The Paranomalist

Photo of a Ghostly image

My cousin’s best friend of some 35 years, Tina, is a gifted medium. I’ve met her many times over the years, but until recently I hadn’t heard about her psychic abilities. However, when my cousin learned of my interest in the paranormal, she told me that I “had to talk with Tina”. My cousin assured me that she wouldn’t mind discussing some of her experiences, so naturally that wasn’t an opportunity that I could pass on, and I followed up with her. We chatted for a while and she told me of many of her strange experiences. Tina, you see, is sometimes visited by the spirits of the departed. One of her accounts was particularly interesting to me, and I’ll recount it here.

Tina is an attractive career woman with a wonderful personality, but has never married, choosing instead to remain single. A few years ago she had begun dating a gentleman named Dave that she’d met through a friend. They hit it off at their first meeting and had gone on several dates together. The relationship, although still in it’s early stages, was going well, and one night they had made plans to go out to dinner. Dave’s car was being repaired, so Tina offered to stop by his home to pick him up. She arrived at Dave’s home and standing on his front porch, Tina rang the doorbell. A moment later, Dave answered breathlessly, buttoning his shirt and apologizing for not being ready.

“No problem!” replied Tina, as Dave ushered her into his living room. Tina took a seat on the sofa and Dave went upstairs to put on his shoes and tie, promising to be downstairs and ready to leave in a few minutes. A few moments after Tina was seated and Dave walked upstairs, a man suddenly appeared next her on the sofa. He was neatly dressed and appeared to be in his mid-sixties, with a thinning gray hair and a kindly face. Tina would have been startled out of her wits if this was the first time such an experience had occurred; however, Tina had been through this before.

“Hello”, said the older man. As she looked at him Tina immediately saw an undeniable resemblance to her boyfriend Dave, and the relationship was confirmed when the man introduced himself as “Dave, Senior — David’s father”.

“What do you want?” asked Tina, reasonably enough.

“I want you to give my son a message for me, please”, said Dave Senior. “I’d like you to tell him that I’m very, very sorry for not believing what he told me about my brother, his uncle, when he was ten years old. Tell him that I now know that what he told me was true, and that I’m so sorry for not listening to him or believing him. Please tell him this for me.”

With that, the older man vanished from his place on the sofa next to Tina. Although this sort of thing didn’t happen every day to Tina, she had experienced these “visits” often enough before, and managed to stay relatively calm and collected. What, however, would she tell her new boyfriend? Would he think her utterly insane, or at best, some kind of weirdo, if she were to tell him what had just transpired and of his dead father’s message? Would telling him effectively end their burgeoning relationship?

These are the questions that raced through Tina’s mind, but as she heard Dave’s footsteps on the stairs she knew what she had to do. She felt a sudden responsibility to the older man, this apparition, that just visited her. Tina made up her mind to tell Dave what had happened, regardless of the consequences and how it might affect their relationship.

Dave entered the living room, straightening his tie. “Ready to go?” he said.

As Tina stood up, he could immediately see that something was the matter. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Dave asked.

“Dave, this is going to sound very strange, I know. But a man was just here and he said his name was Dave Senior, and that he was your father.”

“What? What are you talking about?” asked Dave. “My dad died two years ago.”

“I know.” replied Tina. “He told me that he had a message that he wanted to give you — something he wanted to tell you.”

“Are you serious, Tina? Because this isn’t funny!” replied Dave hotly. He was beginning to feel upset and more than a little freaked out.

“Dave, this isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened to me. I know it’s very strange, and I don’t usually bring it up to people unless I know them very well, but I sometimes get visits from…the departed.”

“This is very weird, Tina,” said Dave.

“Yes, I know. But the man who visited me looked just like an older version of you, and he said his name was Dave Senior,” Tina replied.

“Okay, well, my dad’s name was also David….” said Dave, calming down a little. “So what did he have to say to you? What was this message that he had for me?”

“Well…, said Tina,” he wanted me to tell you that he’s very, very sorry that he didn’t believe you… about what you told him when you were ten.”

Dave’s face suddenly blanched. “What?” he whispered. “What did I tell him when I was ten?”

“About your uncle, Dave. Your father’s brother. He wanted me to tell you that he was sorry that he didn’t believe you when you told him about your uncle, but that he knows now that you were telling him the truth. That’s all he said…” she trailed off.

“My God,” said Dave, sitting down. “When I was ten years old, Tina, my uncle sexually molested me. My father’s brother. I went to my dad and told him, but he became very angry and upset, and told me that I was lying, and that I was to never repeat this to anyone. And I never did. My dad is the only one that I ever told about my uncle molesting me.” With that, Dave put his face in his hands and began to sob.

Tina sat on the sofa next to Dave and cradled him in her arms as he wept. Years of sorrow and shame seemed to be pouring from him, and he cried the long, bitter tears of a wounded child.

“It’s okay, Dave,” Tina soothed. “He’s sorry for not believing you. Your dad wants your forgiveness. Forgive him, and put this to rest… and let your dad rest.”

“Okay”, said Dave, composing himself a little and wiping the tears from his eyes. “Alright, I’ll try. This is just a lot to take in… a lot to absorb. But okay. Let’s go get some dinner.”

Tina and Dave left, discussing the incident no further that evening. After some period of time passed, Dave thanked Tina. It was an open wound that Dave had been carrying for close to 40 years, and now he was finally able to begin the process of healing this wound. Tina and Dave are no longer dating, but they’ve remained close friends. Tina has had numerous other similar experiences since then and continues to receive ghostly visits and messages from the other side.

