Text:
“Back in like 2010 I’d say, because I just turned four and moved into a new house. So my house is around 200 years old. It’s an old farmhouse. It was built in 1820, so however old it was at that point. I just moved into this house, and I was four, so I was asleep. My mom, apparently the first few nights we moved there, she smelled smoke. It’s important to know my parents are very anti-smokers. They’re very against smoking, so it clearly wasn’t them, but my mom would hear smoking and she’d smell cigarette smoke every night around the same hour. She would see a haze too in the kitchen, and the smell was cigarette smoke. It happened for three nights straight, and it was all at the same hour, same time. My dad would be at work and then it was just me and my brother, and we’d be asleep. She’d smell it every time at the same hour, so she thinks it’s a ghost that’s living in our house, which you know, could make sense based on how old it is. She went up to talk to the ghost one night around that hour, and she was just like, ‘Hey, listen, you’re free to stay here and welcome of course, but my husband and son have asthma and they can’t deal with the cigarette smoke. Can you just smoke outside on the porch?’ After that, she’s never smelt it again.”

Context:
A girl from upstate New York who heard a ghost story from her mom about when she moved into her house when she was around four years old. She has not experienced other paranormal activity since this experience.

Analysis:
While it is a ghost story, this story serves as excellent framework for efficient communication. Her mom could have called a priest or exorcist, like others do, and forced the spirit away from her home, but instead, she took a friendlier approach and simply communicated with the ghost. By asking nicely and explaining the reasoning behind her request, she got her wishes and was never bothered by the indoor-smoking ghost again. I think we can all take a page out of her mom’s book and apply her extraordinary communication and confrontation skills to our own lives. As for whether the story is true or not, only her mom knows. It’s possible it could have been fabricated to warn her kids against smoking.