An old nursing home...

This weekend we will investigate an old abandoned nursing home as a part of our multi-year project involving the investigation of old health care facilities to determine whether or not they are more supernaturally active than other buildings.  The nursing home was left vacant a few years ago when a new modern facility was built and opened on the outskirts of this small town.   After being abandoned for a few years this place is sad and worn, it is definitely not the bustling old folks home I remember.  As with all of the facilities, of course I am hoping someone will answer the question that I always ask in these facilities - “why do you stay in this place”.   A nursing home though is a little different than the hospitals; people live years of their lives here, and maybe they liked it.   I’m thinking that an answer will also be a little different in this type of health care facility, if we get one that is.

This particular nursing home is near to my heart; my Grandpa Frank called this place home for many years before he passed away there in 1987.   My dad hails from this community, and we spent a lot of time at the old nursing home with my grandpa while I was growing up; visiting, celebrating his birthday with cake and ice cream, coffee in the dining room, wow, there are lots of memories.  Being the only nursing home in the area, we also have cousins who lived and died there as well. 

I know this area well and while I was growing up, we spent many, many happy weekends camping out on “the land”, our acreage outside of town dissected by a river.  Both my mom and dad passed away in 2005, and my dad passed this little slice of heaven on to my brother, and so it is still in the family and of course it holds lots of good memories for us all.  We were always surrounded by family, in addition to my grandpa, my aunt and uncle lived here, and many, many cousins.  It is a peaceful place, and memories are just around every corner.

This investigation will be a little emotional – I have no doubt.  Who will we find there?  I am not certain, but it most certainly will be an exciting and perhaps an emotionally draining investigation ;)

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Last week I, along with 5 other members of the SIM Crew, were privileged to investigate the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky.  This is a place we have wanted to go to for years; certainly since we began our careers as paranormal investigators.  It is said that this old building is the most haunted place in America, and for good reason we found.  We have watched the TV ghost hunters investigate this old hospital, and heard their claims that this is the scariest place they have been to; that in itself is reason for making the journey to Kentucky, as this crowd has been all over the world and they have singled out Waverly Hills as the most active.
First a little history of this place.   

The massive Waverly Hills Sanatorium

The big Sanatorium opened for patients in 1926, and was specifically built to treat tuberculosis.  This killer disease, also known as the white plague, is quite contagious, and in 1926 this property was located away from the most populated areas of Louisville.   Numbers vary, but it is said that people died from TB in this building each day during the height of the epidemic.  So many, that the hospital administrators decided to use the supply tunnel to move dead bodies out of the sanatorium, away from the eyes of the patients to keep morale from diving.  How many died there?  It depends on what historical document you are referencing; some say around 8,000+, others say it could be as high as 63,000 – I guess we will never know for sure.  After antibiotics were discovered, the building was no longer needed for TB patients, and it became a nursing home of sorts.  In 1981 that also closed, and the building became vacant.  The current owners, Charlie and Tina Mattingly bought the property in 2001, and are doing what they can to save it.  It has since become a supernatural mecca, and I’m sure no one leaves disappointed.   

This post describes my experiences and feelings only; when our evidence review is complete, I will write another blog complete with evidence.

Our team was very excited to experience the building, and the 15-hour drive there only heightened our anticipation.  Thankful that the rains and storms that we drove through were gone, it was a sunny evening, cool and comfortable.  This was a MPC (Minnesota Paranormal Coalition) event, and there were 18 of us all together, six from the SIM Crew, and members of 4 other teams.  I became quite apprehensive as we had dinner with the other teams just before going to the property.  My heart raced; my hands shook, I knew it would be a tough night for me.  As a sensitive, I worried that this place would be too much for me - I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it. 

The main entrance saw thousands of sick patients come through its doors; many

 never emerged alive.

The backside

After our dinner meeting, we headed to the property, and honestly?  I was SCARED.  This feeling rarely happens for me, and once we got near my head began to throb.  The first sign of a great deal of paranormal activity had shown itself.  Now I was really anxious.   As we drove in, the first site of the building took my breath away.  The old hospital is MASSIVE, four full floors, and a partial fifth floor; its sheer size is daunting to say the least.  My eyes rapidly darted everywhere as we walked to the building that houses the administrative office and classroom, and I wondered who was looking back at us.  As we all assembled our excitement was high.  The owner, Charlie, told us the building was ours for the night, we could either be toured around the outside for photos, or we could go on our own.  We chose the later, and we walked the property. 

