I attended St Mary's College in southern Maryland (not to be confused with Mt. St. Mary's). It started out as a girls's school in the 1860's, only accessable by steamboat up the Patauxent River. It was also the original capital of Maryland and has one of the oldest churches in the US, Trinity church, there. This was frequently invaede by devil worshippers and once a friend and I were caught on a hillside while above us a black mass was performed-but that's another story!

Anyway, my roomate and I were both sound asleep when suddenly, for no reason, we both came out of a sound sleep. I had a strange sensation that something was in the room with us but for some reason I did not want to turn my head to look. "Linda!" I hissed. "Look over there!"

"No way!", was her prompt reply.

I slowly turned my head and there was a woman, about 5 feet tall, dressed in the style of the mid-1800's with a long hoopskirt of lavender, a poke bonnet and a small reticule. I could see through her. I was not afraid-she was very calm but seemed very sad and confused. As I watched, she faded away. At other times, we used a quija board in the room and the marker practically leapt off the board, moving too fast to make sense-almost as if someone were so anxious that our hands were being pulled along. We never found anything out about any tragedy or who this woman could have been.