When I was in my 20's, I lived in a town in Northern California. One night, a date and I went out to dinner at a popular place called Robin Hill, in Upper Lake, California. The building was a beautiful two story Victorian, built in the late 1800's by a wealthy merchant. The home was gorgeous, and sat on a hill overlooking the "top" of Clearlake, so that the view was of the lake sweeping south from the shoreline in front of the house. It was breathtaking and romantic.
The story behind the home was that the merchant who built it had a daughter. The stories about her vary...she either died in a fire or threw herself from the second story of the house because she was pregnant and unmarried. I heard the story of the fire more often than I heard the other story, so I always had a tendency to believe the former.
Over time, the home passed from different owners, eventually becoming a popular local restaurant. The first floor housed the restaurant, while the second floor was used for offices and storage. Workers at the restaurant would frequently report on paranormal activity that occurred in the restaurant on a regular basis. Workers would report that they would lock up the restaurant at night, with everything neat and orderly, only to open up in the morning and find things in a disarray. There were reports of silverware going missing, only to be found on the second floor, in the offices.
The approach to Robin Hill off the highway was from behind the house. The long driveway went towards the rear of the house, then passed around it on the left, to end in front where the parking lot was. You could park either facing the lake or facing the house. This particular night, my date parked facing the lake, which put the house to our back. It was the first and only time I had ever been to Robin Hill.
After we parked, I got out of the car, and as I got out, I felt a sensation on my back like someone was staring at me. The feeling was so strong that I could even "feel" where the eyes were focused most intently on my back. I turned, and instinctively knew where to look...the feeling on my back was so strong that I was able to pinpoint its origin.
I looked up at the second story of the house. There were three windows there, each divided by a wall space that was just as wide as each window. As I turned, I looked directly at the middle second story window, and right into the eyes of a ghost.
She was beautiful...there's no other way to describe her. Just absolutely beautiful. The three windows of the second story were all dark, as the lights were off. But she stood out in that middle window...all white, glowing softly but brightly, just like a florescent light. She was bright, but her light was gentle on the eyes. She was all white, and her details were in a very light grey, like shadows, so that her features on her face seemed to be shadowed with this light grey, while the rest of her face glowed white. The details of her dress were the same...I could make out her Victorian dress easily enough, and I could see that the pleats and other details were that light grey. There were no other colors to her...just the bright glowing white and soft grey details.
We stood there, staring at each other with our eyes locked. Then I felt the strangest sensation, like molasses was being poured over me...and when the "molasses" got to about my waist, I suddenly sensed her emotions as though I were her. I have never encountered anything like this before or since...I could feel her emotions as though they were my own, but they were separate from me. I wasn't being possessed, because I could still feel my own emotions and was still in control of myself, but it was more like her emotions overshadowed mine, and I could feel both my emotions and hers separately, but at the same time. That's about the best description I can give. It was an amazing experience.
The emotions that came through were feelings of sadness, loneliness and despair...as though she were very, very sad and reaching out for some kind of help. I stood there, dumbfounded, just going with the flow as it were, and feeling her emotions flooding out my own. It seemed like we stood there, our eyes locked together, for an eternity.
Then she abruptly turned to her right, breaking eye contact, and walked behind the wall partition that divided the windows. I waited for her to reappear in the next window, but she didn't. At that point, I heard my date say, "Ready to go?" and I looked over the top of the car at him, to see him getting out of the driver's side and looking at me while shutting the door. I remember feeling surprised that only a few seconds had elapsed when it seemed like the moment I had shared with the ghost went on forever. When I looked back up at the window, and she was gone.
My date and I had an uneventful dinner that night, but I never forgot my paranormal experience there. I have often wondered if she wasn't looking for some king of help...she felt so lonely and sad.
I have since heard that Robin Hill burned down in a fire a few years after I moved away from Clearlake. I have always wondered if the white lady there ever found the peace that she was looking for. I hope so.
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