Hitchhiker for the Holidays - Hello! (December 2022)

 I was watching the finale of Lego Masters on Wednesday night when I suddenly got a Discord message from my daughter. Words aren't spelled correctly and it seems hastily written, but I didn't think much of it. What I was able to figure out from the message was that she wanted me to come upstairs. I asked her why and she just begged me to come upstairs to be with her. I immediately knew that it was something paranormal - something had spooked her and it wasn't my grandma.

I took my Para-Light and went upstairs to her room, setting the lantern on her bed (looking back, it went off to a green/blue). She was frozen on her bed, crying, unable to speak. I tried communicating with her, but ended up just comforting her until she came out of her episode. My hand was squeezed so tightly, I couldn't have gotten out if I wanted to. She was greatly shaken up and didn't know what caused it to happen. 

"I suddenly felt really angry and I threw my glasses across the room and then I started feeling sad and depressed and emotional and then I froze up and started crying. I was really scared and I don't know why I suddenly felt this way."

My daughter is a tween, so emotions are a scary thing for them. Think of Inside Out and how Riley goes from a small, simple emotion board to an elaborate board when she hits puberty. That is a great amount of scariness to process and my daughter is often scared of the broad and varied array of emotions she feels. So this particular experience was very troubling to her. 

What stood out to me, though, was the fact that she practically vapor locked during the experience. I immediately thought of the first time my Grandpa Fritz had touched my arm while I was sitting in my bed all those years ago. I felt overwhelmed with emotion and then I locked up, scared to death to move. Then, when I was free, I felt so emotional and I ran down the hall to my mom. I knew my daughter had been touched by something and I realized I needed to get to the bottom of this situation. 

Initially I went straight to my bedroom and got out my divining rods and contacted my grandma. Here's the long and short of the conversation: "Yes, you have another spirit in the house." "Yes, it has only been here since Sunday." "It is a little girl." "She does not mean to hurt anyone." "She is just curious about the family." "We are safe." And she was the reason my grandma had been a bit absent that week. 

Great. We've got a friendly child spirit. The previous weekend we had all gone to a two-night investigation of the Glenbeulah School and Sheboygan Asylum about an hour away. Had something hitched a ride home with us? Of course, years of watching Ghost Adventures unfortunately puts into my mind that this could be a demon! So, as much as I make fun of Ghost Adventures demon-obsession, I went to bed Wednesday night with the fear that we might have brought something malignant home from those ghost hunts.

Thursday

The next morning, after dealing with a two-hour school delay due to weather, I went up to my daughter's room with the REM-Pod and started to try to make contact. I wanted to make sure my daughter was safe and that my family was safe. The first thing that hit me was the energy fuzzies or goosebumps. I could feel them waxing and waning. They started on the landing of our stairs and went to my daughter's bedroom at the top of the stairs. The spirit used the REM-Pod to light it up to purple when she was talking to me. The first time I asked if someone was here, she put it to yellow and the next she put it to purple. Then she kind of stopped communicating and I said I was going to go back downstairs As I turned to leave, the purple light went off long and loud until I turned back. I explained the situation and then went downstairs. 

My husband arrived home during that time and I told him what I was finding. I suggested he go upstairs. As I waited for him to take me up on the suggestion, I heard the REM-Pod go off again on its own upstairs. I told him it was going off and he decided to head up. The interaction was strong for him, as well. At first my husband thought there was an issue with the battery in the device as the center red light started flashing. He changed the battery and it did it again. Changed the battery a SECOND time and it did it again. This time he asked if the spirit could back away from the device and the flashing immediately stopped. It was almost as if the spirit in question's energy was so strong that it had to have distance from the REM-Pod in order to not make it short out. Now, it began to respond to my husband, activating lights and backing away upon request. He was quite impressed. But while the spirit was performative, it did not seem interested in answering questions. Finally, as I had, my husband started to head downstairs, and the REM-Pod again went off, seemingly in protest, until my husband turned back and explained why he was leaving. 

Have I mentioned that this day was my birthday? How crazy to have this happen on my special day!

Later that day I went into my daughter's room and brought my divining rods. My husband is ever the skeptic about them, but I finally found a pair that work so perfectly and greatly reduce user error. We started to ask some questions and we were getting responses. She is a little girl and she is from the Glenbeulah School. It was unclear, but she responded in the affirmative to the name Becky (a name we took from our investigation at the school to inquire about). She told us she was just interested in us, which is why she came home with us. Also, she said that she liked our animals and thought they were funny.

I also taught her how to do hugs with the divining rods. To give a hug, you swing them wide out. To receive a hug, you swing them all the way in. She swung them in and I gave her a big hug. At the end of the conversation, she asked for a second hug. I gave her another hug. I got the ghost fuzzies and I felt really good hugging her. I mean, you're essentially giving yourself a hug but it just felt right. A positive energy seemed to charge the air. Hopefully that's what she was wanting.

We thanked her for sharing her information, set up the REM-Pod for future notifications, and went downstairs. We had explained to her that we would have equipment downstairs, too, and described our Para-Light and K2 Meter. My husband started getting some blips on his K2 (which looked like the blips my daughter got on it when we were talking to Becky at the school), but we realized that certain places in his office were subject to WiFi signals and were setting the K2 off so we had to scratch all interactions due to contamination.

The rest of that day was blips on the Para-Light in the living room, which I thought was my grandma who likes to visit. I did not hear from my grandma upstairs when I put the REM-Pod on, which was disappointing, because it was, afterall, my birthday.

Friday

I started out Friday with a similar approach - attempting to use the REM-Pod in my daughter's bedroom in the morning. After an initial "I'm here" beep on the REM-Pod, we didn't get any responses. I was getting dozens of ghost fuzzies at various locations in the house, kind of like she was following me around and letting me know that she's there. I decided to try to get some EVPs to see if she would share her name or information about her. I was already starting to wonder about her age and had a good idea of what it was in my mind already, as well as what she looked like.  Sadly, my recorder didn't playback anything clearly and wasn't compatible to hookup to a PC to export the recordings, as it is a very, very old recorder. I scrapped it and figured I'd try again tomorrow with our other, more reliable recorder.

Typically when I go to bed, I turn on my REM-Pod in the corner of my room where my grandma's old chair is. She then comes through in a certain pattern of beeps to let me know that she's here and then I talk to her about the day. Sometimes I get the rods out and we talk and she gives me hugs. Sometimes she's not there and then I wait to share until she's arrived back. Tonight the REM-Pod went off and it seemed similar to my grandma, but I was not getting the grandma fuzzy vibes. I was sensing a different energy. So I shared a goodnight message in case it was my grandma and then I turned off the REM-Pod and got into bed. 

I was laying in bed, watching a cooking show on TV and occasionally glancing around the room. My husband was asleep next to me, but his feet were slightly restless and the dog was hot-dogged between us. I glanced over towards my husband's feet at one point and my breath got caught in my chest. I wasn't sure what I had just seen and my mind was processing what had just happened. I realized I had just seen part of a child's face and her hair running around the corner of my bed. She was about 4ft tall with long brown hair and a very childlike face. 

I went to smack my husband on the back to wake up and all of a sudden my entire body was being covered in wave after wave after wave of goosebumps from toes to head and I knew I was being summoned out of bed. 

Finally, I woke my husband up and I got out of bed. As I rounded the corner of the bed on my side, I turned the REM-Pod in the corner on and kept going to the other nightstand that had my divining rods. I was still flush with ghost fuzzies. I set myself up in front of the chair, where I usually stand to talk to my grandma.

I first established who I was talking to and it was, in fact, the little girl. I asked her if she had just appeared to me at the end of the bed and she said she did and also gave me all the ghost fuzzies. I asked her if she was from the Glenbeulah School and she said yes. I followed that by asking if she was used to having lots of visitors and if she was used to communicating at this time of night, to which she answered yes for both. It was between 9:30-10PM when this started happening and was a Friday night, when ghost hunts usually occurred at the school.  I followed this up by asking her age. I just had this feeling she was 9-years-old and I shared that with people prior to this encounter, so I asked "Are you 8-years-old?" No. "Are you younger than 8-years-old?" No. "Are you older than 8-years-old?" Yes. "Are you nine?" Yes. 

