I have been going to Akron, Ohio area cemeteries for many years now compiling information on folks that have passed so that relatives and others can get help when working on their family trees. I now work with the Find A Grave website. I spend lots of hours at the graveyards collecting the info plus taking many photos of the graves. Hey, it's a hobby, okay? Anyway, Over the years I have heard things and even saw things out of the corner of my eye that didn't seem right. However, I have always shrugged them off as the wind, etc. On July 3, 2001, that would change.
It was on that day that I was going to take my 1930 Chevrolet Town Sedan to the cemetery for the very first time. I had bought it two years before and now I was going to take it out of the shed for the first time that year. Also, as I said, it would be it's very first trip to the cemeteries. I had two cemeteries to visit that day. Holy Cross and Lakewood.
Holy Cross was my first stop. I only had a few things to collect there. I was at Holy Cross only about 15-minutes. I took a couple of photos of the car there, then left. Down Waterloo Road is Lakewood Cemetery on the Akron-Barberton city line. I arrived at Lakewood at about 10:00 am. I had a lot of work to do. It was a Tuesday and absolutely no one was there but me. Even the groundskeeping staff had the day off as the July 4th holiday was tomarrow.
I started at the front of Lakewood. Since it was the old Chevy's first time to the cemetery, I took several photos of it. I had a cheap $30.00 digital camera I had bought and the picture quality was not very good. But it served the purpose. I worked in differant sections of Lakewood over the next 4-hours. At around 2:00 in the afternoon I was tired of walking and moving the car around. I only had three pictures left of my camera. By then I was parked in the back at section L.
It had been a nice day. Around 82-degrees, nice breeze and best of all, I had been alone all day. I still had 3-pictures left on the camera but wanted to go home, so I decided to snap a few of the car before leaving. I took the last three pictures from three differant angles while the car was parked at section L. Then I opened the back door, laid the clipboard and camera on the back seat floor and drove home.
It was around 3:00 pm by the time I got home and put the car away and turned on the computer to download the photos. My wife came in from work and stopped by my desk to say hi and asked how my day was. I told her it was really pleasent as I had been the only one there all day. I had my back to the monitor as I talked. She asked if I had been alone, who was that in the back seat of the car? I turned around and was stunned. The first of the last three photos was normal. But the second photo of that set showed a misty figure of human form firmly seated in the back seat of the car. It wasn't a reflextion in the glass as I had had all the windows rolled down. Plus the form fitted in the door perfectly as if it was IN the car. I was shocked. I studied this photo the rest of the evening. The third photo also had something dark in the rear seat. There was absolutely nothing in the car that could give this shape. I have taken many pictures of the car since and nothing remotely like this shape has ever appeared again.
I was told by a few friends who saw the picture that, if it were them, they would stay clear of that area of Lakewood from then on. But I was thrilled at the pictures. After all these years, findly something happened. I just wish the picture quality had been better. I returned to Lakewood several times in the next few months and nothing happened. I was really disappointed. But one year later, on July 3, 2002, again the first day of 2002 that I had taken the old Chevy out, I returned to Lakewood, parked it in the exact same location at section L, and snapped a few photos. At this visit, I had on hand a new digital camera that I had recently bought. I took 10-pictures. Nine came out with nothing strange about them. But the 10th has some sort of mist in the back seat area again.
I have no idea as to what, or who this is in the car. But there is something, or someone there. While taking the photos, I saw nothing. My wife was wondering if I brought them home. Who knows?
I plan to continue taking the Chevy to Lakewood and taking photos. Hopefully, this isn't a passing spirit. I hope that I keep getting photos of them.

I returned to Lakewood Cemetery to show the pictures to the caretaker. I figured he would laugh and claim that I was messing with him and, simply, blow me off. I was surprised by his response when I showed him the pictures.

He looked at the photos and said, "Oh my God! You actually got a picture of her." Of HER??? I always thought of it as a male figure. He told me that "she's" been spotted several times and always in section L. And the cemetery staff believes that she actually likes to play tricks on them. Here's two stories of note:

Awhile back, a young lady came to Lakewood to visit her father's grave. It was in the section across the driveway from Section L. As she stood there, she noticed someone in the center of section L walking. The person was wearing a long, white nightgown and was barefoot. Since the weather at the time was very cold and snow covered the ground, the lady was worried about this person and called to her, but got no response. She said she had run after the lady but could not find her. She stopped by the cemetery garage and told the caretaker and they both returned to Section L. But they cound not find the mystery lady, and the only footprints in the snow was from the young lady who ran after her.

The caretaker also told me that a few months before I shot my pictures of her, toward the last of May, a local funeral home had a funeral in Section L. They had parked the cars on the driveway and carried the casket up the very slight hill to the grave. The funeral home had just bought a new hearse a few weeks before and this was only it's fourth funeral, and it's first at Lakewood.

As the minister was giving the prayer over the gravesite, the horn on the hearse began blowing. Not a solid blow, but a series of blows. Like someone pushing the horn button over and over. The funeral director was angry that someone would actually disturb the services this way and walked to where the hearse was in sight. The horn was still blowing, but no one was around the car. As he approached it, the horn stopped. Once back at the funeral home, the funeral director told his helper the have the car serviced so it wouldn't happen again. It was a new car and something had to be wrong with that horn switch.

The Cadillac dealer, after going over the entire car, told the funeral home that there was nothing wrong with it. This incident never happened again.

After hearing all this from the cemetery caretaker, I began re-thinking my position and the pictures. If this was a ghost of someone who resides in Section L of Lakewood Cemetery, it must be a playful spirit. Possibly, it's someone who passed away back in the 1930s or '40s and really liked my car and, simply, wanted a ride. Maybe she'll ride with me again someday. I hope so!

This story, plus another experience that I had are now featured in the new book, "Ghosts Along the Tuscarawas" published by the Barberton Historical Society in Barberton, Ohio.
This is a great book for anyone who enjoys reading about the supernatural. It is hard bound with a picture cover and features 38 stories of true events from the Barberton area. There is a total of 213 pages and tons of old pictures.
Anyone wanting a copy of this book can go to their website at the link below to order it at $19.95 plus $2.00 shipping. Or you can pick up your copy at the Society's location. These are limited editions and only 1,000 copies will be processed. So hurry if you'd like one. The money collected is used to restore and maintain historical structures in the Barberton area.