Weird, True and Scary: Tales from the CCH Crypt

Right off the Bat
“The strangest thing that happened to me was when I bent down to pick something up under my desk and found a live bat [lying] next to my shoe. To this day I still look under my desk when I walk into my office to make sure there isn’t anything there.” -Cindy Rasnic, Clinical App. Analyst

Open and Shut
“I’m not sure if this is noteworthy, BUT ever since [a] classroom [was moved] over here from the old building next door, (previously Pioneer Manor) our conference room door sometimes will slowly open and shut by itself. [It’s] very subtle and nothing like opening or closing all the way but just a few inches or so. Enough for me to hear the creeks and notice it… It’s enough to give me goosebumps!”  -Britni Grow, HR Specialist

Ring, Ring
“About 15 years ago we had a family of three who were hospitalized as a result of a serious car accident. Mom was in ICU, Dad was in Med Surg, and Grandma sadly passed away from her injuries. Because the parents were still in the hospital, the family made the decision to hold Grandma’s funeral in a back corner of the old ICU unit on the fourth floor. The minister came, there was music and even a luncheon in the ICU Family Waiting Room. During the service the phone in ICU Room 4 rang constantly, and when answered, no one was on the line. There was not a patient in that room, so there was no reason for anyone to call. However, as soon as the funeral service was over, the phone stopped ringing.

Over the years our “ghost” also flushed toilets in the ICU rooms, and activated the Code Blue button in Room 6 when no one was there. Nothing like this has happened since ICU moved to their new location, so we say that the ghost did not move with us..”  -Merna Lepine, ICU Unit Secretary

Who’s There?
“I have a few from being over at the Pioneer Building late at night. I was prepping for the CNA Class the next day, it was between 8-9 pm and I was on my wing by myself. As I am placing supplies in the first CNA lab on the bottom floor of the Pioneer Building, I hear footsteps above me. I grabbed the supplies I had in the hallway and locked myself in the CNA Lab. I [contacted] Security [only] to find out that they [were] upstairs in the Pioneer Building!

Several times when I was at the Pioneer Building late at night I would hear doors slam and the elevator would run with no one else present on the Professional Development wing. Not to forget the time I was going out to my vehicle in the dark, (as the light would go out when I shut the outside door of the building) and a black cat [ran] across the pavement in front of me as I came around the corner to my vehicle. Needless to say I wasted no time getting into my vehicle. These are just a few of my hair raising adventures during my time at the Pioneer Building.”  -Darla Parks, BSN RN

Ghost Sigh
“I have a weird one: I was on [the] 4th floor IT area around 7pm. No one else was here on the floor. I distinctly heard a woman sigh…I called out, Hello? No answer and when I walked [through] the area no one was there!” -Denise Yvonne

Flushed Away
“Several years ago, I was sitting in on a tele-psychiatric visit for the outpatient medication clinic. The room had an attached bathroom. No one was in the bathroom & the toilet inexplicably flushed on its own. After the appointment finished, I looked in the bathroom, expecting to find an automatic flushing device on the toilet, but found none. It didn’t scare me, but it did seem odd.” -Anonymous

Shadow Child
“I believe that there is a spirit that follows my son. I first noticed it when we were renting a home in Sheridan. I was videotaping (is that what it’s called these days??) him hopping on the couch. I didn’t realize it at that time, but when I went to show my husband that night there [it] was, clear as day–a males voice in the video. My skeptical husband dismissed this and I tried to think of any possible explanation. Possibly the TV or radio, but I vividly remember standing alone in the small kitchen, watching him bouncing up and down while I sipped on my freshly made coffee. The voice [mimicked] the sounds my son was making. Creepy right?? Fast forward a couple months and we were packing up our rental to move to Gillette. The days leading up to our big move I would see shadow figures out of the corner of my eye. The shadow(s) would move quickly throughout the house or I would see someone sitting on the couch. When I would do my double take there would be nothing there. I convinced myself I had an overactive imagination, not to mention all the scary movies I watch didn’t help. Plus, even if it was a ghost we would soon be out of that old creepy house.

We moved into our new place and things were normal…at first. My son's bedroom has an attached bathroom, two doors in the hall. One leading directly into the bathroom and one leading straight into his bedroom. One day while I was getting ready I could hear a door being slammed. I went down stairs knowing my son was in his room, expecting to open the door to find him upset or mad. I came down the stairs and could see the bathroom door jiggling, like someone shaking the handle to get out. I froze and looked at it, slowly grabbed the doorknob and opened it to an empty, dark bathroom. I walked in and poked my head into my son's room to find him sitting happily by his closet. No way could he be slamming/jiggling the handle in the bathroom and making it all the way to his closet without me seeing him.

