Growing up, most parents tell their children they have a guardian angel protecting them.
Kirsten Jorgensen was different. She had a ghost watching over her because the female spirit apparently believed she was her daughter.
Between the ages of 6 and 16, the 22-year-old former Oxford resident had encounters with what appeared to be the ghost of Carrie Crawford, a horse doctor’s wife who lived at 27 Dennison Street (where Jorgensen grew up) and died upstairs in the 1930s.
‘She used to walk past my bedroom,? Jorgensen recalled.
Jorgensen, a 2001 Oxford High School graduate who’s now an anthropology major at Oakland University, had her first ghostly encounter when she was 6 years old and her family had just moved in to the circa 1840s home.
The Jorgensens bought the house from a ‘spiritualist minister? who frequently held seances in the dining room for a number of years.
‘The first thing I remember is a face (no body, just a face) looking at me,? Jorgensen said. ‘I was sleeping on the floor and I remember it facing me, looking at me.?
When she was 8 years old, Jorgensen saw the ghost of Crawford, a full figure apparition, ‘walking toward me? in the upstairs hallway.
‘I fainted,? she said.
At age 16, Crawford’s ghost saved the lives of Jorgensen and her family by alerting her to a fire.
Jorgensen awoke in the middle of the night to find the spirit ‘standing over my bed.?
‘She didn’t usually come in my bedroom,? she said. ‘She walked to the door and looked at me.?
Something compelled Jorgensen, perhaps a nonverbal form of communication, to follow the ghost into the hallway where she saw smoke coming from her brother Ian’s bedroom. Apparently, a candle had started a fire.
The most memorable feature about Crawford’s ghost is she’s ‘always wearing white high-heel shoes,? according to Jorgensen.
Which is interesting because Jorgensen said when her family first moved in, her mother Patti, then a hospital employee, left a pair of ‘white nursing shoes? by the back door.
‘They disappeared. We haven’t found them to this day,? she said.
Crawford’s ghost never spoke to Jorgensen, but the spirit did have words for her friends.
One time her friend and next door neighbor Lyndsay Bivens spent the night at Jorgensen’s house while she wasn’t feeling well.
Crawford’s ghost appeared to Bivens in a mirror and told her to ‘Get out!?
‘She went home crying,? Jorgensen recalled.
Jorgensen’s encounters with Crawford’s ghost ended at 16 with the fire incident.
Years later while doing some research at the Northeast Oakland Historical Society museum for a college anthropology class, Jorgensen discovered something that disturbed her.
Crawford had a daughter named June whose high school graduation photo bore a strong resemblance to Jorgensen. Apparently, Crawford’s daughter had been active in high school plays and band ? just like Jorgensen.
‘I was creeped out,? she said. ‘I went home and I freaked out. I ended up moving out like a month later.?
Besides Crawford’s ghost, Jorgensen recalled seeing other spirits in the home such as that of a ‘cat running around.?
‘The dog likes to bark at that one,? she said.
When she was about 19, Jorgensen spent the night camped out in the attic in a sleeping bag wearing a pair of pajamas pants.
‘I woke up and my pants were on top of the sleeping bag, in the same position my legs were, and I hadn’t gotten out of the sleeping bag,? she said. ‘I was by myself upstairs, the attic was shut.?
But growing up with ghosts wasn’t all full-figured spirits roaming the halls like in the movies.
‘Most of the time it’s just things moving out of the corner of your eye or lights,? Jorgensen said. ‘Things that can’t be explained by physical objects.?
‘Things would be floating over my bed frequently and wake me up.?
Jorgensen’s paranormal childhood experiences have earned her some national fame.
Mostly recently, a small vignette about Jorgensen’s encounters coupled with a photo of her appeared in the Nov. 7 issue of People Magazine as part of a feature story entitled, ‘They See Dead People!?
‘There was a large portion of my childhood that I couldn’t tell anyone because they would be scared,? Jorgensen said. ‘Now, everybody thinks it’s kind of cool. I get people calling me, ‘I saw you in People. Let’s hang out. You’re cool!??