Hstock, now i will tell you my only big encounter with a ghost. There is no other way i can call it. When i first move here in America we rented a house in a different town. Nothing strange happened until after 6 months. Then i started to notice that in a particular corner of the hall was always cold. There was no AC vent there. My daughter at that time was one year old....several nights i would wake up at the sound of her bumbling something...pause, bumbling again, like she was answering to some other sound or words...one night i entered her room and i found her standing on her crib looking at one point of the wall and tilting her head on the right side like she was intensely observing something. She was perfectly awake.
She saw me and smiled, like whetever thing she was busy interracting was as real as me. Then the enconuter. I was coming back home from grocery and i first drop the bags on the kitchen counter and then went to the bathroom with my daughter. When i went back i pass in front of the kitchen and with the corner of my eyes i caught a glimpse of a figure.
He looked like a young boy in the act of opening one of the kitchen cabinet. He turned his head and looked at me. i still remember his face: black hair, skinny boy, sad expression in his eyes. I was perfectly calm. I didnt scream, i didn tthink i am crazy. My reaction kind of freaked me out more than the the actual vision. I convinced myslef i just saw some kind of shadow, my imagination was tricking me. When my husband went home i told him about it. And he said that when he had visited the house alone with the real estate agent, this guy told him that the family who was living there had left the house pretty soon after having bought it. The reason for that abrupt leaving has been the death of their son. He committed suicide in the house and the parents couldn't stand to live there any longer.
i made peace with that idea and kept staying long hours alone in that house and never anything new or bad ever happened again. i think its our attitude toward these kind of things that make the difference. I am not particularly into paranormal stuff. i suspend my judgement. Nothign up to now had seriuosly convinced me of the silliness or the seriousness of these episodes. But i will read the story of your Dolly.