The Griffins looking out over the property

 The building is amazing no doubt about it; beautiful gargoyles adorn the building at several points and griffins watch over the grounds from high atop the roof.  These gargoyles and griffins are rich with detail and artistry, and I am certain they have seen their share of grief and death.   It was remarkable to see that a building for the sick had such beautiful architecture and was so immensely artistic; so different than the buildings of today.   I took lots of photos, photos of us, photos of the building, photos of the gargoyles, and pretty much everything else.  As we stood staring at this place, Jerry mentioned that he saw a shadow figure moving about.  Like I needed that to know that ghosts were all around us, I knew they were by the heaviness I felt in my chest.  We headed back to the admin building, and then a Waverly guide took us for a tour of the building, to show us the hotspots, then we would be on our own.  Amazing, just amazing.  Our guide told us of her experiences, apparitions, touches, sounds, voices, you name it, and she had seen it all.

A beautiful gargoyle at the main entrance.

The infamous room 502

Tour was done; Jerry smudged those of us who wanted to be protected before we began.  I was in a conversation with Charlie and Tina when my team said it was time.  Oh my, now I was really nervous.  We were assigned the 4^th and 5^th floors, so up the staircase we went to 5.  Children were located on this floor; in fact they had a playground of sorts on the rooftop here.  It is a partial floor, and we began our investigation with an EVP session, and a balloon on the floor in what was called the solarium.  We had been getting hits on our K2 meters, and so we began asking questions.  The balloon moved about on its own, but I’m not certain if it was a ghost or the wind?  I felt like there was something behind me towards and I turned from the team and began taking photos.  I just felt that someone was there.  Yep.  There was, the photo below shows an apparition.  This area unbeknownst to me was room 502, which is the room where a nurse hanged herself.  The story goes that she was pregnant by a doc there, had an abortion, and found out she had tuberculosis.  Who is the apparition?  Most definitely male, it is a question that probably won’t be answered.

the fourth floor along the open windows

We went down to the fourth floor, and we split up our team into two.  I had Jerry and Jeff on my team.  I stood there staring into the darkness of the vast hallway before me, somehow not wanting to enter.  This feeling was foreign to me, as I am usually the first one in a space.  Not this time, something was telling me not to proceed.   I did though, ignoring the hairs standing up on my neck; I was flanked by Jerry and Jeff.  The minute we turned our flashlights off it hit me; a big wave of sadness, despair, and hopelessness.  I cried, and honestly I sobbed.  The spirits were imposing their feelings on me, and I couldn’t shake their feelings and neither could I stop the crying.  Jerry thought he should pull me out as it kept on and on, but I refused.  We walked through the hallways and finally, I was able to control the sobbing, but the feelings remained, and I half cried the whole floor.  This feeling was immense, and difficult to handle.  I knew then just how those patients felt; would they ever get out of there?  Many didn't and I'm pretty sure when they came through those doors death was on their minds.

The only piece of equipment left....the hood of a surgical light

In the Surgery room, we met up with Amy, Katie, and Mike.  Back in the day, they performed horrific surgeries on TB patients, including opening up their chests so that the air could get directly to the lungs.  Gruesome, and awful, I can only imagine the pain these people were in.   We did EVP work, shot some photos, and this time?  Jerry and Mike were the victims of the spirits of Waverly Hills Sanatorium.  Suddenly Jerry couldn’t breathe, Mike couldn’t move.  We knew we had to get both of them off the floor, and Jerry helped Mike out of that room.  We walked down the stairs to the first floor, then down a flight of stairs to the tunnel to the admin building.   Although better away from that floor, Jerry pulled himself from the investigation.  The feelings I had been having had left mostly by this time, and I was ready to move on.   It was time to switch floors and so we carried on, leaving Jerry in the capable hands of Tina Mattingly.

 Our next floor was the first floor, and we investigated the Morgue, the freezer room where they kept dead bodies, and the body shoot.  Not as haunted as the 4^th floor, at least not this night anyhow, we switched at our allotted time to the second floor, then back down to the admin building.   Jerry decided to come up to three with us, and he wanted me to try an experiment with him to try and push the spirits to our non-sensitive teammates.   Jerry and I went out to what was the porch area of the wing, while the others stayed in the inner hallway.  We faced each other, held hands, and concentrated on the spirits around us and asked them to move into the building.  I felt the spirits swirling, swirling around us before leaving; Jerry felt like they pushed him a bit.

Jeff in the body drawer.....

