because I knew not to open that door.  As the days passed, I saw Katherine becoming more distraught.  She said the haunting’ was getting worse, and she hadn’t slept in days ... too afraid to go to sleep.

I would pray for her daily, at night before bed, at moments that struck me, asking for Katherine’s protection.  I couldn’t shake the powerful presence I felt when I was with her, and most especially when I was in her house.  I kept things to myself, keeping matters focused on the real estate transaction to keep her mind off the present depression.  When the shop/garage had been completed I was able to put a price on the property value and she was thrilled, offering a lot more than I had asked.  Since I didn’t list it, I was able to process the deal without paying commission. 

While the paperwork was being processed, I had a dream.  I dreamt I was in Katherine’s bedroom - as an observer - invisible from the spirits dwelling there.  I saw them, hovering as near transparent figures around the room, while Katherine was in a deep sleep.  I heard their voices, not words, vibrating with sounds of hauntingly eerie sensations.  Then, the phone rang in the middle of the night awakening me to the cries of Katherine’s desperate plea, “Help!  Please help me!”  and suddenly I felt the calling.  She didn’t need to tell why, I knew why, and I told her I was on my way.  It was about 3:00am.  I left a note for my daughter in case she woke up wondering where I was.

As I drove into town that night, I had no doubt the Holy Spirit was upon me, I felt the power of the presence.  I was prepared, ready to go to battle.  When I arrived at Katherine’s house, the back door was wide open.  I hollered her name, no answer, and again, no answer.  Before I entered, I put on the full armor of protection, claiming the promise of the power of Jesus Christ, and the authority of the Almighty.  Katherine had already given me permission when she called asking for help.  Everything was in place and I feared not as I walked through her living room to her bedroom, where there she lied curled in a ball under the blankets, shaking with terror.

It was very intense.  I helped her out of bed, comforting her to the living room where she sat down, still shaking.  I told her to stay there while I went into the bedroom.  I closed the door and stood boldly while the words poured out of me, while I felt the pressure against me, while I sent them to where they had come ... and where they had come were in objects around the room.  Then I anointed and sealed them.  I went to Katherine to tell her, to get her permission to remove the items from the house.  She wanted them out, immediately.  I gathered them up and put them a plastic bag, taking it out to the garbage can.  When I came back in, she asked if there were any more.  I went through the house but I sensed nothing else.  She was relieved, yet, she still felt fear.  I took her hands and pray over her, lifting her to her feet and freeing her from the captivity she suffered from.

I felt something unusual while holding her hands, something I had felt when a curse was lifted from me, but I felt it in Katherine.  When we said, ‘Amen’, and we sat down, she expressed that she felt a strange sensation, as if something had left her body.  I knew then the work of the Holy Spirit was done. 

It was a very strange encounter, and one that she was most grateful for.  The light had come back into her life and she was so relieved and free of all the haunting, inward and outward, that she professed to her entire congregation what I had done for her.  She told all her friends and family … and I was so happy things turned out well. 

Things turned out well for myself too.  A wealthy client of the broker I worked with was going to put his house on the market after he had bought it brand new for his niece several years earlier.  He traveled a lot and hadn’t seen her a long time.  When he went to visit her, he discovered she had lost her mind.  Apparently, she was schizophrenic and paranoid.  When he saw the way she was living, he realized she needed mental help and made arrangements to have her committed.

When the broker took me to see the house, I was so excited.  It was a newer home in a newer subdivision with a lovely landscaped front yard, and big grassy back yard with a huge towering oak, plus an automatic two-car garage.  When we entered the house, it was empty and everything looked really nice, until I got to the bedroom where she had stayed in.  The way I knew that was because the white walls were stained with black soot.  I asked the broker what happened to the walls and he told me the niece had burned candles continuously around the entire room.  He was told by the client that she was trying to keep the demons out.

I was a bit concerned when I learned the history of the house, but I didn’t feel anything evil or dark there.  The client didn’t ask for any more than what he had paid for the house, which was worth a lot more by then, so I was able to purchase it with the sale of my country property.  The room was painted and turned into a home office.  My daughter and I moved in and lived there for five years.  We never had any problems.

Katherine and Janet moved into the country home and were very happy.  They removed the old barn and set up a mobile home where Katherine lived, and Janet lived in the house.  She later got married and had kids. 

One day I got a call from a young girl telling me she attended church with Katherine and had heard how I helped her.  She said Katherine gave her my phone number and asked if she could come see me.  I told her I didn’t know if I could help or not, but she was welcome to come.  She came the next day and we sat and had a talk.  As I listened to her tell me her story, I realized her problem was not spiritual and I advised her to see medical help.  In a way she was relieved that she wasn’t possessed or haunted, and thanked me for my honesty.

I hadn’t seen Katherine in quite a while until I heard she was very ill.  I drove out to the country to see her, and discovered she had developed a crippling disease and was in a wheelchair.  I was impressed with her positive spirit, her kindness and love, during the most painful time in her life.  She was truly an inspiration and spent her days mostly in bed drawing and making special cards for her friends at church.  She gave me a framed picture that looked to be quite aged of a Hawaiian landscape, in which I still have to this day hanging on my wall.  She wrote the most beautiful words on the back.  Katherine passed away several years later.  By then I had sold my house and moved to Maui, Hawaii.  Her gift was like a foretold prophesy.

Before I left, I gave her and Janet some of my house plants, and a nearly 100-year-old solid oak buffet I had purchased in Denver at an antique shop decades before (during my Vail, Colorado days).  I discovered after returning back to Oregon seven years later, that Janet still had it.  It found it’s home in the country once, and once again, and still remains there over twenty years.

After my daughter went to work and moved out, it was just me.  All my girls were grown up and living their life’s.  That’s when I decided to go online to dating sites, and after hundreds of responses from men all around the world, I finally met a man who I felt worth getting to know.  He lived in Maui, and after weeks of emails, we advanced to the phone.  That’s when things began to escalate.  He flew out to meet me, and I was worried it might turn out like my Austin, Texas experience.  But as I was waiting for him to come off the plane and saw him, I had all the wonderful feelings intact.  As we spent several days together, I fell even deeper in love with him. 

We would stay up half the night just talking and cuddling.  When he left and returned to Maui, he sold his business, loaded a shipping container with what he kept, sold and threw away the rest, and moved to Oregon.  Several months later we got married.  He got his real estate license and started working at the office.  An opportunity came along to purchase a large 3 bay shop where we closed off one bay and remodeled for a computer school.  It was a lot of work.  We insulated, hung sheetrock, textured and painted, laid carpet, put in lighting, installed a bathroom, purchased computers, desks, and everything else.  The other two bays were turned into a detail shop and a mechanic shop where he painted and worked on cars.  Things were going pretty well, until he took me on a belated honeymoon to Maui where we spend a week.  That week changed my life.

After that, I wanted to live there.  And that’s when a new door opened and I was off again.

Next stop … Kihei, Hawaii.