Then I talked to her about how at night we're sleeping, so she should probably hang out downstairs with my husband, who stays up most of the night. I told her the people upstairs are sleeping and we don't want to spook them while they're sleeping or anything like that. Plus, downstairs are where all the pretty lights are. She confirmed she understood and then I asked her to show me where she was in the room. She indicated and confirmed that she was sitting in my grandma's rocking chair with all the comfy blankets. 

We closed out the session together and then I went to bed, begging my husband to stay for a little while. I also left the TV on, because, I'm not going to lie, I was spooked. My bed is my safe space. I've had quite a few spirits come through my home, mostly family, but I have NEVER gotten ghost fuzzies in my bed. ::shivers::

Saturday

Saturday had two important events that involved our visit spirit. Today I used the better audio recorder and did some EVP sessions. I asked several questions I hoped to hear an answer from her on, so it was things like her name, age, and where she's from. We were able to get at least one response from her. Below is the link to my GoogleDrive saved mp3 recording.

Child Spirit Responding to Question 12-17-2022

When evening arrived, I had hopes that my grandma would be around to talk to, but instead the young lady made my REM-Pod go off before bed. I got out the rods to talk to her real quick. During this session, she again confirmed her name was Becky. She also, and eagerly, told me likes dolls, has noticed we don't have any dolls, but did notice my Funko "dolls" downstairs. I also asked her if she had watched the movie with us last night and tonight, because the lantern kept going off during the movie and she said yes, but very slowly said yes. I'm not sure about some of her slower answers. 

I also talked to her again about the upstairs at night being for sleeping and she said she understood. She tried to give me a hug by swinging the rods wide, but couldn't get the other one to swing to the left, so she switched it up and asked for a hug instead. I gave her, what I called, goodnight hugs and we closed out our session.

I assumed she went downstairs, because I'm putting faith in her, but I know she was in my room that night. My sleeping was incredibly restless and I woke up more than once to extremely strong ghost fuzzies affecting me. I tried very hard to stay calm and ignore it so that I could actually sleep and she would understand that night time is not for interacting at this house. If she wanted to interact, my husband was awake downstairs.

Sunday

We spent time on Sunday trying to get some EVPs and for the little girl, or Becky, to tell us her name. I really want to hear her say her name, instead of us suggesting a name that she agrees with. Sadly, our EVPs turned up empty or unintelligible. 

We did have quite a bit of Para-Light activity, though. My husband and I would challenge her to get the lamp up to red and she finally did. She'd set it off here and there. We assumed responding to what we were talking about or what was on TV or what the animals were doing.

Before I went to bed, I decided to bring my REM-Pod downstairs and turn it on. We got interactions from her there. Only briefly letting us know she was there. Then I reminded her about sleeping expectations and she made the Para-Light go to green. Then we said our goodnights.

Monday

This morning I put the REM-Pod and Para-Light on the TV table in my living room. I thought maybe she would make it go off when I turned it on. That's usually what my grandma does. But it wasn't until my daughter left for school that she made the equipment go off.

As my daughter closed the door, the green light on the REM-Pod went off and then the blue one lit up for a good bit. Then it stopped. Right as my husband got home, it went off again, this time the green and yellow lights. She did it again when my husband came into the living room. As she played with the REM-Pod, she also made the blue on the Para-Light go off, which was on the other end of the table from her. My husband asked her to light up the purple light, which indicates the highest reading. It took her a bit, but shortly thereafter, the purple light did, in fact, light up.

We thought she had stopped, so I stood up and the REM-Pod went off again and I told her I was just going to the kitchen. When I came back, she kept making a light go off when I stepped in a certain spot in front of the couch. My husband and I tried to debunk it and then she confirmed for us that she was just playing around by switching the light to purple. We did a knocking test on the table to make sure the REM-Pod wasn't strangely reacting to vibration, and debunked that. She continued to be very playful for a bit with the REM-Pod -- a shock honestly as we had given up on using the device downstairs ages ago as nothing ever occurred with it.

The rest of the day was an occasional light burst from blue up to yellow on the Para-Light and a few, very small and faint ghost fuzzies. 

Where does that leave us now? 

We're still hoping to get an EVP with her saying her name. I am a little hesitant about Becky, just because we didn't present other names, just this one name that we already knew was a spirit at Glenbeulah School. 

I, for whatever reason, bought her a Christmas present of a doll. I figured if she goes back to Glenbeulah, they'd let her take it with her to the doll room. But if she's going to be here for Christmas and seems to be a young lady who needs hugs, a doll gift would maybe make her feel really good.

We're hoping to hear from the ghost hunting group that owns the Glenbeulah School and get some details. Maybe even see if they can check on the Becky situation there at the school. So we're hoping for more information to help with more interactions. 

Unexpected Guest (May - July 2022)

Since my dad's spirit left my house, I continued to have paranormal activity happen that started to make me suspect that something was still residing with us. 

It started when I got my REM-Pod and I was curious if my animals were reacting to paranormal activity down our hallway or just being furry dummies. So I put up my REM-Pod in my living room and started asking questions. I was excited when I started getting beeps, but they were sporadic-- rare really. Then they just stopped altogether after that first day. At the time I thought I had some vibes about a young girl, related to my neighbors 2 doors down and her name began with a J. So I used that as I went forward, but we still got nothing on our REM-Pod downstairs beyond that first day.

I then decided to bring the REM-Pod up to bed with me at night to see if we had any activity in my room. I set it up on the other side of the room from where I sleep and hoped for the best. We didn't get any beeps, unless our cat slipped into our room to play with it.

There was unusual activity, though. One night I woke up around 2:30AM and I heard a knock on our window. I wasn't sure if I was hearing it right, so I waited again and another knock came. I woke my husband up and he checked for anything that might be causing it and we were left without answers. I was a little shaken and didn't want to fall back asleep. During that same time I felt like I had started hearing rustling near our chair in the corner. Again, it couldn't be explained. 

As I thought about the knock and the chair, I started to wonder if the activity was located in that corner of my room. So that night I moved my stool and REM-Pod to that spot. I turned it on and after a few moments got several beeps. I was so excited, I immediately started asking questions. Unfortunately, I received no responses to any of them and was again left wanting. I was disappointed and wondered if the REM-Pod had malfunctioned when it originally went off, but I left the REM-Pod on just in case something wanted to later reach out to us. 

My husband also did an EMF sweep of the room with our equipment, but he only found my fan and alarm clock to provide notable energy spikes.

After this initial realization, I started turning the REM-Pod on in the corner every night that I'd go to bed. I started getting fairly consistent beeps most nights. They would occur from a few seconds up to two minutes after turning the device on, but only one initial burst. Sometimes it was just one beep. Sometimes it felt like a frantic barrage of beeps. But it was almost always just that one time after turning the device on and walking away. It was during this time I also noticed that goosebumps or tingles would cover my arms and back when I would walk into my room and would typically grow greater the closer I got to the REM-Pod. If that happened, the REM-Pod definitely went off. If I didn't get the sensations, the REM-Pod usually remained quiet.

For multiple nights this continued to happen with the REM-Pod. One night, though, something different happened. My husband and our dog made it up to the bedroom before I did. My husband got into the bed and as he laid there he looked at the windows on the right side of the room. All of a sudden his mind registered a 3-4inch ball of yellow light. As if it had been caught, the ball of light shot to the left of our room and right out the way by the window where the REM-Pod sits in the corner. As it exited the wall, my husband said it made a loud bang. I arrived in the room within minutes of the episode and when I turned on the REM-Pod, we got no responses. 

It was still hit and miss for the REM-Pod to go off. One night, though, around June 26th, things became a little more intense. The REM-Pod had gone off. I had felt all the tingles and goosebumps. And my husband and I laid in bed talking and I asked him to ask some questions, because maybe the spirit was tired of hearing from me. We got on the topic of the spirit just being scared and not wanting anything to do with us and we talked about ignoring the spirit and just letting it be, since it didn't want to use the REM-Pod to talk to us. It was classic "cut off communication" talk from ghost hunting scenarios. But nothing happened. So I turned off the REM-Pod and got comfy-cozy in bed. As I laid there attempting to quiet my mind of all the anxiety attacks assailing it, I felt a burning sensation run down the left inner side of my back. It went from about my armpit to my waist. I didn't dare move, but I instinctively knew that it was a ghost scratch. We had angered whatever was in my room.

