Listener Tales 110: Playdates with the Paranormal

Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna Juice. And I'm Ash Dietz. I like Alayna Juice, but it's also kind of gross. It's kind of weird and gross. This is Morbid, in case you didn't know. And it's Listener Tales! Brought to you, by you, for you, from you, and all about you! So we have some goodness to start you guys off with. Just a little bit. But it's fun, it's like for you guys. So we are launching today. Today. Today. A candle, a Morbid candle, which has been filling my home with the yummiest smell. I have it under a candle warmer right now. Oh, that's the best. It's in the kitchen, and when I walk down the stairs, I go. It smells so good. What is this scent? Here. Here it is. Oh my god! We have it. We can Vanna White. So this is it. "She becometh so lame." You can buy a vowel for "She becometh so lame." And it smells like. Sniffy sniffy. You already smelled it. It smells like amber and santal. It's so clean. Yeah. It's that clean smell. Like, I don't know how to. And it's warm. Yeah. Yeah. We're gonna put it right here. See? She's gonna stay right there. You can have one. And you can also have a horned hoodie, which is really, really cute. It's got horns. And literally, you put the hood on, and it's horned. It's got horns. And we love it. We were so excited about it. Yup. We've been wanting a candle forever. Yeah. And everybody told us that we couldn't have a candle. And no one would give it to us. Or like, some people wouldn't give it to us. Yeah. But some people did. So, thanks Sirius. Sirius did. Thanks for that. Marissa @Sirius. Yes. She gets us. She kicks ass. So, you guys should get that candle. And one last thing that we think you should do. You should. You should. You should. You should. You should go. Buy tickets to the live show. You should. You should go to Radio City Music Hall on June 27th. See me. See Alayna. I don't know why I did it the wrong way. See me. See Ash. See our special guest, who we can't announce yet. And we're going to have pretty dresses. We are. We're so excited for our costumes. From Romania. It's going to be really fun. And we have a fun theme. And it's going to be a blast. It's one night only. Tickets are going. So, get your tickets while they last. Because we want to see all of you. Bring your friends. Have a blasty blast. Yeah. And Alayna says you're going to spend the night. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Have a blasty blast. Yeah. And Alayna says you can just wander the streets. You don't even have to get a hotel. You can. Don't even get a hotel. Just wander the streets. Just wander the streets until morning. Yeah. In New York. Somebody will give you eggs in the morning. It's New York. Somebody will. Yeah. I don't know if they're reputable. Yeah. But somebody will give them to you. But anyway, that's why you should come. Because you can get a story out of it. It's true. About where the eggs came from. You want lore, don't you? Who doesn't want lore? We all want lore. Speaking of lore, you guys sent in your lore. You did. We have a great many lore. So much lore. Yes. Would you like to start with the lore? Let's start with the lore. I think there's like kids seeing ghosts in this one. Yeah. Because like you're a ghost. Yeah. I see ghosts. All right. So I'll go first. Do it. This one's called "Kids Say the Creepiest Things." They really do. And they do. Can confirm. Hi. Hi. Hi. How are you? I just started listening to Morbid about a month and a half ago. Welcome. Hello. I'm on episode 161 where you guys discuss the screamer. Murder. Wow. You're early. Early. That's a really brutal one. I beg you to stay with us. Just stick with us. We start sounding a lot better. We do. And we got much more professional as time goes on. Yeah. Clearly. In the earlier episodes. Yeah. Clearly. Hello. In the earlier episodes, you guys announced that you're doing live shows. And how excited you were about them. You kept saying, "Live shows 2020. We're coming for you." Yeah. And in my head, I was screaming, "I'm from the future and 2020 ain't it?" Yeah. We wish we heard you back there. Yeah. It was very sad. Every time I listen to an episode, you girls have to talk about ticket refunds and rescheduling, and my heart breaks for you all over again. It was a rough time. It was. Anyways, onto my tale. My name is Dani. Hi, Dani. Hi, Dani. I have a three-year-old named Miles. Not his real name. And since birth, he has always been sensitive. When he was two and a half, we were laying down to take a nap. What he said chilled me to the bone. Now, he was two and a half here. He said, "I miss my other mama." Ew. If I was his current mama, I would be so pissed. I'd be like, "What mama? I'll fight her." What do you mean? I'm your mama. I'm your one and only mama. I sat up confused. What other mama? Honey, I'm your only mama. My mama from when I wasn't Miles. What? This is like my favorite thing ever. Kids who have other wives. This is my favorite thing ever, but if I have this kid, I'm going to be so scared. Yeah. And I can confirm I don't think I have one of those kids. No, I don't think so. Your kids are all pretty fucking weird, though. They are weird. Yeah. But like in the best way. In a fun way. Yeah. Like the coolest way. Yeah. But they don't do this shit. They don't. "I was raised very spiritually. My dad always said reincarnation was real. He thought I was gifted and explained that our family had a long history of psychic abilities. I thought he was full of shit. Sure, I get certain vibes around people or places, and sure, I've had dreams where someone else and I felt like I'm reliving a memory. And yes, I've absolutely seen things that I can't explain. Hat man, I'm talking to you." Ugh, the creepiest. "But the rational scientist said, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' And I was like, 'What? I don't know what you're talking about.' He was like, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' Sure, I get certain vibes around people or places, and sure, I've had dreams where someone else and I felt like I were living a memory. Hat man, I'm talking to you. Ugh, the creepiest. But the rational scientific part of me believed and still thinks, maybe I'm crazy. Or schizophrenic. Or delusional. You never know. Yet, here was my baby, saying something so innocent, I decided to play it cool. Honey, no matter who your mama used to be, I'm your mama now, okay? Period. That's right, you put a period on that sentence. You lay it down. He was silent for what seemed like an eternity. I was half hoping he'd fallen asleep. Then he spoke again. I was driving my car. I was at a gate. And I was Miles, and you were my mama. He said excitedly. I was shook. Fast forward a few months. I had just buckled him in his car seat after a trip to the gas station. As I was tightening the straps on his seat, he looks up at the passenger seat. He draws his eyebrows together, clearly confused. Mama, who's that girl in the front seat? Oh, you got a sixth sense, kid. Yeah, that's scary as hell. My heart dropped out of