Recently, my good friend M.M. was hospitalized with severe pneumonia. When I traveled home for Fall Break, I visited him in the hospital, where his mom, J.M., was also keeping him company. With not much else to do, we spent a lot of time talking, and at one point, I asked if they had any ghost stories. It turned out that J.M. had quite a few, and one of them stood out in particular.

“Well I’m not sure if M.M. told you this, but our old house, back in Illinois, was haunted! The previous owners wife had died of cancer and the husband ended up committing suicide because of that. He actually hung himself in one of the doorways. Creepy right? But we didn’t think too much of it. It was a good house for the price. Anyways, soon after we moved in we’d begin to see a man through the windows. He always wore a blue polo shirt, a Titleist hat, a big gold watch, and he had golden arm hair. At first, I thought he was a neighbor just wandering too close to the property or something, but by the time I got outside to see what was going on, he’d be gone. It was really weird so one day I asked one of our neighbors, “Hey, have you seen a guy in a blue polo and a Titleist hat around here?” And she got this weird look on her face and said, “Oh, that’s Bob!” Turns out Bob was the husband that had killed himself! Evidently he always wore polos, a Titleist hat, and a gold watch. It gave me chills, honestly. I mean, how do you explain that? And it wasn’t just the sightings, things around the house would always move. Stuff I knew l’d left in one spot would end up across the room. Papers from the desk would be scattered all over the floor, or things would show up on a high shelf that I could barely reach. It was like Bob was always playing pranks on us. It wasn’t scary, just… annoying. We thought it might have been the cat at first, but it just kept happening and it was so strange. But we got used to it l guess. It just became a part of living there. Every now and then, I’d see Bob through the window or feel his eerie presence in the room with me. I still don’t know what to make of it. I don’t even know if I believe in ghosts, but how do you explain that, you know? But once we moved to Michigan, no more Bob, no more annoying pranks. Sometimes I wonder if the new owners have seen Bob, or if he finally found some peace.” 

I find this story fascinating and was not expecting such a chilling response from my friend’s mom. It is both eerie and intriguing, filled with classic ghost story motifs like a haunted house, mysterious sightings, and a restless spirit tied to tragedy and loss. The fact that Bob’s presence was more mischievous than malevolent makes it even more interesting. It makes me wonder how many other untold memorates like this are hidden in everyday conversations, waiting to be discovered.