Aloha, junior ghostbusters. Did everyone remember Mother’s Day? Good. Did anyone remember to send Chris a happy birthday e-mail on May 31? Well, at least the moms are happy. Since then, even more cheerful events have transpired. For instance, June has arrived, bringing with it the biblical flood that sent Noah into matchmaker mode. Unfortunately, there’s no ark this year.
Thanks to Mama Nature’s unrelenting festival of tears, the night I had planned to revisit the haunted firehouse turned into a mad dash to keep my living room dry. You see, there’s no gutter that runs around the roof of my house. Being the genius that I am, I installed an air conditioner in a window on the side where the water comes cascading down like my own private Niagara Falls. Not a good place to have a window open. I didn’t feel like taking the A/C out, so I just kept throwing towels around it, praying for the rain to stop. When that didn’t work, my girlfriend (you all remember Jessie, right?) told me to go outside and cover it, giving me an umbrella that must have been made for Gandhi. This thing didn’t even cover enough to keep my shoulders dry. So I ran out with a big black garbage bag and “Baby’s First Umbrella” to try and rig this covering as fast as I could. Trying to hold the umbrella with my shoulder and neck, I battled the waterfall into submission with my trusty garbage bag. Actually, I meant my own submission. The mission was a total failure, and I returned indoors to dry my soaked self off.
Lucky for you guys, I’ve been working on a different piece for this month. June has something even better in store for us. That’s right, kids, Father’s Day is here. So in the tradition of Mother’s Day, I’m going to present you with a few haunted tales that deal with phantasmal fathers and ghostly grandfathers. Let the games begin.
Our first story comes from a female soldier who believes that her father has been keeping an eye on her family since the heart attack that killed him. She claims that her father had loved his grandchildren and planned to take care of her newborn son while she was away on duty. After he died, her mother sent her a picture of a few family members holding the newborn. When she looked at the picture, she noticed her father’s face in the background, watching over them.
Our next story comes from a nurse. The story takes place after Hurricane Katrina when she was working at a Southern hospital. One day, she was wearing a mask while treating a hurricane victim. Later that day, she noticed that one of her earrings, which had been a gift from her mother, was missing. Her father had died a few years back, and her mom was all that she had left. Obviously, these earrings meant a lot to her. Figuring it had slipped off when she put on the mask, she retraced her steps—to no avail. All of the hospital staff was searching for it. In tears, she prayed that she would find her earring. Unfortunately, her shift ended and left her one earring short of a pair. A couple days later, she received a call from one of her friends at the hospital. A housekeeper had found the earring underneath the mattress of the bed in room 110. How could it have gotten there? She doesn’t even cover that room on her rounds. Did I mention that her father had died in that very same hospital? You guessed it: He died in room 110. Thanks, Dad!
This next one comes from a woman who received a very interesting phone call one night when she was eight years old. As she tells it, she answered the phone and only heard static. She repeatedly said, “Hello?” but was only answered with static. Just before she hung up, she heard an old man’s voice say, “Hello?” She answered, “Grandpa? I can’t hear you.” He answered, “Hi, baby. How are you? Can I speak with your mommy?” She obediently gave her mom the phone and left the room. When her mother came out, something was obviously wrong. “That was your grandfather.” The young girl responded that she knew it was. “No, that was not my father; it was your dad’s father.” The girl had never met this grandfather because he had died years before she was born. Her mom explained that he had called to see how they were doing, and that he was happy he had finally gotten the chance to hear his first granddaughter’s voice. Then, his voice mysteriously faded away into the static.
I have a story that relates to this last one. My own grandfather died a few years ago. For years, I rarely saw him because he lived in Florida. However, he called us every once in a while to check in. After he died, I had gone down with my mother and my aunt to clean out his house. I decided to bring a bunch of his clothes back into style and rock some 70s polyester leisure suits for a while. Just about a year ago, I was sitting in my apartment when the phone rang. The caller ID just said “unavailable.” I picked it up and heard an old Italian guy give me a boisterous “Hello!!” I thought to myself, “Wow, that sounds just like my grandfather.” Being polite, I returned his greeting. Next he says, “Hey, it’s Grandpa!” Eyes bugging out of my head, I didn’t say a word. He repeated the same statement. What was I supposed to do? I gave him a quick “Okay” to see what he had to say next. “This is Matt, right?” Holy crap! It was someone else’s grandpa who had dialed the wrong number. I politely told him he had dialed the wrong number, hung up, and immediately dialed my mom. “Hey, Mom! You’ll never guess who just called me!”
I hope you all enjoyed this Father’s Day special. It’s good to hear a few stories about fathers coming back to watch over their families. The stories like these that I hear usually involve a mother or a grandmother. I always just assumed the dads were too busy swinging clubs on God’s golf course. If nothing else, the phone story should have taught you all a valuable lesson (not my story—I’m talking about the good one). Caller ID is key! Anyway, I’d like to send out a big “Happy Father’s Day” to all the dads out there, especially my own. Enjoy your day.
Be safe and happy hunting.
