Ghost stories

During the interview and later training session for my job at the home, I was warned, “This is a big building. It can make some weird noises at night.”

This went into a discussion about some of the things that could make weird noises: The air conditioner, the ice machine, foxes outside trying to get their grove on.

I didn’t think too much of it. The job is creepy enough: I see dementia. A medical industry that shoves as many pills down these people’s throats as possible. Old men eating pudding.

I didn’t need to add spectral beings to the list. I don’t believe in ghosts so much, but it’d be cool to see one, I’ve thought. So long as it wasn’t the ghost of a clown. That’d freak me out.

Anyway, I had heard that people had quit the graveyard shift before because the place can get scary. The building is full of antiques, there are some dark corners when you turn the lights off, and you never know when a resident is going to go stalking down the halls at 3 a.m. I did my best to get used to this, and it took about three months. The worst part at first was the combination of exhaustion and caffeine. Your brain gets jumpy and can’t focus well.

Still, after some time, I got to a point where I wasn’t really affected. Then people started telling stories. I guess they figured I wasn’t going to quit.

Maybe it’s just something I’m missing, but it seems that just about everyone around Hico says they’ve had an experience with a ghost. And, I’ve come to find out, most people who work with me have seen something on-the-job, usually while working my shift.

Everybody also has an opinion on the sightings: While the ghosts seem to be here, they don't last long as they don't want to stay.

Here’s a quick list of what I’ve heard:

The girl: The ghost of small child who reportedly runs up and down the halls playing. While several people have told me about this, I find it to be the most unbelievable. What would the ghost of girl be doing here? Was she just so hacked at mom and dad that she decided to haunt Memaw?

The whistler: Recently, while two employees where talking in the dining room, they heard someone whistle behind them. When they turned around, no one was there. They looked at each other, one went to look outside, saw nothing, while the other said that it had definitely come from inside. They shrugged this off as run of the mill and went back to work.

The guardian angel: While doing rounds one night, a staffer glanced out a window and then did a double take. Standing (or floating) outside of a resident’s room was some kind of figure, white and translucent. She said that it could only be described as an angel. It stood there for a bit and slowly faded away. It was discovered next morning that the resident in the room had passed during the night.

The reverend: A man who had been a preacher died quietly in his room one night, and the death was so gentle that he probably wasn’t aware of it, said the attendant who told me this story. For several weeks, his door would be open after being shut, lights would be on after being turned off. The staffer who told me about this said she eventually went to the old room and announced that it was time to go. She felt a breeze on her face and the incidents stopped.

The screamer: I can’t call this a ghost, but it is my experience, so I’m putting it in. After about a week of working, I was getting close to finishing my nightly setup in the dining room when I heard something out in the hall, I went outside and had just reached an intersection of two halls, when I heard this ungodly, full-throated scream of terror. I froze, looking down the hallway where I thought the sound came from. Nothing. I walked down the hall, listening at doorways to see if whoever had yelled was still making noise. Silence. I eventually gave up and went back to work. When the morning staff arrived, I told them about the experience. They reacted with, “Uh-huh, that’s interesting”, and let it go.

I’ve since learned that people in the early phases of Alzheimer’s can have horrific nightmares, and they often wake up unable to tell reality from their dream. On the other hand, people in the building who supposedly were suffering from the ailment were in a different location. I’ve heard the scream about two more times. I think it’s a resident, but it’s unnerving as hell.