The next morning I told my husband about the burning sensation. I pulled my shirt up for him to take a look and there was a scabbed-over scratch running down the left side of my back. I know it wasn't me or the dog, because of the amount of blankets and pajamas. My husband took a picture and we estimated the scratch to be about six inches long if not longer. I'd share the picture, but it has mysteriously gone missing from my phone (seriously... I'm pretty upset about it). But what mattered to me was that even my husband was taken aback by the scratch. He confessed to me that he thought he would check and nothing would be there. I bet if we had checked the previous night, it would have been red and nastier-looking.

I went upstairs that morning and had a talk with the spirit that was in my room. I put the REM-Pod on first to make sure they were in the room and it beeped once. I then used a compassionate voice to try to explain to the spirit that they don't have to stay in our house if they didn't like the way we do things. If they didn't like that we put the REM-Pod out every night, then they didn't need to stay. If they didn't like the conversations we have, they didn't need to stay. I explained that we were more than happy to let them stay and we welcomed them and the only reason we were doing these things is because we want to know who they are, since they're staying in our house. I also said that causing physical harm or harm of any kind was not acceptable if they wanted to stay. Nothing happened during the conversation.

My husband had us take a break from the REM-Pod for a night or two and then it was back on. It still made the noises. I was starting to get frustrated, because I couldn't figure out what it was, but I had convinced myself it was a tween-aged girl. There was no room in my mind for it being someone else.

When I woke up on the morning of June 29th, though, something new had happened. I had gotten up really early, around 4:30AM. I had to go to the bathroom. When I came back, I settled back into bed to fall asleep and I heard someone say my name. I thought it was my mom. Then I felt someone sit at the foot of my bed and kind of rock a little bit. Like a parent would do on their child's bed. I was too sleepy to tackle the issue, but when I got up, I was worried it was my mom and that she had passed away in the night. Luckily, she hadn't and I told her about the situation. Mainly because this was becoming a bigger and bigger issue for me. I needed to figure out who this spirit was.

I was going to see Adam Berry that weekend and wanted to tell him about the situation and get some advice on how to proceed with things, but there weren't any opportunities to do that. I had hoped maybe I could e-mail him and my friend who is his cousin was going to ask, but I never got a response. Then I realized all I needed to do was ask myself "What Would Adam Berry and Amy Bruni Do?" (WWAB2D? or WWAB&ABD?... work in progress). If you're not getting the answers you want using a REM-Pod, start using other equipment! I had become fixated on my new toy and forgot basic good investigating methods. I also wanted to stick to more "scientifically grounded" equipment, as opposed to my divining rods. Nevertheless, it was time to take another approach.

So on July 4, I went upstairs during the afternoon and used my divining rods to ask some questions. First I turned the REM-Pod on and got a beep, so I knew the spirit was there. Then I prepared to dive in to seeing if this would work.

"Is someone here?" Crossed/Yes

"Did you live in this house?" Did Not Cross/No

"Are you from a house in our complex? Started to cross, but stopped. Did Not Cross/No

"Are you related to our neighbors?" Did Not Cross/No

"Are you related to us?" Crossed/Yes

I was totally at a loss, because I had just written about all my family members and whether they were around or not, but I asked, "Are you my grandma Clara?" Crossed/Yes

"Did you scratch me?" Crossed/Yes

"Were you angry at me?" Crossed/Yes

"Is it because of the REM-Pod?" Crossed/Yes

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to to use scientific equipment that's easier to communicate on. I just want to tell you that I love you. I hope you know that." Crossed/Yes

Then I ended my questions, because I wanted to process the fact that this was apparently my grandma. I was just so excited that it was my grandma. I missed her and it felt good that she was here.

Tuesday, July 5 rolled around and it was a horrible day for me. I had a major meltdown with my anxiety over some things going on in my life. When I went to bed that night, I was alone and I just broke down and talked to the room, as if my grandma was really there with me. At some point it felt like she was holding and cradling my head. It was tingly goosebumps running up my neck and around my scalp. And I cried as I imagined her holding me. I thanked her and told her how much I miss her and that I love her. Then I went to bed. 

The next day went on as normal and I chatted to my grandma whenever I was in the room with her. But things got real crazy after that.

On Thursday, July 7 I was sitting in the living room with my husband talking. My husband, while not a skeptic, was a bit more skeptical about this particular spirit encounter. He felt that something about her presence should be showing up on a K2 or EMF detector. Then we talked about how my Grandpa Fritz and my dad didn't want to set off equipment. They just wanted to use the divining rods, which I felt was weird for my dad, who was kind of really into technology stuff like computers, CD players, and DVD players. I pointed out to my husband, though, that I also get "the feels" when they're around. So for example, when I walk into my bedroom I know when my grandma is there, because I get waves of goosebumps on my body. These goosebumps run from my head to my thighs and are almost pulsating in nature. They intensify as I get closer to the stool when I first enter my room. Then they go away and only return if I start talking to my grandma. I went on to explain to my husband that previous night where I was breaking down crying and I came upstairs to talk to my grandma. I described the incident, highlighting the head-cradling sensation I had gotten. 

In that moment I started crying. I was sitting forward on the couch and I bent my head so I could wipe the tears from my eyes. As I lifted my head up, putting my glasses back on, I let out a yell of shock. To the left of me, about four feet away, appeared a grayish figure with some pink highlights running through it. I recognized that hair. I recognized that shirt. In the split second I had to acknowledge the spirit, I knew it was my grandma. My husband did not see this spirit, but he very much did see my reaction which shocked and freaked him out. He said the fright (I was surprised!) on my face was visceral and real.

I cried more and spent my evening in shock that this was my grandma. I had a short talk with her in the bedroom before bed where she did confirm it was her who appeared to me. I cried again.

Friday, July 8 I wasn't getting much of anything from my grandma. It was weak interaction to nothing. When I talked to my mom the next day she said she was performing a pendulum question-and-answer session and said that my grandma was with her that moment. That evening I asked my grandma if she was with my mom on Friday and she said yes. So clearly there is some travel ability for spirits. I just wish I could understand how they travel. 

This is a selection of questions that I talked to my grandma about that evening when she returned to my home from maybe being with my mom. 

"Are you here?" Crossed/Yes

"Were you with Mom yesterday?" Crossed/Yes

"Are you still mad at me?" Started to Cross and Stopped/Maybe? No?

"Is this about mom?" Crossed/Yes

"You just don't like my decision?" Crossed/Yes (I had previously explained to my grandmother why I wasn't visiting my mother as much as some people thought I should have-- my mental health issues.)

"This is just the way things need to be for now. Can you try some of this other equipment to talk to us? It's easier to have a conversation. All you have to do is move in front of it. Can you do that?" Crossed/Yes

We waited a few minutes, but nothing happened and my husband postulated that maybe her spiritual frequency made interacting with the REM-Pod difficult. 

"Thank you for trying if you did. Do you just make the REM-Pod go off the one time to let me know you're here with me?" Crossed/Yes

"Thank you for doing that. I really appreciate it. Do you like when I come in and just talk to the room, sharing stories about the animals or talk about pictures or things like that?" Crossed/Yes

"Would you prefer I do that more than I do the divining rods?" Crossed/Yes

I explained to her how a 2-way conversation is so meaningful. I told her I have so many questions to ask her about things that I wish we had a better way to communicate, but I'm just of the belief that she doesn't want to really 2-way communicate. I then folded down the rods and told her I would try to come in more and storytell for her. I told her I love her and Grandpa Frank and that I miss them very much. Then I put everything away, got ready for bed, and settled in for the night.

Shortly after that, my husband and I heard a huge bang in the corner where the stool is. We couldn't tell if it was the stool or the wall that the sound was made on, but we both agreed it was probably my grandma.  Maybe saying goodnight?

