Earlier this year a dear friend gifted me an antique baby doll she had restored. Included with the beautiful doll was an article from Good Housekeeping magazine, December of 1928, describing her as a HAPPY TOT with a PETIT DOLL trademark. She is smiling, with dimples and eyes that open and close. My friend had found her in an antique store with her head in pieces. She lovingly remolded and repainted the head, face, and hands and cleaned and mended the cloth body and clothing. Holding this doll, I immediately knew she was extraordinary. I named her Jenni after my friend.
About a week after I brought her home, a client came by for a fortune. During the palm and card reading, both the client and I could sense a spirit trying to come through. For some reason I thought of the doll and went and got her. As the client took Jenni in her arms, she began to sob. She had lost a baby many, many years ago, an experience that as a mother she had grieved over for years. In her deepest heart she had always wanted to re-connect with that child. Cradling my doll, she actually felt the weight and warmth of her lost baby. She felt its loving spirit next to her heart. This experience brought her so much joy!
The town of Port Gamble, WA, has the Walker-Ames house, said to be the most haunted family residence in Washington state. Ghosts of children who lived and visited there gather in the attic space where they once played. In our tours of Port Gamble, teaching classes there and speaking at the annual Ghost Conference in November, we have made many friends also interested in paranormal experiences. Don and Sherry are a couple we have connected with. Both of them relate well to spirits of children on the other side. I had witnessed Sherry talking to the ghosts in the Walker-Ames attic and seen and felt them respond.
I told Don and Sherry about Jenni doll and asked if they would like to come with us to see how she might relate to the Port Gamble spirit children. City manager and Psychic Medium Pete Orbea agreed to let us in to the house the evening of June 7. We were joined by a woman named Trish and a couple named Chuck and Ashley.
It was a beautiful evening and the attic was lit by the westering sun. It has a peaked and gabled ceiling. All types of toys have been placed in the center of the main room. At first I put Jenni in among the toys but we sensed she would rather be held.
Trish sat in a chair and held the doll. We could all feel the energy building. Our legs tingled and our heart rates increased. Trish tenderly spoke to the children through the doll. The doll’s right eye began to tremble and then open and close independent of the left eye – which isn’t mechanically possible since they are part of the same device. It wasn’t that Trish moved the doll up and down to open and close her eyes and one got stuck. She hadn’t moved the doll at all.
We could sense a young girl who told us she visited this house. She had loved coming here. Sherry picked up first that her name was Audrey or maybe Aubrey. Aubrey still loves to come here in her spirit state. She sat on the other side of Trish’s lap.
Don held the doll next. Several of us could subjectively (mentally) hear the children say, “Mama told us not to wake the baby.” When we heard this, the meter they had brought which had remained green up until now climbed through yellow and orange to red indicating the highest level of psychic activity. There also seemed to be a little boy named Sam who wanted to sit on Don’s lap. He was crying because he got in trouble. First he said he threw a ball through one of the windows, but then admitted it had been a rock. When we ‘heard’ this, the meter again went to red.
Each of the rest of us took turns holding the doll. Although none of us received as dramatic a result, we each felt a warmth and positive response through Jenni.
As we were going back downstairs, Sherry noticed that someone had left some candy in among the toys and it was starting to melt. She bent down to pick it up and take it away and a little train engine pull toy which hadn’t been touched began to play a little song! Later I went back up to the attic with water and paper towels to wipe up where the candy had melted. Before I left I turned back toward the toys and children and said, “Thank you.” The little train toy went, “Whoa!”