This story is told by a friend, Lauren, whose perspective on ghosts is not scared or intimidated, but rather Lauren seems to be at peace with ghosts and lives in harmony with them.

“My aunt and uncle have an old Victorian house is Redlands, California, and we’re pretty sure the ghost that’s in there is the ghost of the girl that died of Cholera in about 1833. Throughout time, every one of the kids when they’re little have seen the ghost. They’ve disappeared for a couple of minutes, and no one knows where the kids go, and then the kids will show up and say “I just saw the ghost”. No one really understands it. I did it, my little cousin did it, my second cousins have all done it. There’s kind of evidence that the ghosts exist and the house is probably haunted, but the ghost is pretty chill.

After my uncle passed away, my aunt and I were sitting there and talking about how sad we were, and we heard something that sounded like a sigh. We didn’t know where it came from, but we think it was the ghost sympathizing with us.

My cousin and I were probably about 15, and we were going up to the attic and we had walkie talkies with us, and as we were climbing up to the attic, they started getting scratchier and scratchier with the sound. We thought it was just because we were gaining altitude, it probably doesn’t have the radio connection. Then the minute we opened the door, the walkie talkies just shut down completely. It wasn’t that they completely lost reception, they turned off.

Later when went downstairs we took the batteries out and put them back in, and there was nothing wrong with the walkie talkies.

[Were you scared when it happened?]

It was a little freaky, but we’ve have encounters with the ghost before, and its never been a bad encounter so we didn’t really care. ”

It is common for children to see ghosts, perhaps because they are just more imaginative, but what are the odds that Lauren and each of her younger relatives all had the same exact experience? They all disappeared for about 45 minutes when they were very young, to return claiming that they had seen the ghost. This was stated very matter of factly and with complete confidence. It seems that in this family, ghosts are a common occurrence and not seen as a threat. This is very different than many ghost stories because often ghosts are seen as intimidating spirits or peaceful ghosts of recently deceased family members. This peaceful ghost that she speaks of is neither, but rather just a friendly ghost of perhaps the girl that passed away in that house.

The problem with the walkie talkies is very odd because after coming back downstairs, they realized that both walkie talkies were not dead. They had just turned off at the same time going up the stairs to the attic. The attic is a common location for ghost encounters because it is a liminal space. Could there have been a ghost up there that decided to mess with their devices? She did not seem to be bothered by this event, but rather accepting that ghosts have their place in the house. Many people would be scared of the common ghost experiences, but Lauren said that everyone in her family all feels the same way; ghosts are not something to be frightened of, but something to respect and accept.

This old house was the location for many ghost encounters, but the technological mishap was her most recent experience with the ghost of the house.