The Sheboygan Asylum w/ Adam Berry (July 2022)

I have a friend who lives in the city of Sheboygan, a little south of me. Last summer she alerted me to Adam Berry and Amy Bruni (from Ghost Hunters and their own show, Kindred Spirits) coming to the Sheboygan area and we gossiped between ourselves about how cool it was. My friend had told me a long while ago that Adam Berry was her cousin and I found out recently he's more specifically her cousin-in-law, married into her family. So as nerdy as it is, I was stoked to have a friend who is related to one of my favorite ghost hunters.

This past spring, my friend again tipped me off to Adam Berry making an appearance at the Sheboygan Asylum near her. Now, I don't normally attend things like this. I've spent many years on the film press circuit and I know what meeting famous people can do to your views of them, so I usually opt out of meeting celebrities of any measure. My friend, though, had expressed a desire to go, especially since her cousin was going to be in attendance. I caved and decided to join in, against every fiber of my being, and decided to try to have a good time with my friend and a billion fangirls with probably very little actual ghost hunting. (I can be a super negative nelly sometimes due to my condition.) I mean, I've had bad experiences with crowded ghost hunts with the public, mostly revolving around the types of people you hunt with. It's just something you have to adjust to if you want to do a public ghost hunt, the price one pays to make up for the typically cheaper dollar-price of a private ghost hunt. 

The day arrived, though, and I found myself as happy as a pig in mud. Was I the one fangirling now? I counted my equipment and made sure everything was working. I packed up my bags and made my trek out to Sheboygan. My friend met me at my hotel and then it was off to the Asylum.

The Sheboygan County Asylum was originally an assisted living place for the clinically insane. It closed in 2002 and was later bought to be renovated. If you'd like to know more about the Asylum's history and how it was stuck with the term asylum, I highly recommend Amy Bruni's podcast about it. I listened to it on my drive out to Sheboygan and really enjoyed all of the history related to the location (you can listen to it wherever podcasts are streamed): Haunted Road S2 – 2: No Longer is Insanity Considered an Affliction

We arrived at the Asylum and met up with the various members of our group - a mixture of family and friends. We then made our way inside to stand in the very long line to get our shirts and meet Adam Berry. I'll spare you the grueling details and just say we eventually made it to the main room that hosted my friend's cousin and his husband, Adam Berry.

First, I want to give a shout out to the t-shirt team who made the shirt for the event. I had been scared about the quality of the shirt, because I'm sort of a t-shirt snob with a collection of over 350 t-shirts. I knew what to usually expect of ordering an event shirt, BUT that was not the case here. I immediately fell in love with the shirt and I couldn't believe how wonderful the fabric felt. Best event shirt I have ever purchased. 

Sadly, though, my nervousness and pure anxiety over meeting a celebrity kicked in. I had warned my friend about this and she was like, "I've got you." As we approached Adam Berry my hands started to shake. I stood back, letting everyone else get their hugs in and their shirts signed and then my friend introduced me and he signed my magazine and asked my name, which he then sang out loud and proud and I derp-ed-ly said "It's the best name."  My friend, though, took my phone camera, which Adam then took, and we finagled ourselves into a photo, which ended up with me right next to Adam. 

It was a bit of a whirlwind, like so many of these experiences are, but he was, hands down, one of the nicest people I've ever met. Genuine kindness just came off of him in waves and it was infectious. I'll come back to this at the end of the entry, as I have more evidence to support this.

After the Meet & Greet, we all prepared for the "lecture." We found some reasonable seats and my friend had her dinner at the food truck that was there for the event. The lecture itself was a delight. Adam Berry is such a card. His stories were funny and his interaction with people was earnest. I loved it. If you can ever go to an Adam Berry event where he's the speaker, I highly recommend it. 

After the lecture they then divided us into the Early and Later investigation groups. Then they divided our early group into smaller groups. Our group was 21 people plus two guides. I won't shy away and pretend like this number didn't upset me. That is too large a number for proper ghost hunting. Perhaps if we were given the run of the place, but not all bunched together following the guides. I've been on enough ghost tours to know the downside of large group sizes. But this was out of my hands and I knew I had to find a way to deal with it or I would ruin my own good time. I'm not going to lie, I have severe social anxiety and even medicated I struggled with the group distribution. But I gritted my teeth and tried to remember that I was with my friends and that was all that was important for the night.

The Nurses' Quarters

Our first stop of the night was the Nurses' Quarters. When we first entered the Nurses' Quarters, I could feel everyone's confusion over what the expectations were for entering the area. But as I walked down the hall, I started to feel the familiar sensation of friendly energy-goosebumps on my arms and my neck and around my head. I stopped where I was and looked into a room across from me. I wanted to take a step towards the room, but was hampered by two ladies who had set up chairs and blocked the doorway. I was frustrated, but I tried to let go of all the stress I was feeling so that I could connect with the spirits in the area. 

The tour guides unloaded and introduced all their equipment and set it up all over the hallway. A lot of it was stuff I had in my own bag: REM-Pod, Ghost Balls (teehee), Spirit Box with Speaker.  I have other fun things in my bag like a K2-Meter, EMF Detectors, Laser Grid Pointer, Laser Temperature Gauge, and my divining rods, That said, they definitely had their bases covered because they also had instruments way out of my price range currently. The tour leaders had an Ovilus, a Paranormal Music Box, a Para-Lamp (detects EMFs using varied colors to demonstrate intensity), EMF Tripwires (a string of individual lights that each detect EMFs using various colors to demonstrate intensity), and Laser Grid Projector. They might have had other equipment, but this is all that I am personally aware of.  After they put out a selection of equipment, they tried to get spirits to respond. Much to our chagrin, nothing really happened, but the night was young and there were so many places to go.

Once we were released to explore for a few minutes, those ladies blocking my path skedaddled. I entered that room across the hall from me and was overwhelmed with goosebumps on my arms, shoulders, neck, and head. I showed them to my friend and she said she felt a little something, too. I didn't know it at the time, but apparently I could have gotten out my equipment and investigated these feelings I was having. I know what I experienced and that's all that matters. Afterwards the tour guides led us out and to another location.

***I rewatched the episode of Kindred Spirits where they go to the Asylum and I realized that the room I had my experience in was the room that Craig Nehring told Amy and Adam a nurse had hanged herself in. I couldn't believe it. This realization gave me a crazy surge of confidence in my own abilities after the fact, but even during the event... as the evening went on... my self-doubt started to erode with what I experienced.***

The Living Quarters

The Living Quarters are across the hall from the Nurses' Quarters. They are made up of numerous tiny rooms and then a larger open space for entertaining as well as a kitchen. We wandered around, looking at all the antiques that were in the room, but we didn't get any notable feelings. At first. Then, out of nowhere, I had the overwhelming urge to leave and find a place to sit down. My stomach was starting to feel uneasy. I thought it was just the high levels of heat, but I wanted to be safe. So I excused myself before all the equipment could be set up.

What I didn't realize was the spirits didn't want me to leave. I was sitting in a chair just outside the door of where my group was.  After some time passed my friend came out and she told me that when the tour guide announced aloud that someone was leaving, over the Spirit Box a voice clearly said "no." Apparently I wasn't supposed to leave! But why? Then my friend told me the Ovilus spit out the words "telepathy", "portal", and "view." The group in the room decided to attach the words to one of the ladies in the group who admitted she had brought a quartz pendulum onto the property. (It expeclicity states not to bring crystals onto the property on the group's website, as they might not have the intended affect or could end up negatively affecting a tour.) I'm personally a bit skeptical of that interpretation-- doesn't really jibe with my instincts. That said I'm not going to project self-importance on the situation and claim the spirit's telling me not to leave had to do with any of the words that came after. I have theories, but I wasn't in the room to see how the session fully played out so it will remain a mystery to me. 

While all this activity was going on inside the Living Quarters, I had my own experience sitting in the hallway outside the door. I was facing the stairs and I had turned to my left to look at the Nurses' Quarters door. As I was turning back to face the stairs, I saw the shadow of a head and shoulders and maybe an arm peeking down at me from the stairs leading to the third floor. It was gone lickedy split. I tried moving my head around and adjusting my glasses to see if I had caught the light the wrong way or something like that. The incident seemed legit, though.

