`MARY MAY STILL LIVE HERE' AT INN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 4, 1993                   TAG: 9301040013
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Betsy Biesenbach   Staff
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
`MARY MAY STILL LIVE HERE' AT INN
Mary Bladon died 35 years ago. But is she really gone?
Owners and guests of the Mary Bladon House have reported strange noises and occurrences they think might be signs that Bladon's spirit still lives there.
Sally Pfister, who opened the bed-and-breakfast inn in Bladon's former home, said her daughter once saw a ghost in one of the rooms. Later, when Pfister was moving out, she heard footsteps on the stairs when no one else was there. Pictures would move on the walls, and the ghost seemed to be dropping things around the house.
"It's like she wanted me to stay," Pfister said.
"Mary may still live here," said Bill Bestpitch, who now owns the Mary Bladon House with his wife, Sheri. During the week the sale of the house was completed, Bill Bestpitch's son, David, woke up in the middle of the night and felt the urge to turn over and look behind him.
David tried to ignore it, Bestpitch said, but then he felt as though something were pushing on his shoulder. Finally, he turned, and in a corner near the ceiling, he saw a fuzzy light that went out after a couple of seconds. The Bestpitches say they aren't sure if it was a ghost or merely a result of an overactive teen-age imagination.
Another time, however, a guest awoke and saw the figure of a woman sitting on the edge of her bed. The apparition quickly disappeared.
The Bestpitches and Pfister said the appearances weren't frightening. If Bladon's ghost haunts the house, it doesn't mean any harm.
But why would Bladon's spirit be so restlessly roaming? Although she died a lonely death, her body lies in Evergreen Cemetery with those of her family.
Perhaps Bladon comes back because she is the only one of the family who didn't die in the house. Perhaps the ghosts of Lucy, Samuel, John and Frederick also linger there, unseen. Then again, perhaps there is another reason.
"I think she loved it here," Pfister said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB