Tag Archives: ghost

Grandma’s Perfume

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

WP got this story from a friend, who fully believes they have been haunted by the ghost of their grandmother. WP mentions the following excerpt is a selection of occurrences told to him by his friend over the course of several weeks and months. The excerpt below is paraphrased for clarity, but the maximum effort was put in to maintain the styling and story of WP.

WP has a friend who lives in great aunt’s former house (great aunt died, family moved in afterwards). 10-15 years ago, great aunt died (family moved in 7-8 years ago). Aunt wore a very specific perfume, but none had been left in the house anymore for years. The friend claims she’s being haunted by her great aunt. One time, she hears a crash in the basement, when she goes to the basement she smells overwhelming scent of the perfume from seemingly nowhere. At other times, she would get a random whiff without rhyme or reason…on stormy days, she says she can smell the perfume much more than usual. As it has been so long since the aunt died, friend claims it must be a haunting. Apparently, the great aunt isn’t vengeful, just kinda hanging around still.

The story told by WP comes from someone who very strongly believes in ghosts and has interacted with them enough to be fully confident that the experiences she had are due to a haunting. However, the paranormal interactions haven’t led to any harm, even noting that after the crash, there didn’t seem to be anything amiss in the basement. As such, WP claimed that he didn’t believe the friend thought the ghost was vengeful or angry in any way. Instead, the ghost could be the great aunt protecting her former home and her descendants by letting them know she is still present. The perfume smell being the strongest indicator of the great aunt’s presence could be linked to the family’s perception of the most memorable aspect of the great aunt, and shows a close tie to the familial home that had been passed down over a generation. WP’s friend also mentions that while the hauntings happen at their home, it is WP’s friend herself who is haunted, and not the house. The specificity to add that they themselves are haunted indicates that the relationship between WP’s friend and her great aunt was especially close, and the memory of the great aunt holds special significance to the friend. Both the house and the perfume are intrinsically linked with the great aunt, and for as long as WP’s friend continues to honor her aunt’s memory, the haunting will continue, as her aunt will look down on her from the spirit world into the world of the living, as the next generation to lead her memory and all that she meant into the future.

Woman on the tracks

Nationality: American
Age: 27
Occupation: Digital animator
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

The story by HM was told to her through a horse camp at White Pines Ranch, located in rural Illinois, and every year would be a campfire classic. HM recently remembered this story after not hearing it for years, but still thinks it’s one of her favorite stories to tell. The following excerpt is transcribed and paraphrased for clarity, while trying to maintain HM’s intent and phrasing throughout.

There is a graveyard at White Pines Ranch, and specifically a gravestone of a woman there who’s first name is Mary. The counselors there would always take the kids to see the graves, as the gravesite is a historically important site. Later at night the counselors would tell stories around the fire to all the kids, one being about Mary. They tell the story of how she was home alone as her husband was away for several months, maybe fighting in a war or something (kinda irrelevant what he was doing, not at home). He was away, she was alone in her home in rural Illinois, taking care of the baby all alone. One dark and stormy night, it was pouring rain but her baby had a horrible fever, and she was worried about him, so she decided to take the baby to the doctor. It was pouring and impossible to see but she took a carriage (I think?) that she is riding, but she is struggling to steer while holding the baby and it being impossible to see in the middle of the night. Suddenly as she continues on she comes across train tracks but she doesn’t notice as she’s racing to try and save her baby. As the crosses the tracks she tries to beat the train across the tracks but then the train hits the carriage and causes a nasty crash, wood flying everywhere, really terrible crash. She wakes up in the morning and she’s at the doctors. The doctor says “you’re so lucky to be alive, your horse was injured, your carriage was destroyed.” Mary asks “where’s my baby?” but the doctor responds “what baby? There was no baby.” The woman explains that she was racing to the doctor’s to save her sick baby but the doctor maintains that they found absolutely no sign of any baby by the crash, not even a cradle. Mary is distraught. The husband gets word of the crash and comes back, but he also has no recollection of ever having a baby. After that Mary goes completely crazy and eventually dies, to be buried at the rural gravesite. Now, on dark and stormy nights like that one, when trains pass by in the night, people say you can still hear a woman screaming in the middle of the night, “WHERE’S MY BABY????” [yelled towards nearest unsuspecting camper by anyone who had heard the story before].

The story above was a ghost story that would be told every year, highlighting a strong tradition that was honored over time. HM mentioned that she didn’t fully remember how the story was told, but a story of this length that had been enjoyed by so many people would have been subjected to the law of self-correction every time it was told over the campfire with so many returning campers and counselors. This would keep the story consistent and effective to allow all of the returning people to be in on the scare factor at the end. The “where’s my baby?” as the last line of the story was done every single year, with someone who had already heard the story turning to a new face, grabbing them and wailing the line in unison with everyone else. This story serves as an initiation into the White Pines Ranch culture, much like in other pieces of workplace folklore. The consistency of the tradition allows everyone who was a part of the ranch to have a piece of shared culture they could take home, marking them as true members of White Pines Ranch. The ranch is steeped in history, with the historic gravesite, and the history of the gravesite is maintained by the legends told of those laid to rest there, as the graves are now too old for descendants to remember them anymore. The utmost respect to the gravesite and its inhabitants is given by allowing it to live on in the memories and traditions of the ranch built right next to it, keeping Mary’s tragic story alive for generations to come.

