Spirits Roam at the Garden of Hope Cemetery

If you thought about haunted places you would probably think first about cemeteries because they have so many graves. Well at the Garden of Hope Cemetery many spirits have chosen not the stay in their graves. After all, there is still life after death.

Murdered Family

Entering this haunted cemetery in Gautier, Mississippi keep your eyes wide open because there are spirits all about. There is one New Orleans Style tomb in which a mother, father and five children were buried. This family was murdered on a rainy night and the children can’t rest in peace. They’ve been seen playing among the tombstones in the cemetery. Here you can also meet a very young lost ghost named Cheryl Ann. She appears dressed in a blue 1960s style dress and seems to be about 10 or 12 years old. She tends to follow people about the cemetery and because she looks solid like a live person even has helped people find graves. She will even offer to hold your hand or carry your flowers for you and place them on the grave then afterwards she simply disappears. Paranormals have gotten an EVP of Cheryl Ann and she has been heard saying, “Hope you’ll come back and see me soon”. She has also been photographed lots of times and appears real.

Ghost Stealing Flowers

Other spirits in this small cemetery include a man who climbs out of his grave and steals flowers and wreaths from other graves carrying them back to his own. I can just imagine his grave piled up high with flowers and wreaths. An unusual story is that at a funeral at the cemetery a man accosted a mourner and took a bouquet of flowers from her hands. When she complained and there was an investigation the woman recognized her attacker by the picture upon his grave and told the cemetery worker that he was the man who had taken the bouquet from her. Do you suppose that in his lifetime he was a florist?

Bloody Sarah

Now here’s a ghost I wouldn’t like to meet and her name is Bloody Sarah. She is the ghost of a middle-aged woman with bright red hair. Quite often she is seen walking about in a housecoat covered with blood and fluffy white bedroom slippers. I wonder who she killed. During the daylight hours Sarah has been seen running before cars on the highway and startled drivers think they actually hit a person. Her insane laughter has been heard as drivers get out of their cars and find nothing.

Ghost Lights

Ghost investigators have taken pictures of this cemetery and have seen orbs and some photos have what is known as the red cemetery ghost light. The light hovers over the tombs then flies high up into the air and dives quickly back down. The light has been known to chase people from the cemetery if anyone dares to enter at night.

Werewolf

I believe most haunted cemeteries have their strange tales and so does this one. Supposedly a Mississippi werewolf is buried here. People say they can hear him howl from inside his chained and cemented coffin on a full moon night. He lies there somewhere between life and death and begs to be let out. I hate to think what would happen if someone finally did let him out.

Grave Digger

Some other ghosts you might meet here include Gus a lone gravedigger who still wants to help dig graves. He is seen quite often by workers and local residents who knew him. He has a smile on his face and dirty hands and knees. Every day you can see him leaving the cemetery at 5 heading for the highway where he was killed. At the highway he glares at strangers but waves at those he knew. He has been haunting the cemetery since 1965. He also likes to hitchhike and when a car or truck picks him up in the early evening he says to the driver, “You know this is where I died” and then he just disappears.

Horrid Spook

Another interesting ghost is that of Joanna. She is a most horrid spook that haunts the cemetery at night. The story goes that one dark night she followed her husband here where he was having a torrid secret love affair. When she discovered the couple she murdered her husband and his lover afterwards she blew her brains out just inside of the front gate. Be careful of Joanna she has been known to chase people and even hit them and many say the blows feel quite solid. So if you ever happen to be this way enter this cemetery at your own risk and beware of the ghosts that inhabit it.