Chris the Ghostbuster can be reached at
A Haunted Mother's Day
by Chris Garafola
Well folks, spring has finally arrived. It’s too bad that it took us until May to be able to say that. Regardless, May flowers it is and I couldn’t be more grateful to Mama Nature for finally coming around. Do you have any idea how much it sucks sitting in a cemetery at night when it’s freezing outside? I’ll take the warm weather any day. Besides the final farewell to winter, May comes along with another special occasion. That’s right boys and girls; I’m talking about Mother’s Day.
This is the time of year when all the bad sons and daughters in the world get the chance to make amends with mom. Or, you could shirk out of your duties and knock yourself another peg down the shit list. Take my advice, that’s never a good idea. Why go from bad to worse when all it takes is a card and some flowers?
For this Mother’s Day, I have decided to put together a little ghostbusting tribute to all the moms out there. I know I promised you another trip to the haunted firehouse for this month’s article. For those of you who care, I offer my sincere apologies. I got the Ebola virus, my dog ate my homework, I had to wash my hair. In other words, something came up. Instead, I’ve gathered a bunch of supernatural stories involving mothers to share with you in honor of this special holiday. Moms of the area, this one’s for you.
Did you ever get the feeling that your mom was kind of psychic? They always seem to know about the things we try to hide from them. Is it just that secret power that comes with the territory of being a mother or is it something else? Take a look at this story. One morning, a visiting nurse was sound asleep in her bed, enjoying a lazy weekend. Suddenly, she sat straight up in her bed, jolted awake by a sharp pain in her chest. After a minute or so, the pain was gone and she went back to sleep. The next day, she went back to work and found out that the elderly man that she was assigned to take care of had died of a heart attack. He died on that very same morning when she had the sharp pains.
Did you ever have a dream about a loved one that had passed away? In all of the stories that I have heard, it is the mother that tends to be the most common visitor in these stories. Is it because moms care so much and want to check in to make sure everything’s ok? Is the afterlife just that boring? Who knows?
One woman was visited by her mother in a dream the night after her mother had died. In the dream, she was in her mother’s house and was led upstairs to a jewelry box in the bedroom. Her mother showed her a secret compartment that contained some money. The next day, she went to the house to investigate. She went to the jewelry box in the bedroom and was stunned to actually find the secret compartment from the dream. Inside, she found an envelope containing a savings bond certificate with her son’s name on it. Presents from beyond the grave!
Sometimes, I hear stories about deceased mothers that visit their children outside of dreams. One woman tells a story of being seventeen when her mother died. After the funeral, she fell asleep in her mother’s bed. In the middle of the night, she awoke to a bright light that filled the room. The light originated from the foot of the bed, where she saw her mother standing and smiling at her. She said that she had come to tell her not to worry and to reassure her that everything would be all right. She asked her daughter to watch over her siblings and take care of them. Finally, her mother told her that she was in a good place and that they would be together again someday. The light then faded back through the wall and was gone.
This next visitation story also involves a woman and her deceased mother on the night of a funeral. She had let her young son sleep with her because she was concerned that he would be upset over the death of his grandmother. She woke up in the middle of the night to hear the boy carrying on a conversation with her dead mother. Appearing asleep, he asked his grandmother if he would ever see her again. The story jumps ahead two months later when she received a call at three in the morning from her hysterical ex-husband. He told her that he was up late watching television when there was a knock on his door. He found a group of women standing on his porch. They asked him if he knew where JoJo lived. When he said he didn’t, a woman in the back asked if she could come in. Stepping forward, she addressed him by name and he realized that it was his ex-wife’s deceased mother. It turns out JoJo had been dead for many years, and was a close friend of the mother’s from when she was a kid. Over the phone, he described exactly what her mother had been wearing. It was the same outfit she had been buried in. However, he hadn’t been to the funeral and couldn’t have known.
Not all deceased mothers just stop by for a visit. In some cases, they decide to stick around indefinitely. This next story involves a mother on Christmas Eve. I may or may not have shared this one with you before. Regardless, here goes. It was late at night, and the woman was driving home in the middle of a fierce snowstorm. Although the roads were in terrible condition, it was Christmas Eve and she knew she had to make it home. Sadly, she died that night in a car accident. However, her spirit did end up making it home. Her death came so suddenly that she may not have even realized she was dead. So intently focused on getting home that night, her spirit did just that. After that night, the family would see signs of this around the house. Windows and cupboards that had been left open would mysteriously close. Lights that had been left on in unoccupied rooms would shut off by themselves. It seemed she was just hanging around the house, carrying on as if nothing had happened. Motherly habits die hard.
I plan on treating my mother pretty good for this Mother’s Day. I suggest you all do the same. They work so hard to take care of us, seemingly even after death. As these stories show, a mother’s love can be a very powerful thing. To all the moms out there, I wish you a very special Mother’s Day. To all the sons and daughters out there, I hope you’ll remember to treat your mom right. Sometimes she comes back.
Aloha, junior ghostbusters. Did everyone remember Mother’s Day? Good. Did anyone remember to send Chris a happy birthday e-mail on May 31? Well, at least the moms are happy. Since then, even more cheerful events have transpired. For instance, June has arrived, bringing with it the biblical flood that sent Noah into matchmaker mode. Unfortunately, there’s no ark this year.