Whether this ability is a gift or curse is a subjective opinion, of course, but Tina believes that it’s the former. “If I hadn’t been able to communicate with the spirits of the dead,” she told me, “then Dave would have carried this pain for the rest of his life. The good that sometimes comes of this ‘gift’, or whatever you call it, makes it tolerable.”

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Famous "Brown Lady" Ghost Photo

Okay, folks. for my very first post I’m going to tell one of my favorite ghostly tales. I found this particular account especially compelling because it happened to good friend of my parents. Here it goes:

Because of my father’s job (he was a salesman for a large paper company) our family moved several times, starting out in Brooklyn, NY and living at various times through the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s in Baltimore MD, Long Island NY, Wellesley Massachusetts, and New Jersey (where I grew up).

While living in Baltimore from 1952 – 1961, before I was born, my parents had a good friend named Ruth. Ruth had a young daughter of 5 or 6 years old, around my brother’s and sister’s age. One day, Ruth came home from her part-time job to pick up her daughter from school and found that all of her husband’s possessions were missing and his luggage was gone. The poor woman was obviously stunned and very upset, to say the least. She and her husband, Jim, were having some marital problems, but she did not expect him to leave without any notice or even a note. As it turned out, she never saw Jim again. He had packed up and left, and never again attempted to contact his wife or daughter.

Ruth was not only distraught over the sudden dissolution of her marriage, but she was also in a difficult financial predicament. Without Jim’s income, she and her daughter could no longer afford to stay in the comfortable brownstone apartment that had been their home. It was at this time that one of her closest friends, Grace, offered to have Ruth and her daughter move in to her apartment, which was located in the same Baltimore neighborhood in which Ruth and her daughter were living. Grace was single, and her roommate had just moved out, so she had the space for both Ruth and her daughter to move in. Grace was a career woman and made a comfortable living, so she generously told Ruth not to worry about paying her any rent until she was on her feet and had found a better job.

Many years passed, and Ruth and Grace continued to live together. Ruth never did remarry and her daughter grew to adulthood, eventually marrying and moving out of Aunt Grace’s and her mom’s apartment. Now some forty years later, in the mid-1990′s, Grace and Ruth were both about seventy years of age, and Grace’s health was failing. She had cancer and knew that her time was limited. One day, while sitting in their kitchen, drinking tea and chatting, Grace turned suddenly very serious. A devout Catholic and a deeply religious woman, Grace turned to Ruth and said, “Would it be alright if I contacted you after I die?” Ruth was not especially religious and uncomfortable with such topics, and replied with a laugh, “Fine, but make sure it’s not just some little tap on the wall at night. I want to know it’s really you.” Grace then promised her that she would make it clear that it was she who was contacting her from beyond.

The following month, Grace’s health took a turn for the worse and she passed away in the hospital. Naturally, Ruth was deeply saddened at the passing of her closest friend. One afternoon, several days after Grace’s funeral, Ruth sat alone at the kitchen table, sipping some tea and thinking of her friend. As Ruth sat there, something caught her attention: She noticed Grace’s rosary beads, which hung on a nearby wall, begin to swing back-and-forth in a pendulum-like manner – despite the fact that the windows were closed and there was no breeze or draft in the room. She thought it odd, but didn’t become too concerned over it, when she was suddenly seized by an overwhelming feeling, as if someone had taken control of her entire body. Ruth then grabbed a pen and a note pad, and began to scrawl some words across the paper.

Just as quickly as it had happened, the episode passed leaving Ruth very shaken and upset. She immediately called her daughter and attempted to explain what she had just experienced. Concerned for her mother, Ruth’s daughter promised to drive to her apartment right away to check up on her. Ruth then sat down again at the kitchen table to wait for her and try to regain her composure, when she noticed the note pad. She looked at it and saw that she had scrawled a phone number with an area code that she did not recognize. Intuitively, she felt that she had to call that number and somehow “knew” who’s number it was. “Hello”, came a familiar, but long unheard voice. “Is this Jim?”, Ruth asked. “Why yes, it is. Who is this?”, replied the voice. Ruth’s intuition was confirmed: it was Jim, her former husband that she had not seen in over forty years.

Ruth quickly hung up without saying anything further. It was at that moment that she knew that Grace had indeed contacted her from the beyond. When her daughter arrived a few minutes later, Ruth tearfully told her what had happened. Although skeptical, Ruth’s daughter could not help but be intrigued by the strange occurrence that visited her mother, so she decided to consult an acquaintance at work whom she had heard was a psychic. Without giving him too many specifics, she described to the psychic what her mother had experienced, and he agreed to meet with them at Ruth’s apartment. Sensing a “presence”, as he described it, the psychic agreed to return for a full seance.

Ruth, her daughter, the psychic and two other of Ruth’s and Grace’s good friends sat around Ruth’s kitchen table, with the lights dimmed and a few candles burning. The psychic was quiet for some time, but then, speaking quietly with his eyes shut, said “I’m speaking with a woman, and she says her name is ‘Grace’, and she’s laughing. She wants me to ask Ruth if this is better than a tap on the wall…”

This story was related to my mother and father by their good friend Ruth (last name withheld), with whom they’ve kept in touch over fifty years. A close friend of my parents and a long time federal government employee, Ruth is a good, stable, sane person and I’m therfore quite hesitant to dismiss this story as fiction. Tell me what you think. I would love to hear any similar stories that you might have.