Another time, my mom was staying with us in our spare basement bedroom. My son's room is right above hers and in the middle of the night she could hear footsteps, like someone running around and then crying. She went up to check on my son and paused outside his room. The crying stopped. She assumed he fell asleep so she went downstairs but couldn’t fall asleep. As she laid in bed she could hear muffled talking coming from above. She went back to his room and stood outside listening. She could hear my son arguing with someone or something. Saying “she’s my mommy not your mommy!” over and over again. My mom immediately flung the door open, grabbed my son and took him downstairs with her. That morning she told me what happened and I had that uneasy feeling.

I decided my son would sleep with us the next couple nights. One night while he was with us, my husband got up to get some water. I was half awake when he crawled back into bed and was drifting off when I heard my son’s zoo toy start to play. I chalked it up to my husband accidently hitting it on his way back to bed. I closed my eyes as tight as I could and tried really hard to fall asleep. Then it happened again…and again. I sat up staring into the darkness, listening to the creepy song spouting from an even creepier plastic monkey. After the third time I shook my husband who admitted to hearing the singing monkey but was too nervous to look so played it off like he was sleeping. He sat up and we listened to the monkey play one more time. He flew out of bed and shut it off. Neither of us said a word.

A couple nights later, in the middle of the night another odd thing happened. My son’s blue flashing toothbrush went off all by itself. It flashed so bright that at first I thought cops were outside. It kept going off and off [until] eventually my husband got up and threw it in a drawer. If you ask me it’s a ghost, if you ask my husband he will try to deny it, but the truth is many spooky things have happened since my son was born. If anyone knows of a medium I would love their help to figure out if this is a spirit of a loved one watching over us, or if there is something more sinister attached to my family.”

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!  -Samantha Jones, MA-C, PBT Neurology

Ghost Children
"A few years ago, about 2 weeks before Halloween, I was sitting on my front porch. I noticed something unusual across the street. 2, small, white figures without facial figures, were standing in the driveway, next to a small pull-trailer. They were about as tall as the height of the tires on the trailer. They resembled “Casper the Ghost” cartoons. One, at a time, they walked up the driveway, toward the house, a few times. I don’t recall for sure if both seemed to be pulling something, such as a wagon, or if just the first one, who appeared slightly bigger. Every time they got to the top of the driveway, they disappeared and, then, seemed to “reform” at the bottom of the driveway. I thought that maybe, since it was around Halloween, someone was playing a trick with a spotlight. Then, I thought, No, I don’t think so. Those are ghosts. I did not move because I had the feeling, if I moved, they would be aware of me and come toward me. I finally did move and they appeared to turn toward me. I quickly went back into my house and, later, looked out the window and they were gone."  -Anonymous

3rd floor Ghost Story
"The lab was being remodeled in 2008. During that time, the whole lab moved upstairs to the 3^rd floor on the south wing. The lab equipment was at the further end to the south, micro in the corner window suite and the draw check in area at the nurses station. It was about 3 am and maintenance and QC was being done on the analyzers. Packed in this room were large analyzers, desks and bookcases containing racks and reagents etc. There was one door entry to this area with the other door was locked and blocked off by a bookcase filled with reagent and patient racks. My co-worker and I were heads down in our analyzers working on preparing them for the days workload [when we heard] a loud CRASH . Looking over at the bookcase where the noise came from, all the reagent racks were scattered on the floor. These racks weren’t in a bin that could have tipped. Someone would have had to open the door and shove the bookcase or sweep those racks with their arm to knock them onto the floor. My co-worker and I immediately went into the hallway to see who was playing a prank on us, nobody was there. There was not a single soul on that wing except us.

Objects moving, noises out of place and feelings of discomfort in addition this incident occurred regularly during the night shift while the lab occupied this 3^rd floor wing. Spooky..."  -Carrie Snyder

Lady Lantern
"I was working at a hospital in a different town. I was in sleeping on a fold out couch in my living room. I looked up and saw the top half of a female figure dressed in an 1880s style of clothing. She had black hair and lacey, black top of a dress on. She seemed to be moving like she was in something that was rolling because her body did not go up and down like someone walking. She did not appear to see me. I was scared she was going to go right through me. My heart was pounding so fast, I had to look away. When I looked back, she was gone. The next day at work, I told my co-workers about it. One of them said, “Oh, yeah! She’s the lady with the lantern everybody sees." - Anonymous

