My informant’s grandma used to live in a hotel because her father owned the hotel and would rent the rooms to workers in the steel mill. Supposedly, there was one renter who was fairly young and worked at the mill, whom everyone would pay attention to because he was very attractive. One day, this man came home early from work and both my informant’s grandma and her sister were ironing at the hotel. Back then, when they ironed, they would put the board across two chairs, so it was blocking the way for the young man to get to his room. So, the young man walked into the room and just stared at the two sisters, so they quickly moved all their things and apologized for blocking the hallway. However, he did not say anything, he just waited there while they put the ironing board away. Then, the young man walked through and went to his room and closed the door. Then, the sisters put everything back and started ironing again. An hour later, the bell at the mill rang. This signified that work was over. All the other workers came home and then a page boy came in and informed the two sisters that there was an accident at the mill and that the young man had died. Both the sisters were confused though because they had clearly seen the young man walk into the hotel and he never left.

Ghost stories are always so fascinating to me because there is no way to know whether or not they are true. Yet, they are so prominent in folk culture. People want to believe in ghost stories. I believe that society’s thirst for knowledge about the after life makes ghost stories that much more exciting.