Ghostly Video?

A recent visitor to Merbrink sent in this video. She says if you look carefully in the foreground, there is a little girl waving. A little girl who might be the same one from the plaque on the porch. When they originally filmed this, no one in the car saw anything in that location at all. What do you see?

Why Am I at Merbrink?

This is a complicated question best understood by reading our story in The Lost Chloe. Chloe was my baby. Well, not actually mine but just like mine. Nelle brought her to me and asked for help before she was even born. After I heard the story about the danger Chloe was in, I had no problem with the arrangment.

Poor William nearly murdered by his own sister! She must have been quite manipulative don't you think?

Now, why I'm here. It has to do with Chloe's part of the family fortune. Since William and Nelle couldn't claim her, it was a legal nightmare to make sure she was taken care of. My job was to keep the accumulating gold coins safe at Merbrink. The problem became even more profound,though, when Chloe witnessed a horrible tragedy and became catatonic for some time.

We were very worried that Chloe would commit suicide and our fears nearly happened. But that's another story. I presided over the treasure, Chloe, and a plot to foil the Copelands. We staged this at Merbrink in the summer of 1923.

Who am I?

How does a house become haunted? Does tragedy contain some dynamic energy that becomes trapped in the location? Even ghosts wonder about these questions, you know. Merbrink just wasn't able to hold onto the energy of tragedy and needed to share it with others. If you'll take a ghost's view of things, immense emotion has the power to take on a physical form.

During the 1920s many people saw the ghost of Merbrink. They recognized me as Miss Phebe, Chloe's old nanny. Merbrink had been built by my rich employer William H. Bruning in 1905 for his bride Nelle Cooper and then left empty suddenly when tragedy befell them again. They didn't marry (don't blame me for that - I scolded them about it) although they remained lovers. In fact, Nelle lived right up the hill in Winona Lake helping her mother Mary care for some world famous Swiss Terrace Inn. William visited every two weeks on his way from Evansville, Indiana to Brooklyn NY.

But none of those details tell you about the juicy part - Nelle and William's illegitimate daughter Chloe Ellen Cooper. This is where the immense emotions get hairy. The story of this child is told in the novel The Lost Chloe. For details, visit http://www.thelostchloe.com/