In today’s episode, Grandma’s Goodbye, we will hear a story shared by a friend who experienced two real-life hauntings that lasted just long enough for their beloved grandmothers to say goodbye.

Music: Nightbridge and Song for a Loved One by Cannelle (www.cannellemusic.com)

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FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Things with Wings Productions, with the support of Whimsical Productions and Collected Sounds presents: The Skylark Bell, Fantome Friday.  I am your host, Melissa Oliveri.  

On Fantôme Friday we recount a real-life supernatural, or at the very least unusual and unexplained experience.

In today’s episode, Grandma’s Goodbye, we will hear a story shared by a friend who experienced two real-life hauntings that lasted just long enough for their beloved grandmothers to say goodbye.

Now, it’s time to get settled in. Grab a blanket, a warm drink, and let’s get started…

The first incident occurred when I was very young, too young to remember it myself. This is the story as recounted to me by my parents.

I was about 2 years old. My parents and I had travelled from Minneapolis to a small town a couple of hours south for my grandmother’s funeral. It was a long drive back at night, and when we finally got home my parents put me in my crib and went to sleep in their room. Several hours later, they were wakened by the sound of my talking and laughing.  They came to my room to check on me, and found me standing in my crib, wide awake, chatting away. When they asked what I was doing, I told them a lady had come into the room and that she was talking with me and being funny. My parents looked at one another quizzically, then told me it was time for bed.  The following night, the same incident happened again. This time I told them the lady had come to say goodbye. That was the last any of us ever heard of the lady, presumably my grandmother, visiting me.

I remember the second incident as if it were yesterday. It happened many years later while I was on tour in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with my band. After the show, we all returned to our hotel. My bandmates decided to head back out for a nightcap, and I remained in the hotel room alone. I brushed my teeth and hopped into bed, stretching out on my back, then looked around our room in the century-old hotel, noting the heavy baroque style furniture and bedding. Being alone there was a welcome break after that night’s show and several weeks of touring in crowded van.

A short while later, I began to feel a strange sensation like someone was watching me. It wasn’t enough for me to get up and leave the room or get the chills, but it was enough for me to take notice and feel slightly uncomfortable.

Suddenly, I felt the bed sink near my feet, as if someone had just sat down on it. Before I had a chance to register what was happening, the window shutters began opening and closing and the chandelier over my bed started swinging back and forth. It took a moment for the realization that something supernatural was happening to wash over me.

Out of nowhere, I felt a deep chill run through my entire body, then everything stopped.

I remained perfectly still on the bed, taking a moment to come to my senses and concluded I had just had a ghost experience. I didn’t feel scared, or threatened, it may seem strange to say, but it felt like a “good ghost”. The entire experience felt surreal. One of my bandmates came back to the room a short while later and I told him about what I’d just experienced. The next day we were in the van driving to what was then Yugoslavia, and I told the rest of my bandmates what happened. They were all surprised, but everyone believed me, knowing I wasn’t the type to make this kind of story up.

We played our show that night, and the next day was my mother’s birthday so I called home to wish her a happy birthday. My brother answered the phone and informed me that our parents had flown out East to see my father’s family because our grandmother had died. 

It didn’t dawn on me right away, but several minutes after I hung up the phone, I got an inkling that perhaps her passing was connected to my experience. When my parents returned, I asked what happened and what time my grandmother had died. I did the math, and with the time zone difference my experience occurred right around the time that she passed away. 

Some would be understandably uncomfortable with an experience like this, but in a sense, I consider myself lucky. Somehow, someway that none of us quite understand… yet… both my grandmothers found a way to come and say goodbye.

Thank you so much for listening.  Join us on in two weeks for an EXTRA spooky Halloween special bonus episode!

Before I go, I’d like to thank Phaeton Starling Publishing this fantastically eerie story, and Cannelle for composing equally fantastic and eerie music for this podcast. 

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Thank you.

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