Category Archives: general

The Ghost of The Gardens at Marysville

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 17
Occupation: Server, Waiter
Residence: Marysville, WA
Performance Date: October 26, 2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Informant: Since I work in a retirement home, something supernatural is bound to happen. Occasionally things would fall out of cupboards, or I’d feel taps on my shoulders and stuff, but I wouldn’t think much of it. One day a new cook named DB comes to work, DB tells me that her old boss who used to work here had passed away, and that she would spend all her time at work in the office. 

About a month later I am cleaning up the kitchen for the night and the power goes out in the whole building. It was only me and my co-worker, CW, closing up. I continue to mop, and CW says she will go grab the clock out sheets, as the time clock wasn’t working. This means she has to walk to the other side of the building to the breakroom. So I am left alone in the kitchen in the dark. I am currently standing right across from the director’s office and the door is open. I grab my phone to take a video and show my friends what it looks like at work with no power. As I am panning 365 degrees around the room with my phone. Right when I pass the directors office with my phone I see hands and a head pop out from behind the open door to the office. The figure had black hair, black eyes, pale skin and a suit. But I pretend like I don’t see it and continue to finish mopping.

Collector: What are you thinking at this moment? Why did you pretend not to see it?

Informant: I am thinking to myself that I need to pretend that I’m not scared, because when you show fear that is when spirits will want to scare you even more. Anyway CW comes in five minutes later, and gives me the clock in sheets. I ask her to close the director’s office door, and she says “no you close it.” I tell her no, and she asks me why. I explain to her what I had just happened, and convince her to close it. But she says that I have to come with her to close it. As she gets to the door, she tries to talk to them by saying “We’re just trying to get to work, don’t bother us, we’re sorry if we disrupted you, bye.” She closes the door, but as soon as we turn around the door opens again. I look back and go to close it. When I touched the door handle I could just feel how cold it was inside, while touching it I instantly got goosebumps up my entire arm. Just thinking about it gives me chills. I close the door, and I speed walk away from the kitchen, but when I get to the door of the kitchen I hear the office door open again, so after that CW and I book it out of there and leave. 

Collector: So what do you think happened? What do you make of this situation?

Informant: I think this was a bad omen that did not want me there, because it kept bothering us even after we told it we did not want any trouble. I definitely think that this spirit was Debby’s boss, Debby even told me so, and it wasn’t until she showed up that scary shit started happening, and I had already been working there for a year. And after all of the spirits I have encountered while working here this spirit in the kitchen was the one I felt the most fear towards. 

Context: The informant, is a Latino male, who was born in Los Angeles, California, and now lives in the Seattle Washington area. While working at The Gardens at Marysville retirement home.

Analysis: When people think about locations that culturally retain ghost stories, such as old houses, colleges, theaters etc. One place I do not believe has had as much mention is retirement homes, a place where people go to pass on, and live the final piece of their life, it seems very logical that this would be a hub for ghost stories. The informant’s story also offers some interesting ideas as to what the differences are between good and bad ghosts. It’s interesting to me that this ghost may very well be the past boss of the retirement home who is haunting his old office. This fact leaves me with questions such as how he died, or what events occured in the workplace that would cause him to haunt his old office. What makes someone become an angry ghost, versus a friendly ghost, and how can you read this in certain situations? The informant talked about dark energy, and how the ghost didn’t listen. It may be that the spirit of the old boss felt as if he had unfinished business. Whatever explanation one could point to, I think this story is very chilling, and intriguing.

Possessed by a Spirit of a Dead Person?

Nationality: Swedish
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Stockholm
Performance Date: 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Swedish

Background 

The interviewer and the informant, LT, are the same age and have been best friends for the past ten years. 

Context

Several years ago, when she was on holiday with a couple friends, one of them started acting as if she was possessed by something out of this world. 

Transcript 

“Me and my friends were in Finland for a week in September 2013. It was about 10 o’clock at night, we had just come back to our hotel room from eating out and we were sitting on the floor chatting.”

“How many of you were there?” 

“It was me and six friends. We were arguing about where everyone was sleeping and who was sharing rooms. We wanted to go outside to the hotel’s roof but there was a storm. The rain was pouring down and we heard thunder. Um, and then this one girl, she’s generally very bubbly and talkative, she completely zoned out. Her grandmother had died a couple months later and we got worried her mood changed because she was thinking about that. My friends and I tried to talk to her but, um, she wouldn’t listen at all. The room we were sitting in was pretty small. Two twin beds and a desk, you know. We were on the 9th floor and one of the windows was open. I remember asking if someone could close it because it was raining so much outside and the thunder and lightning scared me. Everyone was focused on the girl that was zoned out and no one seemed to have heard me. Suddenly, the girl stood up and slowly walked to the window. We were all trying to ask her what she is doing but she wouldn’t answer us. I assumed she was just going to close the window, until she climbed up and placed herself right in front of the open window. I… I have never been so scared in my life, I think. I thought she would jump. She had this empty look in her eyes and all of a sudden she screamed, ‘I am going to jump’. Some other girls started crying and begged her to stop, but the girl in the window wouldn’t move.” 