The experience was solidified even more when I was one of the last people walking up the stairs and as I passed the spot where I saw the shadow,  I was stricken with a powerful flash of goosebumps that receded as quickly as it came on. I smiled to myself, knowing that I had definitely had a curious spirit spying on me.

The Third Floor

The Third Floor was the hottest location we visited in terms of summer heat, as the sun was coming down at the perfect angle to hit us the hardest. This area is known for disembodied voices and shadows, as well as footsteps and general noises. We all looked around a bit, but I wasn't picking up on anything. Then the tour guides had us all come to a certain area and sit along the wall, because they had put out all their equipment once again and were going to try to see if anything wanted to communicate. 

No activity was really coming through, but my friend, two of her other friends, and I were really attracted to the far end of the hallway. There were noises of some sort issuing forth from there. I wished very dearly that the talking from behind us would stop so I could try to focus. We were trying to listen and figure out what we were hearing. We did our best to debunk the pops and cracks of the building settling and the birds or bats flying around the windows. I didn't realize at the time, but we could have gone down there ourselves and looked around. That's hindsight and it's 20/20. In the end, once you strip that all away, there did seem to be some peculiar activity occurring in that location.

We were hearing knocks and even heard something loudly fall at the end of the hallway in one of the rooms. My friend was getting scalp tingles and she thought she heard something trying to mimic our tour guide. I swear I heard footsteps shuffling towards us from down the hallway. It felt like something was waking up and just starting to ramp up to full-blown action.

As we got up to head to another part of the third floor wings, I started feeling really sick to my stomach and a bit dizzy. This time a guide took me out, just for safety reasons due to the oppressive heat. I went and got a drink from the food truck that was there for the event. The only thing that was left to drink was the Jamaican drink, Ting! I had flashbacks to my time taking a Marine Ecology course in Jamaica back in the early aughts. I downed the Ting! and took a respite. I was starting to feel better and we eventually rejoined our group in The Tunnel!

The Tunnel

Let's talk a bit about goosebumps. I struggle a bit sometimes processing how I should think about them. Some people don't really put much stock into there being any meaning to the sensation. Sure, you can get them just by being creeped out by something. Nevertheless, after a over a decade of ghost hunting, I put much more faith into the idea that there's energy out there that can trigger that physiological reaction-- especially if you are sensitive to it.

There's different types of gooseflesh that can afflict one in the course of investigating a haunted location. I don't know if these variations carry any special meaning or are happenstance, but they definitely tend to be accompanied by disparate emotional reactions to the sensation. You have goosebumps that bloom out from an origin point, often the extremities. You have spine tingles that trigger goosebumps. There's scalp tingles that reverberate down your spine and shoulders. And then there's the mosquito cloud goosebumps. That's when you're walking along and suddenly feel like you've walked into a thick cloud of mosquitoes flitting against your flesh. 

As we walked into the tunnels, I walked right smack into a "mosquito cloud" of goosebumps that nobody else seemed to. It was like lightly pushing through a field of energy. I rubbed my right arm, confirming their existence, and our guide said to me, "Did you see that episode of Destination Fear?" I said I had and he noted that this was where the picture was taken of the giant shadow person, but from the other direction. Our guide told us that the entity still lurked down here and shows up as a shadow, though not usually as big as the picture in question showed. I believed him, because the mosquitoes told me it was true.

I started to lag behind a bit as we walked towards the Boiler Room where the other members of our group were. I didn't know what was holding me back, but it felt like something wanted me to stay in a certain area. I pushed through the feeling and caught up with my friend and our guide and then took some time appreciating the visual aesthetic of the Boiler Room. 

After a bit the group gathered in the Tunnel. Equipment was laid out and activity started immediately. The lights on the EMF Tripwire started going off and the Para-Lamp was flashing in response to questions. I annexed a nook for myself barely around the corner in the main area of the Tunnel, closer to the Boiler Room. In the flurry of excitement from the group over the things that were happening, it was hard to get positioned comfortably. But that wouldn't matter for me shortly.

The tour guides were talking to a spirit named Paul. We were getting question responses on all the equipment, except the Ghost Balls. He responded on the SpiritBox. He responded on the Ovilus and they were coherent responses to questions that were being asked or things that were being said. He responded using the Tripwire and Para-Lamp. But it wasn't just Paul. There were more spirits there who were struggling to make themselves known. I could feel them around me and soon my stomach started to feel it, too. A friend who was with us said she saw a shadow moving down the hallway and I turned to look, watching the shadow play and sure enough I saw a shadow, closer to the ground, moving back and forth in the shadows by the Boiler Room, which was still well lit from the dwindling sun. But I turned back quickly, because it wasn't just my stomach that was giving me problems. My chest and shoulders began to ache. It was a creeping ache and I couldn't tell if it was physical fatigue or something external and unseen affecting me.

I wanted to ignore the feeling and keep engaging in the activity. I tried to push through the pain, but it slowly swelled and whatever was afflicting me finally crept to my head and I turned to lean my head on the wall. I felt so sick and so dizzy. I knew this was not caused by heat as we were in the extreme cool of the basement and I began to grow certain this was also no mere fatigue setting in. That's when my friend insisted I leave. I didn't even wait for the guide, I just started walking out of the Tunnel with my friend behind me and our guide not far behind her. 

As we got closer to the end of the Tunnel, the guide told me that we were coming up to the place where, if I was having issues due to spirits, I would immediately start feeling better. As we got to that spot, I didn't immediately start feeling better, but every step I took that got me farther away from the tunnel made me feel just a little bit better. I had tarried too long in the Tunnel and should have left sooner it seems. Once we got to the front door, I immediately sat down and started to do some breathing exercises and my friend and the guide went outside. I just sat there letting everything just fall away and finally coming back into my own. It was refreshing and relaxing.

When it was time to rejoin the group again the guide and my friend came back inside to get me. My friend had explained to our guide that I was a sensitive. The guide started explaining to me that the spirits were siphoning off my energy, because I shine like a beacon in the dark to them. He stated that when I feel it starting to happen, I need to send out a big "NO!" to try to stop them from taking me to the brink like they did in the Tunnel. He also recommended that I talk to another lady in their ghost hunting group about the topic, but I sadly wasn't able to connect with her before leaving the event. I cannot say for certain that the guide was right about what happened to me, but my physical crashing coincided with an absolutely bonkers flurry of activity in the tunnels. As my husband would say: "That tracks." 

My thoughts, though, turned to our next location. My most anticipated-- Adam Berry was going to lead the hunt in The Chapel.

The Chapel

We walked back into the basement and through the rec room area. It was here that our guide told me that if I start to feel drained in the Chapel, I should go into the rec room and I'd start to feel better. I was disappointed I didn't snap a photo of the trademark rainbow on the wall, but I was already realizing I had missed a good chunk of Adam Berry's introduction and talk and that was disheartening. 

The three of us entered the room, took stock of the situation, and found spots along the wall to sit and acclimate ourselves. The Tripwire and Para-lamp were out and were responding to questions that were being asked. They were looking for a girl named Hope. And shortly after that, Adam suggested we try the Estes Method (someone is blindfolded and listens to a Spirit Box while wearing noise-canceling headphones as others ask questions). Adam blindfolded himself and then it was go-time.

The voice that originally was coming through at the start of the session identified itself as Hope. That voice, though, quickly was replaced with one they call The Priest (who isn't a real priest). Then it became a back-and-forth of responses between the guide who had taken me out and the voice that Adam was putting out. Our guide said The Priest hates him, so he kept giving comebacks for the comments coming through Adam's headphones. 

One of the exchanges, though, was rather timely. I had started noticing lights moving through the windows behind where Adam was sitting and I knew it was the later group of ghost hunters parking for the night. A voice came through the box that said something like  "they're here." We asked for clarification, but it felt pretty obvious it was referring to all the new people who were arriving outside that we could see the headlights for.

During the exchange the Tripwire and Para-lamp kept going off in front of us. I didn't have any illness feelings in the room whatsoever. Neither did my friend. Perhaps because Adam was the bright beacon in the room for those spirits that were around. 

And then... it was over. 

