My Ghost Friend George

I have visited this website for a couple of years and finally decided to share some experiences of my own. I have always been interested in the paranormal. I do believe that some things can be explained and are not paranormal and others can not be explained and are paranormal. Here are some things that I have witnessed that just can't be explained...

I am a nurse and I work in an acute care rehab hospital (physical rehab, not drug/alcohol rehab). My hospital is about 20 years old. We take care of a lot of people who have had hip and knee replacements as well as those who have had a traumatic brain injury. Most of the people we get have major medical health issues besides just having surgery. Some are pretty sick and unfortunately, some have passed away at our facility.

In the past four years that I have worked here, I have witnessed some strange occurances. One of the first things that happened was in room 209. The whole hall had been shut down due to some renovations of the rooms. It was about 10:30 pm (I work the night shift 6p to 6a). Several of us heard this loud noise coming from down the hall. One of the nurse techs walked down to 209 where the noise was coming from and opened the door. She quickly ran back to the nurse's station and was white as a ghost (she is African-American!). I went to the room to see what was going on. There in the room was a 5 gallon bucket that holds the joint compound or "mud" the workers use on the walls. In the bucket one of the workers had left what looks like a cordless screwdriver handle with a long paddle that stirs the "mud". The tool was on and the paddle was hitting the side of the bucket causing the loud noise. I looked to see if there was anything that would have caused the tool to turn on. Where the "on" switch was, there was no way that anything could have hit it and turned it on! Pretty creepy! Needless to say, my tech did not go back down that hall for a long time!

The next thing that happened was in room 207. Another tech and I were in room 206 across the hall from 207. First let me explain the lay out of the rooms. There are 2 beds in each room. The head of the beds face east and the foot of the beds face west of course! The door to the rooms open where you see the foot of the beds. All the rooms are set up this way so that when you walk down the hall and look into the rooms, you see the foot of the beds.

Anyway, the tech and I were in room 206. The tech was at the bed that is by the window and I am standing directly at the foot of the bed by the door and the hallway. I am facing the foot of the bed when I see out of the corner of my eye a little old woman in dark navy blue pants and a white sweater. This lady seems to be walking out of room 207. Now, the tech and I had just left 207 to go into 206. The only people that were in 207 were 2 men that were the patients. The tech and I looked at each other funny. I asked her if she saw what I saw without describing the lady to her. She describe the lady to me to a "T"! We both bolt to the hallway thinking one of our female patients had gotten out of bed and was walking the hallway. There was NO ONE there! We checked all the rooms and EVERYONE was sound asleep! From the time we saw the "old lady" to the time we bolted to the hallway was only a matter of seconds! There was no way that anyone could get back into their room and in bed that fast!

It sounds cliche' but things seem to act up more around full moons! Down one particular hall of the hospital, there are times when I will be walking to the end of the hall to help a patient and I will hear footsteps following me and the closer I get to the end of the hall, the colder it will get! I know that it is not my footsteps that I am hearing echoing in the hall. I wear tennis shoes and I walk quietly so as not to wake up my patients. The footsteps sound like a man that is wearing dress shoes walking on the tile. Several of us have had the same experience. We have also heard our name whispered in our ear down that same hall! This doesn't happen every night but more often around a full moon.

The next event centers around a "ghost" that I have sweetly named "George". Don't know why I named him that, it just came to me. George is a trickster. He means no harm. He just wants people to know that he is here. We have a call light system in each of the rooms. The patients have to hit a red button and a white light flashes above the outside of their room and also beeps at a phone at the nurse's station. When we pick the phone up, it allows us to talk to the patient to see what their needs are. The only way to turn off the flashing light above the patient's door is to physically go to their room and push a button on the wall to turn the "call light" off. The only way for the "call light" to go off above their door and for the phone to beep is if the patient pushes the red button by their bed. Also, when the phone beeps, a screen on the phone lights up telling you which room and bed is calling.

Well, George has figured a way around this system! This only happens at the West nursing station. (we only have 2 stations, west and east. We are a small 64 bed hospital). When George wants to let you know that he is here the phone will beep and light up on the screen it says "clean utility". This is were we keep our clean linens. There is NO call bell to be pushed in that room. There is a box in that room where you have to go in there to turn off the bell. When I go to push the button to turn it off, it is freezing cold in there when it usually isn't. I just say "Hi George!" and he stops for the night. However, a couple of times I was so busy that I just ran in and turned it off and forgot to say "Hi". George kept messing with me until I did say "hi" and then he stopped!

A couple of times when he has turned the bell on, I will say "George is here" and I will get up to go turn it off and he does it for me! I stand up and the bell stops! This has been witnessed by all of us here!

Maintance has even checked to see if there was some kind of shortage and they found nothing. Everything was working as it should!

Sometimes, especially around Halloween, we all will start to talk about our ghost experiences and George will visit us right in the middle of our stories! That call bell will go off and we just say "George is in the house!"

I have never felt any bad "spirits" here at all. I always get good vibes from this place and hopefully always will. I love my job and taking care of people, even if they are on the "other side"!

Sorry that this has been such a long post but I hope ya'll (sorry, I'm a Texas girl) have enjoyed reading it!

Take care!