Our Visit To Greenlawn Cemetery

Last Tuesday, me, Caitlyn, my cousin Rachelle and Aunt Nancy drove down to Greenlawn Cemetery. We arrived around 5:00 and were amazed at how big it was. From the road it looks like a small cemetery but once inside the main road veers off into all these other roads that seem to go on forever. We wanted to find the main office so we could look in the directory to see where our relatives were buried. Aunt Nancy was driving, so she picked a road and we started to go down it. We came upon this huge mausoleum, so we got out of the car and went to take a closer look.




Rachelle is a big Stephen King fan and of all things ghost related so she was quickly at the doors of this creepy looking mausoleum. I was hesitant because although I enjoy watching ghost shows such as Taps and Ghost Hunters I really did not want to see anything for myself. It fascinates me but I'm perfectly fine hearing about other peoples experiences. I admit I'm a chicken. There was a space between the doors and Rachelle was peeking in and taking pictures. I was a little curious so I cautiously peeked in, afraid that an eyeball would be peering back at me. It was musty smelling and you couldn't really see too much because it was so dark but there was a lovely stained glass window on the back wall. When I got home, I did a little research online and the mausoleum was mentioned and it's supposedly haunted. If you knock on the doors, something or someone is said to knock back.
Something strange that did happen is that Caitlyn had brought her camera and had it fully charged before we left home. When she went to take a picture of the mausolem, her camera was dead. It wouldn't even turn on! I gave her my smaller camera to use and had also charged it up before we left and when she turned it on the battery light was flashing and was about to go dead as well. Very weird, to say the least!

Here is Rachelle standing at the doors





Behind the mausoleum there is a swamp, so we walked back to check it out. Talk about goosebump creepy. It looked exactly like something from a horror movie. I half expected to see Freddy or Jason leap up from the water. It was old smelling too.

We got back in the car and preceded on down the road. Did I mention this place was huge? We saw several interesting graves. Many of them where in the shape of the Washington Monument. The next one that made us stop looked like a little cottage. It also had a beautiful stained glass window on the backside. I found this one online as well and it too is supposedly haunted. Some kind of mist is usually seen in front of it.


Rachelle and Caitlyn checking it out


Caitlyn pretending to be spooked



Across the street from the cottage looking one, we see another large building. We thought maybe it was the office but turns out it was a chapel. On the side of the building was a humongous hornets nest. Rachelle went up for a closer look. As she is checking it out, a man in a car drives up and yells to her that it's a hornets nest, to which she replies "I know" She tells him, she wants to get a picture of it. He then drives away and we get a little creeped out because he seemed to come out of nowhere and seemed a little strange.
As Rachelle was taking a picture, her camera started to act funny. She said the power was really low but that she had just put in fresh batteries the night before and had only used her camera a couple times. We were really starting to freak out.




Another stained glass window






By this time it is getting late so we really want to find the office. We start driving again and try a different path. Along the way we see a car pulled off to the side, so Nancy drives up along side of it and Rachelle rolls down her window to ask if the person knows where the office is located. It turns out to be the creepy guy back at the hornets nest. He tells us the office is closed. We thank him and he replies "You all have a nice night" in a scary serial killer kind of way. Ok maybe it was just my imagination and he really didn't sound like that, but I couldn't help wondering why this guy kept popping up everywhere!

We are bummed that the office is closed and continue to drive on hoping by sheer luck that we might be able to locate our relatives graves on our own. We see several Heil's which is my Grandma's family but we weren't sure if they were related. While we were out looking at one, out of the corner of my eye I saw an animal run in between some graves. I thought at first it was a dog and it had a small animal in it's mouth. I pointed it out to Nancy and she said "That's not a dog, that's a coyote!" Fa-reaky!! Rachelle had wandered off at this point and it's like she completely disappeared. I started to worry that she might run into the coyote. It was a good 10 minutes before she reappeared and I was so relieved. The cemetery is known to have open graves so I was worried that she may have fallen into one!

It was about 7:00, and we were getting hungry so we got back in the car and headed back up to the front entrance. We get closer and all of us look at the gate and it's LOCKED! (Cue the Psycho music) Instant lump in my throat and butterflies in the stomach. All I can think is we were going to be trapped in the cemetery overnight. Luckily Rachelle remembers that there is a back entrance so we head back that way. We're driving down all these twisting turning paths and finally make it back to a main road and see the other entrance. As we get closer, we see a guy and he's locking up this gate as well. We stop and the guy doesn't even look back or anything just continues to mess with the lock. He finally turns around and its creepy serial killer guy! I'm thinking ok, we are so dead but then he opens up the gate and steps aside. Rachelle once again rolls down her window and we say goodbye and he once again says "You all have a nice night"(Cue Psycho music once more)

I think I have had my fill of cemeteries for awhile!