Anyone ever notice that paranormal events just seem to kick-up into high gear starting around October/November and continue on a little past the holidays? This seems to be the trend in the places I've worked. But..things happen pretty much all year 'round when you work in hospitals and health-care facilities. Being a nurse, myself, I have had quite a few strange experiences in the workplace and have heard many true-life stories from other nurses and staff. The things I could tell you would take more space than I have on this post but I will tell you about some of the "Otherworldy" happenings that go on where I work now. I work on the rehab unit where patients come directly from acute care to get physical, occupational and speech therapy so they are either able to go home or they go into long-term care. We have a few things happen on our rehab floor, but not nearly all the things that go on downstairs where they house alzheimers patients. In our facility we have a resident ghost that appears as a little blond-haired boy dressed in a red and white striped shirt that people describe as a "Baseball jersey" and he carries a little ball that he bounces. I call him "The baseball boy". The baseball boy most often appears to patients and they become very upset upon having a little kid come into their rooms at night and sit on their beds (you know old-timers can get pretty grouchy when you disturb their sleep, especially when you are a young whippersnapper in the middle of the night). They start yelling and screaming for the nurses to come and get this little kid out of their room who is bothering them and what the heck is a kid doing out and about this time of night?! This happens all the time. They all describe him the same way and become even more agitated when the staff says they can't see him. Nurses have told me that even the most confused patients who never even speak, can speak clearly and lucidly and describe the child to a "T" when he visits them. Quite chilling. What's even more chilling is that, invariably, a patient will die within one day of the visitation. One of our maintanance men, Bob, says that he saw the child himself bouncing his ball down the hallway and followed him into a room to find him mysteriously vanished. He thought he was a real live boy..everybody does when they see him. I had two rehab patients that were completely "With it" and oriented who complained of a little blond boy with a ball who was out in the hallway late at night and one patient had him come into her room very late at night and she told me he sat in a chair and just muttered something to himself that she couldn't make out, then got up and went over to the sink, bounced the ball on the sink and then went out of the room. I asked her if he said anything to her and she said; "No". I asked her if he seemed to noticed her there at all and she said ; "No", it's like he did not even know she was there. I told her not to freak-out but it sounded like she had been visited by "The baseball boy". She said she thought he was a real boy except what kid would be wandering through patients rooms after midnight? I've been curious as to why a child-spirit would be attached to the place and I talked to one of my patients who used to work there when it was first opened in 1962. She says that they used to care for sick children there. Pretty interesting. Also interesting there is a baseball diamond directly across from the facility...hence the jersey? But, regardless, most everybody who works there knows about the little boy ghost..he is the most well-known one, but we do have reports of many others sighted around the place. The weirdest thing I've had happen to me was having a bathroom door in a patient's room slam shut with so much force it would have had to have someone push it..I had a patient sitting in the wheel chair and his nephew and I were helping him get dressed when the door slammed shut with a "BANG!". The nephew's eyes got as round as dinner plates and he asked; "Did you just SEE THAT?!". I rarely have witnesses with these things, but this time I did and it scared him pretty bad. The thing was that the windows were closed and there was nothing that could have sucked through that room with such force as to slam the heavy bathroom door on the other side of the room..there was no physical explanation for it and both the man and I knew it. I talked to him later and he said it happened two more times before his uncle moved to another hall. Maybe it was the baseball boy paying us a visit?

That was an amazing story! Yes, I have noticed that this time of year through the holidays are the most active.
I have heard from so many people about health care facilities and the hauntings connected to them. I know from my own experience with my parents, as the time gets near for them to cross from one world to the next, they start to see people that the rest of us don't.
The day my father passed away, I sat alone in the room with him. He would occasionally stare at a certain spot in the corner of the room, saying a few words to his grandmother and someone else he could see and I could not. However, I was able to see rays of light in the room where there should have been none. A nurse walked in, looked into the corner, and flinched. I think she saw something also, but could not/would not admit it. I'm having the same thing go on with my mother right now. She has been talking to her mother quite a bit as her illness has progressed.
As old timers used to say, the "veil" that separates this world from the next grows thin as people are dying. I think a lot of people are stuck between two worlds when they are so critically ill.

One time a few years back when my wife and I were at the Country Tavern (my favorite haunted restaurant) I asked the server what Elizabeth (the ghost's name) had been up to recently. She said that Elizabeth tends to be more active in the winter months, especially around Christmas. She thought maybe she had died around that time.

Since then I've done a lot of research on ghosts & spirits and have heard that spirit activity tends to increase during the winter months. This is likely because of static electricity which is more present in the dry winter air, the spirits can use this energy to manifest themselves.

In any case, I hope to convince my wife to go to the Country Tavern for dinner sometime in November or December, maybe we'll pick up more than just dizzy feelings! =)

As for the hospital, they tend to be active due to the number of deaths that take place within them. And I've heard that critically ill or those who are near death tend to "see" people who others don't, maybe dead relatives waiting to help them cross over.

[ October 29, 2003, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: Kevin P ]

The summer months as a kid I worked in a nursing home on the midnight shift! Talk about active?
I loved the job, I would talk to the patients that couldn't sleep, a few even waited up for me.
I spent about my whole check on cheese corn, bannana's, nightgowns, little treats for the patients.
It was on this job that I actually seen the soul leaving the body, that was cool!
Nursing homes aren't funny, but I tried to make at least some folks happy.
One guy was Howard, he would wait for me at the backdoor nightly. Howard would write my work schedule down so he knew when to expect me and we would talk as I did my rounds. I always brought him cheese corn. Howard passed away after suffering cancer. One night I was at the nurses station and I just mentioned how much I missed him and his stories. Right then, we all heard paper flapping sort of. So, we all went around the corner and right at the backdoor all the time cards were laying on the floor LOL! Howard heard me )
Another night we all seen a mist float out of a room and go right across the hall to the rec room. I knew someone had died and said so, I couldn't get one lady I worked with to go with me!
I went in and Anna had passed on.
At the time I wanted to go into health care but the nurses advised me not to. They said I got to attached to the patients.
Also, I think this time of year brings out these stories in everyone. Most things some people might not otherwise share in, but 'tis the season?
It is like this site, if everyone is talking about it nobody feels odd talking about their experiences. Try to bring up some ghost stories at Christmas dinner? LOL
I know, Piglet go away your nuts! bubbye
Luv ya's
Piggerita