Sharon Richter

Faith: Mary's Story Sharon Richter

Publisher Marketing: Many people have precognitive dreams, others hear voices or see things once in a while, and some get a funny feeling in their bones telling them that something is wrong. It tends to run in families. In August of 2000, shortly after my sister-in-law, Diane, died, dark shadows started to attack my daughter Mary during the night. At first, fearful of sounding crazy, she didn't tell anyone. Who would believe her? When Mary finally got up the nerve to tell her roommate about the attacks, she was shocked to discover that Lauren had seen things too. Then another friend, Ned, told her evil spirits surrounded her. How would he know that? When Mary called to tell me that weird things had been happening to her and her friends, paranormal activity was furthest from my mind. They all liked to party so I reasoned that it must be drugs and alcohol causing this hysteria. But when Mary moved out, the weird things stopped for them, not for her. As the attacks escalated, she could see the shadows gather in the corner of her living room. She started hearing voices, and the TV and radio were nothing but static. Mary hid her problems from me as for long as she could, but I knew there was something seriously wrong. I was having dreams that she was in danger. Even then, I refused to believe her problems were paranormal. Logically, I wanted them to be fixable issues, like bad friends, or a sleep disorder, or even mental illness. That all changed when I finally realized that Mary really was being attacked by evil spirits. My daughter's story is about that year.