As River Town Paranormal meets new people who have had paranormal experience they have shared many wonderful personal experiences with us. From family members to the average guy on the street, many have been happy to tell of an unexplained experience they have had. On this page we will add the stories that have crossed our path because we believe that they need to be shared. The names will be excluded as to not identify the folks who have so graciously shared their experiences. These will not be investigation reports, just stories of the paranormal. To us it's one more confirmation that paranormal activity exists in many places, especially where love is involved. Hope you enjoy them as much as we have!
Visits from our loved ones dearly departed
Do you believe that our loved ones who have departed this world come back to visit one more time before they move on? It's a topic that we often hear come up when talking to family and friends. Many different belief systems do believe this happens, that it's a natural occurence of our spirit moving on. Do they come back one more time to sooth us in our grief or are they coming back to check on everything to make sure the world they left behind is how they want it to be? Is it just our imaginations running wild because we miss them so much that they come back to us in our subconcious? RTPS are not experts on this subject, they have just shared experiences with others and so here are two stories of loved ones coming back to visit that have been shared with us. The names have been changed with respect to these families and their loved ones who have departed this world.
THE PICTURE FRAME
John and Susan had shared a wonderful life together. They married each other back in the 50's when there was little discussion of how a married couple should act. He was the devoted husband and she the devoted wife. They had two children who grew up to be wonderful parents themselves giving John and Susan grandchildren and great grandchildren to grace their later years. As with all couples as they approach the sunset of their years, their minds were good and strong but their bodies were starting to fail. John was first with a mild heart attack in his late 60's. It changed his life and the way he lived his life but with Susan by his side he survived and grew stronger. We will never know if this is what caused Susan to fail so rapidly. She was a woman full of life and loved spending each of her moments with John and her children. It was her heart that began to fail next and then the stroke came, she was never as lucky as John to come back stronger than ever.
Susan was in her 70's when she was called home leaving a deep empty spot in John's life and heart. Each of his days had been spent with Susan, whether playing golf, listening to a baseball game or going out to eat. They did everything together and now John no longer had anyone to do all these things with. His children, too, missed their mother and worried about him all alone at home.
One afternoon during the first winter after Susan's passing John had fallen asleep in his lounge chair in his front room. He had just dozed off when he suddenly woke up for no apparent reason. As he tried to focus his aging eyes, he saw a black shape out of the corner of his eye. Watching it and not really knowing what to make of it, he followed the shape as it grew taller and crossed the room. It wasn't coming towards him but moving to the little table across the room. On this table set a picture frame with a hand drawn picture to his wife from one of his great grandchildren. It was drawn with hearts on it to show their love for their great grandma when she had passed. As he watched the shape cross to the table it slowly bent over it as if it was looking at the picture frame. It did not last very long and it disappeared as quickly as it had shown up, but there was no doubt in John's mind that this was Susan taking a look at something new in the house. John is not a man who believes in these kind of things but it was a strange enough occurence for him to share with his children. They are not sure of what to make of it either, but one thing is for certain, they will never forget it.
DO NOT SPEAK ILL OF THE DEPARTED
In the aftermath of Michael Jackson's death and all the horrible jokes and words being spoken of him, this one member of RTPS remembers all too well what can come of speaking ill of the dead. It all began some twelve years ago after my father's death by not natural causes. His death was through the bizzarest of events that never before or after have we heard of such a death as his. The town he was living in was a nice little town in the midwest, small town life surrounded by farmland. Everything was as it should be there except that in many small towns there can be problems with the infrastructure.
My father lived in a older subdivision with the homes having been built some forty years ago. Apparently codes were not as stringent back then, especially with the sewer lines and plumbing from home to curb. My father's house was the first house on a section of sewer lines and this is where the problem began. The pipe that carried all the sewage for 18 homes ran down the street to infront of my father's house. The pipe that then diverted the sewage ran into a cast iron pipe only 3 inches in diameter at the street. My father never knew what hit him.
