Every community has an urban legend, the ominous law surrounding a strange house at the top of a hill, a ghostly covered bridge, or a dark wood at the edge of the city limit.

Even the small secluded farm town I spent the first 18 years of my life in had its own legend.

Ours centered around the eccentric Strauss family and their even stranger daughter, Greta.

I find myself unique compared to most.

This, unfortunately, is because I am a firsthand witness of what so many generations

whispered off behind closed doors around the campfire and at night to scare children.

And one fateful evening I found myself in the Strauss family home.

I can say with brutal honesty that the horror I experienced on that night led to countless

therapy sessions, bottles of white pills, and a new life in a large city with the nearest

farm being 100 miles away.

I found it best to begin the retelling of my story

by passing along the original legend the same way it was told to me by my peers.

The Strauss family moved to the United States from Germany in the early 1900s and settled

on a large pot of land in Central Illinois.

People aren't sure why they chose to leave Germany or why they decided to buy 300 acres

in the middle of nowhere. We did, however, know a few things about them. They were very wealthy,

self-sustaining, and refused to leave the family farm. All of their food was either harvested, fished or slaughtered.

The children are homeschooled and the deceased were laid to rest in the family cemetery.

Their property was littered with ominous signs written in both German and English, expressing

how they very much wished to be left alone.

There are more than a couple of rumors from townsfolk witnessing door-to-door salesman walking

onto the property, but never off of it.

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