“What happened next?”

“She reached for the handle on the window and closed it. The noise from the storm outside almost disappeared and the room was so so quiet. I remember being so scared because somehow, the girl looked very different. Almost demonic. She looked numb. We were all quiet and didn’t know what to do or say, until we heard this beeping sound. I have no idea how, but someone’s curling iron had turned on and signaled that it was ready to be used. Scary thing is, um, no one had remembered plugging it in… One girl turned it off and suddenly it was like everything was back to normal. The girl that had stood in the window started looking more like herself and acted as if nothing had happened. She started making jokes and chatted like her normal self.” 

Thoughts

This was a very captivating story and it was not my first time hearing about this. This story has been told many times since it happened, provided that this personal experience is sort of translated into a traditional structure, I would classify this as a memorate. 

I agree with LT that it does sound like the girl was almost possessed by some sort of spirit and or ghost, especially given that her personality and behavior changed so much within such a short amount of time. However, I do believe that this incident can be explained in a logical way. First of all, the thunder and lightning would explain why the curling iron got turned on. Secondly, the fact that the girl’s grandmother had passed away could potentially explain why she started acting weird. As discussed in class, death is, in most traditions, one crucial part of one’s identity (among birth and marriage). Sometimes deaths affect you in ways that do not make sense. 

The Vejita

Background: I was FaceTiming a couple friends from high school, and I mentioned my ghost story collection project. One of them said that their roommate at Baylor had a good story. I then Facetimed her and her roommate and asked her roommate to tell me her ghost story.

Statement: “So when I was younger I apparently used to talk to a spirit in my grandma’s house. My grandma would catch me talking to a little Mary statue. Then later I found out that the statue has a vejita in it, which means old lady in Spanish. She goes around the house and just tries to take care of everything. If we leave the door unlocked, she’ll lock it and stuff like that. The vejita really likes clean around the house and do dishes and make sure that everything is like nice and tidy. I used to try and like see her, cause my grandma used to claim that she does it all at night when we’re sleeping, so she doesn’t disturb us during the day. To catch her, I used to sleep over in the living room so I could catch her walk in the hallways. I allegedly claimed that I saw her walking to the bathroom and clean it when I was like seven. But I definitely saw it. But then like three years ago, my family was moving my grandma out of that house and into an apartment, and my parents made me and my siblings help like pack everything up. I was alone in the house packing shit up cause my brothers were both busy and I packed up the statue in some box, but later we couldn’t find it. Like we searched every fucking box twice. But like when we were unpacking everything in the apartment, I shit you not the statue was literally in the first box we opened. Everybody saying I didn’t see her when I was seven can go to hell cause that literally proves she’s real.”

Context: My informant is from Midland, Texas. She is Christian and of Mexican descent. She is currently a freshman at Baylor University. She used to spend a lot of time at her grandmother’s house while her parents were busy at work.


Analysis: The theme of ghosts in Christianity is obviously an integral element to this story. The vejita appears to be a “friendly ghost”, going along with the fact that the spirit stems from the statue of Mother Mary. I believe this ghost is meant to serve as a symbol of Mother Mary’s caring and maternal nature. My informant and her siblings viewed this spirit as one who helps with chores around the house, one who helps wherever help is needed. She also mentioned that the spirit only tends to the house at night when everyone is sleeping. That fact could serve two purposes. It could help to explain why no one has seen the ghost (except my informant), or it could help to describe the character of Mother Mary, as one who considers the feelings of others and does not seek recognition for her good deeds. Her grandmother could have possibly fabricated the existence of the vejita in order to create physical proof of the benevolence of Mother Mary. Thus, as her grandchildren became older, they will always remember the helpful vejita that lived in their grandmother’s Mother Mary statue. I believe that my informant did in fact see the ghost due to the tone of her voice and the correlation between Chrisitanity and ghosts.

Tug of War with a Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Virginia
Performance Date: October 21, 2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Informant: It was in North Carolina. I just got done playing with a fake Oujia board (like the ones you would find online). I went to bed. I woke up and it was freezing. I had a habit of kicking my blanket off in my sleep. I go to grab it and something was tugging against me. I thought nothing of it because I was half-asleep. I eventually won this tug-of-war and went back to sleep. I woke up the next morning freaked out because I realized I was fighting for a blanket with something in my half-asleep state. I did not think it was sleep paralysis or anything because I got up to get my blanket back. I just really want to know what wanted my blanket and why.

Background/Informant Thoughts: Informant was 15 going on 16 in North Carolina during the summer of 2016. (This is the same informant with the two Virginia apartment ghost stories.) The informant was in disbelief that she fought with something over a blanket. She was not scared or anything, but she was confused as to why it happened. She also stated that after this experience, it never happened again.

My Thoughts: While this story is seemingly more tame compared to the apartment ones, this still freaks me out a lot! In a groggy, sleepy state, I would be scared out of my mind if I was fighting with a ghost over my blanket. I also think this ghost story shows that the person is prone to being haunted in general. With having multiple accounts of being haunted at a Virginia apartment as a kid, I believe the ghosts have simply followed her around just to maybe mess with her.