CR: My childhood room was haunted. I remember seeing faces in my pillows and hearing the ghosts whispering my name. One night, I was really ill and I remember seeing ghosts blowing bubbles and dancing around me. I asked them when they were from and they said the 1800s and that they wouldn’t leave our apartment. They started haunting my light fixtures and they started playing F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Weird, right?

Me: Why wouldn’t they leave?

CR: Because it was their space.

Me: Did you ever tell anyone about this?

CR: Yes. I told my parents. They never believed me. They just couldn’t see it, and their inability to see it made it impossible to believe.

Me: Do you wish they had?

CR: It would have been validating then, but I didn’t really need to be believed. It was just a fun little moment between me and a ghost.

I think seeing this kind of ghost interaction is really interesting because it isn’t a malevolent ghost, it’s just a weird ghost story. I also like CR’s lack of need to be understood and validated from this ghost experience – it’s their memory and they don’t need to share it with anyone.