Batman, Is That You?
"Lab staff had reported that there was a bat seen hanging around the back door to the lab. As you can imagine the back door opens frequently throughout the day. On a calm Saturday, 2 lab techs were running patient samples. A shrilling scream erupted from one of them. Of course the other looked up to see what the commotion was about. A black object was flying around the lab. Another scream “It’s a bat!”. The other yells back “It’s just a bird, quit screaming!”. , “It’s not a bird, that’s a *&^%*& bat!” Chaos ensues, the house supervisor is alerted and the brave plant ops coworker is summoned to the lab. The bat has settled and is perching on a desk corner looking as creepy as a bat can look. “Bob” gently placed a blanket borrowed from the ER over the bat and scooped up the flying mammal. Batman was freed by plant ops outside the back door hopefully never to be seen again. [However], Batman made one last return later that week to the cancer center before going MIA" - Anonymous

Halloween Traditions
When I was a teenager, Halloween was the night we all lived for. Us teenagers (and some adults) bought every carton of eggs, toilet paper, soap and balloons in the county. On Halloween night everyone was dressed in camouflage or black clothing including ski masks. We met with friends and rode in the back of trucks to hide until it was the perfect time to throw eggs and throw toilet paper in trees. There were so many eggs thrown that the car dealerships had to hide their cars, so as to not get damaged by eggs. We used bars of soap to write messages on the window fronts of stores. Water balloons were thrown. We traveled to friend’s houses, homes of teachers, etc. As we traveled through communities we got hit with eggs and kept throwing our own. A friend of mine got hit in the head with a hard boiled egg. Ouch! She had a bruise and the outline of the shell on her forehead. In one area of our county, someone started a bonfire in the road. As people traveled, they threw eggs at everyone. People would hide in bushes and bombard you with eggs. I can’t imagine how many innocent bystander’s cars were damaged due to eggs. If you had enemies, you can bet your cars, home, etc. would be damaged and possibly with spray paint. The police force were all hands on deck, but could not keep up with the issues on that night. Needless to say, it was exciting, but scary at times, because if your head bobbed up from the truck you might get hit with an egg or water balloon, too. The night of our adventures, we stopped at a place called “Hairy Hand Bridge”. The legend of the Harry Hand Bridge is related to a man that drowned in the deep water after a flood. He was an outsider/drifter that no one understood and he became a legend. As you can imagine, when the truck stopped it was pitch dark. No sounds, except when someone started howling or screaming and then of course the girls started screaming also. However, the most scary thing I have ever done was climb a bluff to get to the catwalk of the bridge in pitch dark going over the TN River. No handrails. One by one we followed each other step by step until we were in the middle of the bridge above the river. I don’t know how far it was above the water, but it was incredibly scary to think I could fall and drown. Of course once we made our way back to the bluff, we had to spray paint our names and phrases on the concrete wall. The 80’s were crazy in a small town on Halloween.

Fast forward to the good ole days in the 2000s of having 4 teenagers in my home ranging from 17-11. We lived in a small subdivision and everyone knew where we lived. As you can imagine, there were lots of Halloween fun, but it was during the entire month of October, not just Halloween night. I experienced my house getting “rolled” with toilet paper numerous times. Every day I was stripping it from my trees. If I wasn’t home, I knew it would not be good when I returned. I had nails in my driveway. I experienced a new tradition known as “forking”. You can imagine how long it took for someone to stick plastic forks in the ground with the prongs above ground. Once, my car was completely covered in saran wrap. Under, above, and all the way around. There was so much saran wrap that it took me a while to cut and remove it. I had soap on windows. Someone rolled a pumpkin from my front porch to stand on to write something on my house. I won’t describe what they drew, but you can imagine. My neighbor across the street called me on this one. I caught them outside and I fired a BB gun more times than I can count. The most unique items that occurred at my home was cereal poured all over my lawn. I had glitter on my doorsteps. Can you imagine trying to clean glitter from your porch? I scared many kids away by sitting in the dark with my BB gun. Once they realized I was there and I started firing the BB gun, they ran away and raced off in a vehicle. My youngest son would climb on top of the house and lay down to be read to fire the BB gun and scare anyone stopping to wreak havoc on our home. The funniest story that occurred was about a teacher that no one liked. The teacher and her husband stayed up late at night to ensure their lawn was pristine. At 3am in the morning, shredded paper was spread all over their lawn. I learned the teacher took time to sort through it, piece it together and track down who did it. Can you imagine how long that took? Needless to say, the middle school teacher had a lot to say to that parent and it wasn’t that pleasant for the daughter the remainder of the year, either. The 1980’s and the 2000’s drastically changed. There is no more fires in the road and egg throwing; only the things I mentioned above. Oh, yes, if a teacher had a pool or a fountain in the lawn, you can bet either dye, bubbles or dawn was poured into it. The 2000’s weren’t dangerous like the 1980’s. Despite all of the nuisance of cleaning up your lawn and house daily, it was a great time. - Melinda Kirkwood, VP HR