Mrs. Jensen said her house was haunted. Several people had seen a ghostly
lady moving around the rooms and hallways. The lady hadn't bothered anyone,
but she seemed to be terribly unhappy. The theory was that she was the woman
for whom the house had been built as a wedding present. She came there as
a bride, raised her family there, and eventually died there.
A logical candidate, I thought. It sounded as though this house might be
the only treasure in her universe. But then Mrs. Jensen knocked some dents
in that theory. She said the woman had died a long time ago, but had not
appeared in the house until recently. In fact, there was no sign of a ghost
until shortly after the Jensens moved in.
Something clicked in my mind. "What alterations or changes did you
make after you moved in and before she was first seen?"
Mrs. Jensen thought about it for awhile and said, "We didn't do anything
to the house during that period. All we did was build the new clinic in
the back yard."
"What was there before you built the clinic?"
"A rose garden. It was a large, lovely, well-cared-for rose garden...
Oh ... Do you suppose..."
"Why not? Maybe it was her idea of heaven. Why not plant another rose
garden next to the clinic?"
They did, and the ghostly lady is no longer seen roaming around the house,
but sooner or later someone will have to go to the rose garden and try to
set her free.