We all milled around while Adam collected his chair and started to leave with the group. Some people approached him to talk, while others just kept on their way towards the door. I was going to just keep going on my way. As I said, I've had some less-than-stellar run-ins with famous people, even with the best intentions involved. But as we got to the top of the stairs, I saw him step aside from the crowd and I found myself taking at least two steps in his direction and mumbled awkwardly that it was nice of him to come out and do this for everyone. Please understand if you could package awkward, it would be a giant box of me.

The next thing I know I'm in a hug. A hug with Adam Berry. And it was the best hug I've had in years! It felt like it went on forever, but when it was done I couldn't have felt happier. I was a grinning fool. I remember he passed on a compliment to my friend (his cousin) and I gave her a shoulder squeeze confirming that she was as awesome as he said. Then we said our goodbyes and walked out into the cool, fresh night air. 

Overall it was a good event. The ghost hunting was just alright, because we were in a group so much-- a quite large group at that. Nevertheless, the place is brimming with activity. I'm already set to return in August for my daughter's birthday. Meeting Adam Berry was one of my favorite Meet & Greets I've done in all my years. Adam just emanates this positive energy that just makes you want to smile and glow! 

But now it's back to the hauntings in my own life and what can I take away from this event to help me figure out who our mystery guest is. A time well spent. People well met. And ... on to the next.

Coming Up on Ghost Stories: An unexpected guest is lurking in my bedroom.

Flash, Bang, Boom! (Spring 2022)

I woke up in the middle of the night. It was sudden and I propped myself up and looked around for the sound. My dog was looking right towards the foot of my bed, which is where I had heard my name. It was a male voice that said my name and my dog had also heard it. I said "hello" into the room, but nothing sounded again so I went back to sleep.

The next day I talked to my mom about it on the phone and she brought up guardians calling my name. That it was the time of night when guardians try to reach you or send you a message, because the veil is thinner. I felt more like it was literally just someone trying to get my attention. I always find it strange that things like this happen at night, but all I could work with was that a male voice said my name in the middle of the night.

I decided to stay on high alert.

Not long after, I awoke at 5:37AM to what felt like a bright flash that pierced through my eyelids. I opened my eyes to darkness, but then, a moment later, I witnessed something I had never seen before despite my myriad various experiences. As I pushed myself up on my right side I scanned the other side of the room where it felt like the flash had originated. And then, there it was; a giant ball of light flashed and disappear. My dog barked at the light when it flashed. 

I sat shocked for a few minutes and then got up, thinking maybe a bulb in the track lighting on that side of the room had somehow exploded and I checked them out. I turned them on and off. Then I went downstairs, flabbergasted by the experience. I sat down and told my husband what had happened and then went back upstairs and went back to sleep.

Later that day, I started talking to my husband about the light. I was standing in the doorway of his office and was trying to guess who the light burst was. 

"I started to feel like it was maybe Grandpa Fritz. But it doesn't feel right. I keep feeling my dad. Like it's my dad and I can't let go of the thought that it was him who flashed the light at me."

Chills started to run through my body and I was feeling cold and then I felt a firm touch on my shoulders. Kind of like when you play sports and get that supportive shoulder squeeze on both shoulders from behind. It was very much a my-dad move. Then I started to cry and I embraced, internally and verbally, that it was my dad. I then expressed what was going through my mind.

"I feel like he wants me to tell my mom that he can't do the things she's asking him to do, but to let her knew that he is there for her even though he can't do them."

As I said those words, I felt more and more at peace with the situation and my own thoughts and feelings. The cold and goosebumps went away and I was finally calm.

Over the next two hours, I had this nagging feeling that I needed to call my mom and tell her what I learned. I finally gave in and called her, sharing everything, including the message he wanted me to pass on to her. After the phone call, I felt even more at peace - as if I had completed my mission and was now relieved of duty. No more anxiety or stress. Instead it was relaxation.

I thought that was the end of things, but when I went to bed that night, I just had to get out my divining rods. I was in my bedroom and I had the rods ready and I started asking questions.

"Dad is that you?" Crossed/Yes

"Is Grandpa Fritz with you?" Did Not Cross/No

"Are you the light that I saw flash in my room this morning?" Crossed/Yes

"Were you touching my shoulders this afternoon?" Crossed/Yes

"Did I get the message to mom alright? Was it right?" Crossed/Yes

"You know I love you so much right?" Crossed/Yes

"Okay. I love you dad. Please don't do things to scare me anymore. When you do things before bed or in the middle of the night it really scares me a lot."

The whole time I was getting goosebumps all over my arms and I was starting to cry as I felt him around me. I stopped asking questions when I told him to please not scare me anymore. It wasn't a question. It was a direct statement, because it was true and I didn't need an answer. After all of that, I went to bed.

A few weeks later, on Mother's Day weekend, I was visiting at my mom's house. I didn't bring any of my ghost hunting materials and we didn't have her old set of divining rods because I had taken them home with me. I haven't had much happen at my mom's house in the years following the elevated activity from Grandpa Fritz in 2005, so I wasn't ever freaked out to sleep in my old bedroom. 

I went to sleep, but at around 2:55AM I woke up and heard a knock-knock-knock at my door. It was loud enough to hear over two fans blowing full blast. I was barely awake, so I didn't answer and I went back to sleep. I knew the knocking wasn't my daughter or my husband, but I asked my mom if she had knocked and she said no. I didn't know what to think of it, so I filed it away with the other strange things that had been happening lately.

A couple weeks after that we were back at my mom's to visit. This time I brought all my gear and we intended to make contact with spirits in my mom's house. (See this entry for what happened.) I made contact with my Grandpa Fritz, but I didn't make contact with my dad. I wrapped up the day and got settled into bed.

I was watching television in bed, unwinding before falling asleep, when suddenly a large bang sounded from the other side of the room. It was like someone took a fist and drove it into my dresser. I bolted up, straining to see if my REM-Pod had fallen onto the floor off the dresser, but everything seemed to be fine. The bang really shook me and it took me a while to feel comfortable enough to fall asleep. What I did remember thinking was that it was my dad and he was mad at me for some reason. 

The next day I told everyone what happened, but no one else had heard the bang or was around my room doing anything that would make that kind of noise. I couldn't seem to shake the feeling that it was my dad and that I had done something to make him mad. Additionally, hadn't I asked him to stop doing things that would scare me before bed?

I ended up coming to a conclusion about both of these strange encounters at my mom's house. First, the three knocks was what my dad used to do on my door when I was a child and I feel that it was his way of letting me know that he was now at my mom's house with her. This felt like the right assumption, especially since it was our first visit to my mom's since I had the encounter with him at my own house.  The second encounter, the bang on the dresser, was also my dad and I think he was upset at me for not taking the time to communicate with him using my divining rods. When we visited I briefly put the REM-Pod in my mom's room and when I didn't get a response, I took it away and didn't return with any other communication device. So I never talked to my dad that visit. I think he was expressing how upset he was that I didn't give him a chance to speak that night. 

Granted, these last two experiences are me using my own intuition to try to understand strange happenings. I'm not just grasping at any oddities that happen and labeling them my dad or my Grandpa Fritz. I've dismissed plenty of other weird noises or sights. But I take seriously the feelings that seem to "come to me" with encounters like the above. Lately, a number of weird things have happened that are not immediately explainable, but my intuition is pushing those experiences into another category that has nothing to do with any of my departed family and that hopefully someday I can explain. For now, my dad is here and he is trying to make contact and be heard.

Next Up on My Ghost Stories: The vaults below the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland are still busy.

Gone Too Soon (June 2009)

I don't know where my dad stood on the paranormal. I guess it just wasn't a conversation that ever came up with him. I have a feeling he believed in the things that were happening around their house back in 2005. I knew some of his religious beliefs and practices that he cherished. But I guess it doesn't much matter what he believed before he passed away suddenly in June of 2009, because I've experienced a good bit of interactions with him since his passing.

My dad had been having health problems for a while. In the summer of 2008 he was in a coma post-bypass surgery and had a stroke (potentially more than one). When he came around, he clearly was struggling regaining his typical composure. I'm not going to go into all the details of what happened, but he struggled with staying coherent with reality. I was living in Edinburgh at the time. 