We don't know for sure how long the sewage that was supposed to be deposited into the sewer had been depositing into my father's crawl space. We believe it may have been as long as a month. The three inch pipe had become clogged and with no where else to go the sewage force had been strong enough to break the cap off of my father's pipe in his crawl space under his home. My father must have died a horrible death from this type of hydrogen sulphide poisoning. It's a gas that you get used to very quickly. It does kill and has killed many workmen in our country's sewer systems, but not normally when you are living in your house. They found my father three days after he had crossed over, lying naked, with a stench that was horrible, the phone off the hook. We had tried to call him that weekend and his line was always busy. Believe me, there were many nights I kicked myself for not driving up to see him that weekend to find out if he was okay. He was dying disoriented and alone. To say he died a horrible death is an understatement.
After a very botched job by the local coroner and sheriff's department, our own grief and the disbelief that a sewer system such as this still existed where families lived, we wrestled back and forth as to whether or not to bring a lawsuit against this town. They were covering it up and not doing anything about the sewer issue and we knew it needed to be fixed before it happened to someone else. No lawyer would take the case for less than $10,000 and even then any judgement would not have gone back to his kids filing the lawsuit but to his estranged wife. It was a horrible decision to have to decide not to go forth with this action. It did my father a diservice as well as jeopardizing the health of others.
One afternoon my ex-husband and I were in our kitchen. This was a kitchen that I had fed many meals to my dad from. My ex was ironing his dress pants on the ironing board while I was sitting at the bottom of the stairs only 4 feet from him, talking on the phone to my sister about my dad's death. I had said one thing about my dad when my ex made a rude remark about him, not undeserved by any means, but still, don't speak ill of the dead. All of a sudden a potted plant that had been sitting on top of our cabinets came crashing to the floor, busting it up in many pieces. We both looked at each other and chuckled, just a coincidence right? The plant was just getting a little too heavy on one side and fell, at that exact moment, hmmmmmm. So back I went talking to my sister when my ex, who never knew when to leave well enough alone, had to make one more remark. What happened next was something we will never forget and it is probably why I am here today writing this on a paranormal website. The pants that had been fitted over the ironing board to be ironed came flying off the ironing board and flew about three feet to the floor. It was as if someone had taken the hem and in one forceful move pulled the pants off and threw them three feet. My husband stood there in disbelief and I sat there staring. We both had seen it and we both knew it wasn't one of us who had done that.
There are no experts in the paranormal field. There are however, people who have had many similar experiences to ours and have taken it to a higher level of study. Can any one of us say that when a soul leaves its body we know for a scientific fact that it doesn't move on? Can any one of us say that we are a hundred percent sure that our souls energy can linger on after the vessel it has resided in dies? No. Do we know for sure this was my dad that day in the kitchen getting a little upset with the harsh words being said of him after his death? No. What we can tell others about and share with those who have witnessed much of the same, is that we have experienced something very real in our 3D world that can not be explained. We can also say that sometimes our words can trigger unexplained events. On this day some twelve years ago all of this happened and so I say "do not speak ill of the dead", you just never know where they are for sure!
As I close this actual first hand witness of a paranormal event, you may still be wondering how someone could die from a little sewage in a crawl space. Well, it was not just a little amount of sewage, it was 20,000 gallons of raw sewage. My father lived over this sewage without being aware of it for a long time. Your sense of smell is the first thing that goes when living under these conditions, so my father did not know what was happening to him. This house was cleaned up and sold again by the Federal Housing Authority. There are children living in the house today. I won't speak ill of the dead but I will of the living. Shame on this town for not fixing this problem and just covering it up.
(in loving memory of Ted Warren)
FOR THE LOVE OF A CAT
Our second story is one of a different kind of visit. Some call it an old wives tale, other's view it as a natural part of death. It doesn't really seem to matter what you believe, there are stories after stories of this happening to those who have recently lost a loved one. Perhaps this has happened to you or you know of someone who this has happened to.