We have not yet reviewed all of our evidence from this 8-hour investigation, and I am assuming it will be a bit before it is complete.  However, I know that this building is rife with spirits and ghosts.  I felt them, they touched my hair, and they somehow made me feel the desperation they felt.  I could feel them with us the entire time we were there.  I can totally understand why some TV ghost hunters say this is the most haunted place they’ve been, it surely is for me, without a doubt. 

My headache left just as soon as we drove off the property.  The supernatural does that to me; and now?  I can’t get that place or those spirits out of my head.  
 
A big THANK YOU to Tina and Charlie Mattingly for the hospitality, and for saving this amazing place!

The SIM Crew at Waverly Hills!

A Spooky Place in the Woods

Recently Kacie and I made our yearly trek to our favorite place; beautiful San Juan Island in Washington State.  We have been making the journey for almost 20 years to see the whales and our human friends.   Over the past two years, stories have come to us about a mausoleum back in the woods on the northern end of the island.  Islanders have regaled us with stories about ghosts flying around the mausoleum after midnight.  We've heard this from many people, and though I'm not sure I believe in flying ghosts, I do believe every story has a smidgen of truth to it ;)

When we were there in 2011, we hiked the trail to mausoleum, in fact I wrote a post about it,see  http://seekingghoststhestories.blogspot.com/2011/07/spooky-mausoleum.html.  The path to get there, winds though a very old graveyard where people who lived in the 1800's/early 1900's are buried.  Spooky?  Absolutely, and the graves in many cases are surrounded by rod iron fences, which makes them look crazy creepy.  About a mile up the trail, and then down the trail, is an unbelievable structure that is known as a mausoleum.  It is actually breathtaking, and in the light of sunset?  It glows, which gives it it's name, "Afterglow Vista."  I had no idea something as amazing as this was there.  Well now we did.  We were awestruck, and after poking around a bit, we were determined to go back at night sometime.

This year in September, we did just that.  After dark, we arrived at the trail, and we hesitated; it was dark already, and we knew it would be darker still in a few minutes, and of course, I forgot a flashlight.  No chiding, yes I know, as a ghost hunter?  I should always be packing a flashlight.   We knew that it was a distance through the now darkened woods to the mausoleum.   Kacie and I wondered if we should really do this crazy thing without a flashlight?  But then, three people came out of the woods on the mausoleum trail.   Well if they can do it, we can too we thought, and after a few words with them, and a look like we were crazy to go back there without light (they had a small flashlight) we trekked on.  We walked and walked, finally, we found the rod iron and stone archway just steps from the mausoleum.  We stood there, once again in awe of this magnificent structure.

"Afterglow Vista is a little scary" is what I was thinking as I took photos with my phone.  Kacie had the big camera and was shooting lots of pictures.   Finally, we walked up to the Mausoleum.  It is built with pillars that are exactly the same as the pillars that were on King Solomon's temple, with an unfinished pillar and all.  In the light of day it is spectacular; after dark it is, well, spooky. 














Inside the mausoleum there is a big stone table with six chairs around it;  it was eerie, especially so because each of those chairs holds the remains of one of the family McMillen, including John McMillen who built the mausoleum as a memorial.  He built Roche Harbor, and produced an abundance of Lime from this little island.  You can still see some of the old lime kilns around the island, and I'm told that all the trees at the beginning of the 1900's were used to fuel the kilns used to produce Lime.  I think what a terrible misuse of trees, it? is sad.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't look for those flying ghosts.  But nope.  I didn't see any, not that I truly expected to see them.  Someone had told me that it was after midnight that they flew - well, we were NOT going to stay in that creepy mausoleum for several hours, and we knew we couldn't stay long (it was past hours to be there).  I turned on my voice recorder, put it on the table and asked a few questions to any ghosts that might have been around.  Kacie continued on her photo shooting journey, and after a bit we began our way back out of the woods.

By this time it was even darker, and I couldn't see more than a foot in front of me.  Kacie took my phone (it's one of the giant Samsung Note 2s) and turned on the video mode for the little smidgen of light to help us pick our way out of there.  At one point she turned the phone me just as I was looking off to my side and I saw what I thought was a critter of some kind and of course?  I screamed a little "what is it"  Kacie asked then I realized, it was my shadow, and I said so.   I've included the video for you to laugh with us below ;)

We finally arrived at the safety of our car, our adventure was complete.  My recordings were inconclusive, but hey, this was not an investigation, we really just had a very quick visit in the dark to find the flying ghosts.  Next time? I guess we will go AFTER MIDNIGHT, and this time?  With a flashlight ;)