At 2AM on June 19, 2009, I received a call from my mom in the United States. My father had passed away. 

I arrived home in Wisconsin from Edinburgh, Scotland within 24 hours of the phone call. During my flight home across the ocean, in an odds-defying and cruel twist of fate, my grandfather (Grandpa Frank) also passed away from a seizure related to Alzheimer's. Before I had even left Scotland I had a feeling something was wrong with Grandpa Frank and that bothered me the entire flight home. So when I arrived home, I was thunderstruck anew upon learning of his passing.

It was a very rough time for our family. A time that included learning that my grandma's cancer had come back, but this time in her brain and she was going to opt out of surgery. She died exactly two months (August 20) after my Grandpa Frank (June 20). It rocked the family something fierce.

With all of this loss, grief, and pain, came paranormal activity to some degree. I've never had any paranormal interaction with my grandma. I adopted the mentality that she had finished all her business and found her place beyond the veil. I did have a brief interaction with my beloved Grandpa Frank, which I think was him giving me a final goodbye and that he was moving on. 

I had come around the end of the bed to my side of my bed in my room. I looked up and I saw my grandpa standing at the foot of the bed at the other side. He looked at me, acknowledged me, smiled and was gone. It was so quick, but it hit my heart hard. It ached so badly. The apparition looked exactly like him. I could see his facial features and large glasses. He had on his white golf hat. He had a green aura to him, but it might have been because he was wearing his green sweater jacket. I could make out his shirt and pants - all in that quick moment of interaction. And I just knew he was gone. I've never had interactions with him again or felt him around me.

This event happened a few years after his death, when I was living in my current home. My current home used to be a visitation/vacation condo and is positioned right across the street from where my grandparents used to live. It was purchased so that my parents could come up to where my grandparents lived and help take care of them. This condo was for sale across the street, so everyday I am reminded of my grandparents as I watch people live in their old condo. But even though my moment with my Grandpa Frank was well after the day he departed, I had a very powerful interaction with my dad almost a day after I arrived home from Edinburgh.

I was at home at my parents' house. It was pretty early in the morning and there was no one around downstairs. I had gone into the small bathroom off of the kitchen. Before leaving the small bathroom, I opened the door and turned to wash my hands. The one wall opposite the sink is a giant mirror and as I looked up into that mirror I saw my dad, as real as anything, standing in the kitchen behind me at the kitchen sink, bent over, peeling an apple. He was wearing his long-sleeve dark red suede shirt with the cuffs rolled up and a pair of blue jeans. I turned around to see him with my own eyes, but he wasn't there and when I turned back to the mirror he was gone.

It was a heartbreaking encounter, but it felt so real. I didn't have anything else happen at that time that I could remember. My husband did, though. We are convinced it was my dad letting us know that he was on the other side and alright. 

If you read back about the entries with my Grandpa Fritz, you'll know about the faucets. My husband had to fly back to Edinburgh for work after the funeral. Shortly after arriving home, he was in our bedroom on the phone with me when he heard a strange noise out in the flat somewhere. He traced the noise to our bathroom only to discover the sink faucet running inexplicably. In the two and a half years we lived there and the several months before we moved out, we had no other faucet incidents. This is the one and only. We believed that it was dad using a very paranormal message he knew we'd experienced before to reach a skeptic. Why he chose my husband I imagine had to do with that skepticism and practicality, and likely the emotional difference the message would have carried if it had been directed at me or my mom who were in pretty delicate states at that time. 

Over the last 13 years, I've kept his spirit alive in my heart. I hadn't heard anything from him or had any kind of contact since. I also wasn't searching it out. But this past Spring.... that changed.

Up Next in My Ghost Stories: Flash, Bang, Boom! Is that really you?

Savannah, Georgia Vacation (September 2006)

I don't remember how it came about, but at some point my mom talked me into a family vacation. I chose the place and did the planning. For multiple reasons, I was obsessing over Savannah, Georgia. First, it's named one of the most haunted cities in the world. Next, I love Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and it was entirely filmed in Savannah and the locations in the story are, of course, in Savannah. Third, Ghost Hunters had caught shadow people at the Moon River Brewing Co.. Lastly, the car drive from Raleigh wasn't too bad and could be a fun road trip for everyone? 

I'll fess up now... I didn't book a ghost hunt... I booked a haunted pub crawl. Oops. But the pub crawl ended at the Moon River Brewing Co., so that's something, right?

Our vacation, of which I will not bore you with tedious details, was primarily Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil tours to grave sites and houses, a haunted Savannah tour, and just general Savannah tours. We didn't stay very long, but we had fun learning about the surroundings. Except for my husband who hated pretty much the entire trip and didn't hide it from anyone. I always suppress that detail, because I'd like to think he appreciated my effort and the company. Boy, does he hate Savannah, though.

It is in Savannah that I had one of my scariest encounters ever. We stayed at the Best Western Central Inn. They had a pool! My husband and I were in one room and my parents were in their own room. My husband and I had gone to sleep, but I woke up suddenly into the pitch blackness of the midnight bedroom. Then I had an urge to go to the bathroom and, as I looked over towards that end of the room, that's when I saw it: the Shadow Man.  

I found a picture of the room, but it's clearly been remodeled since I stayed there. Here you can get the idea of where the shadow man was. He was standing under the shelf in the nook. From my position on the side of the bed closest to the front of the picture, I could see the dense, solid, black shadow full on.

I reached over to my husband to try to wake him up, but he is like a rock when he's asleep. It felt like the shadow was just staring at me and I was feeling more and more terrified the longer the encounter went on. I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't move around. I was just frozen in fear. After what felt like an eternity of this encounter, the shadow just vanished as quick as the snap of one's fingers. 

It was another eternity that I laid in my bed processing what had happened. Finally, though, I was able to force myself out of bed to turn a light on so that I could carefully walk to the bathroom. The whole time I was in that area of the room, I was getting goosebumps and chills. It also took me quite a while to fall back asleep, but this time it was with the light on.

In the wake of things, I kept thinking about the type of entity I saw. It wasn't what they know of as a shadow person. My husband pointed out that when we've seen shadow people, they're usually moving or peeking or running or something like that. That they don't usually stand, staring, menacingly. I agreed, then suddenly had a gut feeling that it was some sort of boatman or pirate. We were in a notorious pirate town and it could explain the menacing feeling I had. Perhaps that is a bit far-fetched, but it is, nevertheless, a feeling I had. Regardless, what I encountered that night was not a shadow person as I have come to conventionally understand them. It was just a shadowy man in the corner who emanated a dark energy. I have come to believe that, despite its seeming solidity, that it was some sort of apparition. I wonder if my waking eyes translated a dark aura into the thick shadow wrapped around this figure. I imagine the whole thing will remain a mystery to me.

This event has made sleeping occasionally difficult for me. It's hard to have things in the corners of the rooms where you're trying to fall asleep. I can still see the shadow man in my mind, crystal clear, and it still makes me feel uncomfortable and it happened 16 years ago. It will probably still continue to haunt me for the foreseeable future.

This wasn't the only paranormal experience I had in Savannah, Georgia, though. As I mentioned earlier, we were able to make it to the Moon River Brewing Company. We got a tour of the place, along with ghost stories, and then it was the end of the tour so we could just hang out. Having seen the Ghost Hunters episode where they caught various evidence there, including little shadow people, I was super stoked to get to look around for myself. 

During my time at Moon River, I had two small experiences. The first was in the basement. I saw a light and sourceless shadow move from from left to right as we were leaving the basement. I had looked back to get that one last look before leaving and I saw it move real quick.

Once we made it back to the main floor, it was time to go upstairs to the unoccupied floors where there is a great deal of activity. The place was bare-bones and clearly being renovated, as there was lumber and construction materials all over the place. The two floors had been stripped to the floor boards. I looked around a fair bit and took photos, but I wasn't feeling anything.

Finally, people started making their way downstairs. I was one of the last few left on the second floor. I started to make my way downstairs to the first landing and all of a sudden I heard footsteps behind me. It sounded like boots, they were so heavy on the wood steps. They were coming up on me fast and I turned on the landing so that I could maybe let whoever was behind me by. As I turned around, I saw no one behind me. I did a double-take and looked all around, but the only people behind me were still up on the second floor with the tour guide. 