Mary's mother was quite a woman. She had had a hard life raising four children all on her own with little money. There were many hard times for the family but Mary's mother had always managed to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. She bartended for the greatest part of her life and it had supplied her with much amusement given the profession she was in. It was probably a profession that resulted in her life being cut short. Mary's mother was a smoker and having worked in smokey enviroments most of her adult life didn't help when it was found that she had lung cancer.
She had one surgery which turned out quite successful considering that lung cancer is a leading cause of death. Mary's mother lived for several years, quite content in doing her daily crossword puzzles and taking care of her cat Max, whom she loved dearly. Lung cancer is a devil of a disease however and just a few months ago it came back with a vengience, cutting Mary's mother's life short. It was only a month from when they found the spots to when Mary's mothers took her last breath. It left Mary and her siblings having to take care of her mother's belongings, including her cat Max.
It took some doing but Mary did find a home for Max and within a couple of weeks everything had been done. It was then that Mary had the visit. It was during a dream that Mary's mother came back to her, as it often happens with many people. Mary's mother was so real in her dream that it felt like she was right there with Mary. Was she there for a message? Mary even remembers being fully concious of thinking about all these things during the dream. No, there wasn't really a message but Mary's mother was looking for Max. It seems that her mom wanted to make sure that Max was being taken care of and once Mary reassured her he was, she was gone.
Was this Mary's subconcious picking up on her own concerns? Or do our loved ones actually come to check in on things once in a while? We will never really know for sure. If you have had an experience like this please feel free to contact us. We will post your experience.
Scott Bergman's Encounters
It used to be that spooky stories of ghosts were told only during the Halloween season or around a campfire with the full moon aglow. Today's stories of ghosts hit closer to home and we have found that there are many people who have had encounters with ghosts are most happy to share their experiences with us. One of our members has had the privilege of hearing one man's stories of ghostly encounters through work so she asked if her co-worker, Scott Bergman, would allow us to share his stories with our readers. Scott is a loving, devoted husband and father, is a eucharistic minister at his church and we think, a little bit of a sensitive. Scott has shared two of his favorite encounters with us and we would now like to share them with you.
THE CHRISTMAS EVE VISIT
When I was eight years old we were at my grandparent's house for Christmas Eve. My cousins and I loved to play in Grandma's extra bedroom when we came to visit. There were seven cousins playing in this extra bedroom that evening, ranging in ages from seven to thirteen years old. After playing in the room for an hour or so, we saw a kind looking older woman come into the room.
She smiled and spoke to us for quite a while. We were sure she was a friend of the family. She said she was happy to see all of us children and how beautiful we all were. After being called to dinner, we asked where the nice woman was. The adults did not know who we were talking about. We described her over and over, then my Grandma asked us what she was wearing.
After we described what she was wearing , Grandma pulled out an old photo album and asked if she looked "like this". We all were excited and said "YES, that's her!". Grandma started to cry and said that was her mother who had died before any of us grandchildren had a chance to know her. The room we were playing in was the bedroom she had passed away in.
I am 34 years old now and still I remember her face like it was yesterday.
THE BRIGHT WHITE LIGHT
After my wife and I were first married, we moved into a small apartment in a nice neighborhood. One night after a nice evening, we were sitting up in bed talking with all the lights out. All of a sudden a huge flash of light flooded the room, it lasted a few seconds and then was gone. Our eyes still burning , we said "oh my god! What the heck was that!". We had no windows that any outside light have shown through and I checked all the light fixtures for blown bulbs, etc. There was no explanation for the strange clear bluish light and I still wonder to this day what caused it. In the area of the room where the strange light originated from was only a small phone table with a prayer book sitting on top, open.
When Scott told our member about this last story he told her that he had asked a member of the clergy about what this could have been. They told him that sometimes light such as this happen around religious articles. He suggested that Scott and his wife put the prayer book away, which they did and did not have another occurence.
Local Paranormal Activity