Flying doll

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: college student
Language: English

Text:

“I was sitting in front of the couch on the floor and behind me I had my Jessie doll sitting with like some lion stuffed animal, I think, just like above– behind my head. And I was watching television, I didn’t move, I was just sitting there, I was content, and my doll flew across the room. To the other side of the couch. Like, as if it was thrown or something”

Context:

 “It would have been like first grade, or second? More like second grade, so around 8. And I was a latchkey kid, so it was one of those times I was left home alone. I had gotten used to being left home alone, but I couldn’t – I couldn’t stand the silence, I couldn’t stand the sounds because it was creepy and we would, like, I would always hear footsteps in the halls and stuff and it was just creepy. My parents said it was the cats underneath the trailer but you never know. Children are imaginative. 

Analysis:

This memorate of what the interviewee defines as a ghost encounter is interesting first because it happened while she was alone. Many encounters derive validity from multiple accounts of the same or similar events, but this person had strong belief in their encounter even without someone else there to witness it and without recollection of the same happening to other family members. They also did not tie this event to a greater expectation of their home being haunted in this way, although she did mention hearing footsteps. This implies that the movement of the doll was an isolated event, although the general haunting may have been consistent. As she describes being left home alone after school and being scared of the various noises, it seems that this space became a center of belief for the individual. Because of the increased eerieness of the trailer, especially as a child, her belief may have been augmented so she was more willing to correlate her memorate immediately with the existence of a ghost. This also speaks to the fear, not just as a child but as an adult, that one may not truly be alone when one expects to be. Mysterious actions only add to the fear that another person or being might be in the room and able to hide their presence, causing further mysteries to be interpreted more frequently as monstrous or magical. 

Haunted store

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College student
Language: English

Text:

“ It was shortly after Halloween, so we had put up our Halloween decorations back upstairs and there’s this big witch, sort of an animatronic thing. We usually set it up by the door so– it has a sensor– so when you pass by it it’ll say things like “Oh, my pretty”. It’s really funny, but it was upstairs and we were just chilling down in the main sales floor, and we heard faintly upstairs the witch talking. We heard it saying those lines just faintly upstairs. And my boss goes upstairs to check it out and I just hear him yelp. And it’s because the witch was positioned– neither of us had positioned it this way and we don’t know if any of our coworkers did– but it was positioned just so it was hiding around the corner of the stairs. So it scared the crap out of him. But then we saw up there that there were several helmet boxes strewn across the floor, which is really weird because it’s usually very well organized up there. And no one had been up there all day yet, so there was no reason they’d be on the floor and no reason why the witch would be making noises up there without anyone to activate the sensor. So that was pretty freaky.”

Context:

“ I work at a motorcycle gear store. We sell helmets, gear, tires, parts, just stuff like that. But it’s kind of a known thing that our location is haunted. It’s right near OldTown so that area has a lot of history and we have an upstairs area that we just use for storage, all the empty helmet boxes we have up on the giant wall and stuff. Our holiday decorations are up there and there will be times when coworkers hear footsteps up there and there’s no one. “

Analysis:

The informant specifies that this location is rumored to be haunted, and that odd things happen all the time. However, he seems to recall more minor auditory hauntings such as footsteps and was shocked by this occurrence. Especially with the addition of the physical change in the witch’s location, the informant clearly viewed this as an escalation, not a maintenance of the store’s folklore. 

The actions of ghosts is often linked to changes in ownership or the physical wellbeing of a home, but ownership and occupancy of a store is a more difficult matter. Though the store is located in the Oldtown part of the informant’s city, and he believes that it’s history influenced the presence of ghosts in the area, metropolitan ghosts do not fit the stereotypical view of ghosts. In a lot of memorates, they are tied to ancestral homes or worn down locations, not capitalist chains that are highly organized. Therefore, the appearance of any ghost here is notable. 

In addition, the escalation described happened at a very auspicious time, on the day after Halloween (All Saint’s Day and Dia de los Muertos). This is a time where it is commonly believed that the veil between the living and dead, or the earthly and the spiritual, is lifted. It is possible that the events or the informant’s perception of these events, were enhanced by the recent holiday and transition between months. 

La Diablesse

AGE: 20

Date of performance: 04/03/2025

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student 

Primary Language: English 

Title- La Diablesse 

Context- C shares a Trinidadian legend that he was told by his grandmother growing up—the legend of La Diablesse. C says that La Diablesse is a beautiful woman that has one cow hoof hiding underneath her dress. She aims to lure men, representing temptation and danger within Caribbean culture. 

Analysis- Legends are a sub-genre of the narrative genre of folklore, holding some element of truth that is not confirmed or denied. La Diablesse is a legend because she represents a part of the culture in Trinidad as they are very spiritually motivated. The legend of La Diablesse reminds me of Mexico’s La Llorona, both being legendary, beautiful women that seek attention while representing elements of their cultures. This is a telling sign of folklore—variations of similar genres amongst different regions and cultures.