Dear Prudence,
My husband and I are looking to purchase a new home. We’ve seen probably
a dozen houses in the last couple of weeks, and only two have really
felt immediately like they could be “home.” We lost out on the first to
another buyer, but the second is still a possibility. Then we learned
that the house was the site of an extremely grisly murder—a husband
dismembered his wife there. We would be the next occupants. We've lived
in a few other houses with a “past,” and haven't felt uncomfortable. But
I'm taken aback by the strong negative reaction from members of our
extended family. Their biggest concern, and ours too, is our kids, who
are in junior high and high school, who we haven’t told about the house.
Thanks to the Internet, we know all the horrific details of the case,
and that information will be just as easily accessible to them. Are we
crazy to think that one bad night in a house's 100-year history is
simply that, one bad night? My husband is a pastor and I am a mortician,
so who better to buy this place?