I was so giddy with excitement over experiencing disembodied steps behind me on the stairs that I went straight to my family and told them what had happened. It was a wild and crazy night.

While Savannah may not have had as many opportunities for public ghost hunting as I had hoped, I was not disappointed with what I experienced. It was interesting and has been a place I've been interested to revisit with a better understanding of how to participate in ghost hunts.

I do, though, have one of the funniest memories of my dad from this vacation. He spilled on his shirt during breakfast and needed to dry it off, so he asked the grounds crew at the Best Western crew if he could borrow their leaf blower and he dried off his shirt.

If you knew my dad, that is like classic my-dad. 

This was also the only vacation I would take with my dad as an adult, not realizing that three years later I wouldn't have the chance. But that didn't stop him from trying to be a part of my life.

Next Up on My Ghost Stories: Gone Too Soon.

He's Still With Us (Spring 2022)

In 2015, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 3-4 ovarian cancer (her different doctors gave different stages). She went into remission after the initial diagnosis and was about to meet her five year clear when the cancer made a return visit on her heart. This time it was no longer a case of fighting to be rid of the cancer because of the type that it is, and instead it was about keeping it at bay and staving off the unfortunate inevitable. As of the writing of this entry, she is still with us, struggling to maintain her preferred quality of life, but fighting like a champ. 

During a visit a few months ago, my mom gave me a new set of divining rods, because one rod from my original pair had been missing for some time. Upon delivering this new gift to me, she presented a personal request. She asked me to perform a question session with any spirits that may be in the house. Not only ask the questions, but she told me to stand in the spot where my father passed away. She said that spot felt like it had energy in it and I would be more likely to get answers. 

So I stood in the spot and started asking questions and I immediately got responses. It was my Grandpa Fritz again. I knew it immediately, just as surely as I knew I was wearing glasses. 

I told my mom that Grandpa Fritz was here answering her questions. She asked if he would be there for her when the time comes and he said he would be. She asked about my dad-- if he was there. Grandpa Fritz said he was near, but that he wasn't directly with us. I asked a few more smaller questions that I can't seem to remember, but I was becoming so overwhelmed with the energy exchange with this encounter and the fluctuating goosebumps that I had to say I needed to stop and step away. During the conversation I was using my mental connection to allow Grandpa Fritz to share with me more thorough answers so that I could explain his simple answers better to my mom. Doing that, though, was draining me, especially since my personal energy stores were low.

What I didn't share at the time, but did later on, was that I saw my dad in my mind. A large white tunnel, like at the beginning of a Bond movie, had my dad's outline standing at the end of it and he was trying to walk down it. He was trying to come to be here for my mom. That is what all the feels gave me while I was trying to commune with the other side.

This realization, that my dad was accessible, would lead to something I haven't had happen in over a decade, but that is another entry for later on, as it really shook me something fierce.

Another visit, but more recently (June 2-3, 2022), I intentionally went down to my mom's place to talk to the spirits in her house. I had just gotten a REM-Pod for Mother's Day and I was really excited to use it in a location where I knew there were spirits. My daughter also was interested in spirits and ghost hunting, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for her to see what we do and I knew the spirits in the house were friendly.

That evening, while the dying light of the day still filtered into the basement from outside, we took my daughter down to talk to her Grandpa Fritz. I went down before everyone so that I could get a feel for the place. I got a brief chill up my spine and knew he was there. Then I went about setting up the REM-Pod in the sitting area by the fireplace (the space where he has passed away). 

I started out with casual conversation with my daughter. My husband and I taught her how to introduce herself to any spirits that might be present. We talked about some of the items in the basement that were collectibles from my Grandpa Fritz, like the bottle of salt from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. I felt him with us, but the REM-Pod wasn't going off. My daughter said she saw something block out the light on the VCR (yes... it's an actual VCR still in our basement). 

We sat there for a while, but nothing happened. I didn't want to break out other equipment at the time. So we took the REM-Pod to the bathroom, which had been remodeled recently, and I thought for sure that we would get some action. We stood in the large bathroom, with the door closed, and started asking questions. Instead of the REM-Pod sounding at all, I felt someone behind me, almost touching my spine and my daughter swears she was getting the creeps from behind her. Something was with us in the dark, but it wasn't interacting with the REM-Pod.

Our little crew left the bathroom and we went into the bar area where there are also glass patio doors leading to the outside. The outside light was still there and it would make it easier for my daughter to see the divining rods once I broke them out. But we started with the REM-Pod on the bar. And I'm sure you guessed it, we got nothing from the REM-Pod. 

On the REM-Pod is a temperature gauge and I decided to turn it on. Slowly the temperature started to crawl up, meaning it was getting warmer. I got out my rods and was getting ready to ask questions as the temperature continued to climb. I had a moment where I thought "he's making the temperature climb, because he doesn't like cold spaces." When I asked the question aloud, I got a positive response. He also confirmed that he didn't want to use the REM-Pod and it was him in the bathroom behind us. 

The group of us exchanged some pleasant queries with Grandpa Fritz and then it was time to move on to our other locations. I wasn't sure how the other two locations would pan out, so I didn't want to exhaust Grandpa Fritz in case he wanted to talk to my mom. I felt, though, that his energy was a bit lower than during our previous encounter. This was just a feeling or a guess... or a thought that was marching through my mind. But it also felt right.

After the basement, we then moved to the living room and put up the REM-Pod to see if someone else would participate and this way my mom could participate as well. She was sitting in the living room with her heating pads and reclining chair. I let her lead the investigation with the REM-Pod, but we received no responses.

I went upstairs alone and put the REM-Pod in my mom's bedroom on the spot where my father passed away and started asking questions. Again there was nothing happening and I left the room, probably more quickly than I should have, but I was somewhat frustrated with the events of the evening. I had really wanted my REM-Pod to work and, upon further reflection, I wasn't being sensitive to the needs of the spirits in the house. This thought was punctuated by a large bang in my bedroom as I was watching some TV and settling in for bed. I'll return to this situation in a future entry, as I believe I've come to understand the root of that matter.

The next morning, my daughter and I went back into the basement and I gave her the divining rods to try to use. I called out to my Grandpa Fritz, "Hi. We're back down here, because my daughter wants to learn to use these rods and I thought you'd be able to help her learn how they work." He crossed the rods. Then I asked, "Have you met her?" (She spent her first two years living in the house and visiting often since then). The rods crossed again. Right after they crossed my daughter started to try to debunk her own experience, even though we both watched it happen and her hands did not make it move. She struggles with experiences, because she is too quick to say it was something else. She self-doubts a lot. My husband and I believe her debunking might also be related to how we helped her deal with strange things she saw when she was little --to look for a logical reason why something might have happened. She's 11 --almost-12-years-old, so I can understand the self-doubt she feels about things. I'm trying to build her confidence, because I've noticed she may possess a special gift, too.

So my daughter gave me the divining rods and I decided to ask just some general questions that my mom had asked the night before and didn't get a response for.

"My mom wanted to know some things from you last night. Did you see the spirit of Jonesy (our cat) when he passed?" - No cross.

"Have you seen Grandma Clara since she passed over? Anywhere on the other side?" - The rods started to cross and stopped right after the very tips crossed. I had a feeling of "I don't know" pass through my mind and I said it aloud so that he could hear.

"Do you mostly stay down here?" - Cross/Yes.

"Are you here to help take care of mom?" - Cross/Yes.

"Is dad here?" -Cross/Yes.

"Does he mostly stay upstairs?" - Cross/Yes.

"Thank you, Grandpa Fritz. We'll be back to visit and I'm glad to know you got to meet your great granddaughter. Thank you for being here for mom."

My daughter and I gathered up our things and went back upstairs. I shared with my mom what happened.

Grandpa Fritz is still with us. His energy isn't as strong as it used to be, but I can still feel him around and I hope he's doing what feels right for him on the other side. 

Next Up on My Ghost Stories: A Spooky Trip to Savannah, Georgia.