Spirited words: Horseshoe Bay author finds inspiration in haunted painting
Author Donna Joppie grew up as one of seven kids in a South Louisiana house haunted by a secondhand painting. The 18-inch-by-24-inch portrait of a lady dressed in a blue flowing gown now hangs in her Horseshoe Bay home because no one else in the family will have it.
“We called the ghost ‘The Lady in the Painting,’ although she wore a white gown, not blue,” Joppie said. “She was a passive ghost. I always felt very comfortable with her.”
The Lady in the Painting and several other unnamed ghosts that haunted Joppie’s early life are now part of her body of writing. Along with seven ghostly short stories, which she is self-publishing this year in a newsletter, she has written a novel, “The Memory Trap,” due to be released Oct. 8 by DartFrog Books.
Three other novels are in the works for release in the next few years. Only the final two, which are sequels, have a spiritual element. The first two, also sequels, are thrillers.
“I was as surprised as everyone else that I’m evolving my novels into the spiritual,” Joppie said. “I loved writing the ghost stories so much, when I had the opportunity to add that element, the books just wrote themselves.”
The difference between the novels and the newly published ghost stories is the stories are true, she said.
The first ghost she encountered came into the house when her mother bought the painting of the lady in blue from a second-hand shop in Louisiana. Only some in the family could see the ghost. Joppie attributes that ability to whether a family member is left-brain or right-brain dominant.
“We are all extremely artistic,” she said of the family members who have seen ghosts. “Others are more business-oriented.”
So, left brain no ghosts, right brain open to spirits.
The Lady in the Painting was a regular visitor to the house in which Joppie grew up but has never appeared in any of the writer’s Texas homes.
“She’s only been seen in Louisiana,” said Joppie before jokingly adding: “I don’t think she likes Texas. It’s too dry.”
When asked why Louisiana, Joppie pointed to the mystic culture of New Orleans and South Louisiana.
“There is so much ‘current’ from the past,” she said. “There’s more mystic religious beliefs deep-ingrained into that community. There was a lot of spiritual energy. It’s documented that some of the most haunted places in the world are in South Louisiana.”
South Louisiana is Cajun Country, known for its French heritage and swamplands. The first non-native settlers arrived in the 1600s, bringing tens of thousands of slaves from Africa, the West Indies, and Haiti over the years.
Joppie grew up in Houma, named after one of the many Native American tribes from the area. The white community settled in 1832 and became the center of commerce for the sugar plantations that cropped up in the region. From the mix of voodoo and religion came stories of the supernatural, some of which Joppie’s family experienced firsthand.
Only the women in the family ever saw The Lady in the Painting, who would disappear once she realized she had been spotted. She usually walked through the house at night, even when the family was still awake and active. Only once did she move anything, which is the subject of Joppie’s first story in her series (see below).
An unseen spirit at her brother Darrell’s home in Bossier City proved to be more of a practical joker. Darrell was the only male member of the family to experience ghosts. (He’s a photographer, so right-brained.) This ghost never showed his face. Instead, he moved things around, breaking glassware and turning the dining room chairs to face outward from the table.
A descendant of the original homeowners told Darrell that her grandfather Rodger built the house and cared for it his whole life. She said her mother often saw Rodger’s spirit after he died. She eventually rented the property out, but tenants wouldn’t stay because of noises and moved objects.
While Darrell and his family took it all in stride, they lost a housesitter who claimed Rodger was moving the bath towels out of the house while she was in the shower. Joppie agreed to house-sit the next time the family traveled and had the same experience. Rodger also turned lights on and off and once locked Joppie in the bedroom. When she yelled at him, he opened the door, which did not have a lock on it.
Joppie said she feels no threat to her Christian faith from her belief in spirits.
“We are a strong bible-bound family,” she said. “We don’t seek the spirits.”
To seek spirits could invite negative energies, she continued.
“If they happen to choose you, they choose you,” she said. “Apparently, they are attracted to my family. We have some kind of energy in us that attracts them.”
Although she’s finishing up her seven-series ghost stories in October, the month of ghouls and goblins holds no special supernatural connection for her beyond Halloween marketing.
“I’m not a scholar of the occult, nor do I wish to be, but if a ghost decided to follow you around, they are going to do it all year long,” she said. “The ghosts I know have never kept a calendar.”
‘Family Secrets’ Part One
By Donna Joppie
The first of my family’s two homes in South Louisiana was only inhabited by us. The last two we shared with a ghost.
Dad started a tugboat business while we lived in our second home. As the company grew, so did our family. We call our third home “The Greenhouse.” Mother bought a used piano and a large print of a woman playing piano from an old secondhand store. The lady in the painting wears a pale blue gown from the 1800-era, and her pose evokes a quiet sadness. The picture hung over the piano in our living room at the end of a long hallway. Soon after they arrived, so did something else.
At first, there was only a glimpse of someone or something moving. Other times, we had the feeling of being watched. My sister, Leah, who was five or six at the time, was afraid to get out of bed at night.
The tugboat business grew, and Daddy was away for days managing crews or adding a new boat to the fleet. Mother was home with five children and pregnant with the sixth, our sister, JaNiece. Dad pushed two double beds together in our bedroom for Charlotte, Leah, and me.
One night, I heard a sound and woke up. I sat up and saw it wasn’t my sisters because they were sound asleep. I heard the noise again and noticed the door to our walk-in closet was open. I saw a woman dressed in a long, flowing gown flipping the hems of our skirts and petticoats, making the hangers rattle on the metal rod. After several minutes, the woman realized I was watching and disappeared. I was only 11 or 12 at the time, but strangely never felt afraid. I merely laid down and went back to sleep.
I never told my sisters about this until years later, when my sister Leah asked if I wanted the picture of the lady because none of the other siblings or grandkids would take it.
Now, the lady at the piano is in my office, watching me as I write. Maybe my comfort with having her here is why tidbits of the unexplained are laced in my last two books and the outline of my fourth.
This was my encounter, but there are more from my siblings. Sweet dreams.
For more of Donna Joppie’s ghost stories, visit her website at donnajoppie.com and sign up for the weekly newsletter. The last of the seven “Family Secrets” stories posted on Oct. 7. Her first novel, “The Memory Trap,” was set to be released Oct. 8. It will be available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, or can be ordered wherever books are sold.