my butt. My mind immediately went into production mode. Was there a stranger who just casually got in my vehicle without me knowing? What the hell? I glanced up to the passenger seat, and there was no one there. Miles continued to stare at the empty seat. I breathed a sigh of relief. Ghosts were much easier to handle than living breathing fleshies, and honestly, I agree with you. Can you tell me more about her? Is she old like a grandma, or little like you? I asked as I finished tightening his straps. Old like a nana, and she's got orange hair just like me. Miles replied. He kept staring past me. Some ghostly ginger granny was in my car. It was fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. You're going to be a ghostly ginger granny. Hell yeah. That's right. I nodded and said, okay, I believe you. That was a great way to handle that. Validating, yeah. That was really great. A few more weeks went by. We went to our local dollar store for some last-minute dinner supplies. My husband went inside while Miles and I waited in the car. The parking lot was absolutely deserted. Suddenly, out of the blue, Miles says, the little girl behind me says she wants to go home. Nah, I'd be checking out of that one. I'd be like, no, I don't believe you on this one. Personally, I would abandon my husband at that dollar store and skirt right out of there. It was a hot summer day, and still my whole body broke out in goosebumps, and a chill swept through me. The back of my skull tingled. I wanted to nope right out of there, but my husband was still inside the store. Doesn't matter. Leave a point. He'll understand. understand my eyes darted around the desolate parking lot searching for someone some girl getting into a vehicle or driving or anything that miles might have seen to make him say that there was nothing a few more weeks went by without incident no talk of not being miles no talk of anyone who isn't there then we took a road trip to see family as we were driving along the interstate miles looks out the window i was driving my car and it went off the road and through the trees and into the water awesome great miles hey i have become convinced this is not my child's first time on this earth he sees things and people who are not there i try not to talk about it with him but any and if he brings it up i just tell him that i believe him that's really nice that's really nice that's a good way to handle it yeah i don't know how else to handle it it's like this fear that the closer he is to the other side the less of him i get to have here i know that might sound crazy it's not but in this life he is mine i don't want to share i would love to share with you same way thank you for reading this sorry if it was a lot this was amazing hopefully you can use it in a future episode miles even though that's not his real name i love that name i know that is really good but he's creepy as fuck girl he is what are you gonna do with that kid i i always wonder if these kids like i think when they get older they like forget this stuff yeah they do i that's what i've mostly heard but you want them to hold it so that later you can be like tell me everything like tell me what is going on yeah i know but i think they forget it so maybe you continuously being like i believe you and just letting them say it it's probably yeah well like jog his memory enough that maybe he'll remember it a little more maybe because i want to know i definitely think most people aren't as validating like i think more often you hear stories where people are like don't say that oh it was a dream or like yeah you know you saw something yeah yeah all right well that was creepy danny thank you danny that was good and shout out to miles our next tale is galveston ghosties but not a totally sad tale okay and then this listener would like to remain anonymous you gotta go nicholas nicholas we just started we're at the pod lab you're in the pod lab you're at you're at work you like elena yeah i'm not sure if you're you're a fan of me nicholas called me an angel he told me to be quiet what did he say don't i won't push it i won't push your butt he's like you push it i'm not yes sometimes papa says - Oh shit. - When I lived at home, I got that. you're pushing or if i wanted a clown i would have hired one the best one or i would have gone to the circus yep yeah i was a fun kid anyway hello weirdos as i'm cleaning up my classroom for the end of the school year i've been listening to your back catalog you have that in common with the last listener thank you thank you for keeping me entertained through the hours of checklists and boxing up books i just heard your haunted lighthouses episode we need another one of that i know we haven't done that in a while spooky season is coming i know this one is about the galveston hurricane of 1900 i have a super spooky story for you two related to the hurricane and it will give you both the heebies and the jeebies this started in 2013 i had recently discovered i was pregnant so i was still able to walk around without feeling completely exhausted wanting to go out before we had a little one to take care of my husband and i traveled from our home just outside of houston for a date night in galveston we went on a haunted history tour because of course we did yeah wouldn't you yeah you get the opportunity you go on that haunted tour you gotta you can't really bring babies on that so i get it not really maybe like a little bit older kids like yeah yeah but you're doing your damn thing so the island is one of the oldest cities in the country so we wanted to learn more about the spooky history boy did we one of the first stops we made on the tour was to a spot that's now a parking lot oh you put up a parking lot yeah before the hurricane it had been saint mary's orphanage the story is true but we didn't know how to get there so we went on a haunted history tour and it was truly heartbreaking the nuns who ran the orphanage were trying to save the children so they tied them together in lines like little ducklings each line was held by one of the sisters who tied themselves to the children that way if one child was being swept away the other child and the sister could hold on to them the lines of children walked through the flood and the storm to some trees in the area where they climbed up to try to stay away from the rushing waters unfortunately the lines of the rope that were meant to save them did just the opposite as the waters rose the children on the lower branches would be swept away by the rushing waters and they would pull the whole line of children and the sister tied to them away as well out of the more than 90 children who lived in the orphanage only three boys survived the rest were drowned in the gulf we listened to the story and my husband took out his phone he saw three orbs of light in the camera we he lowered his camera and there was nothing in front of him and when he brought up the camera again they were there they were he showed me and we thought maybe it was just a trick of the street lights until the orb started moving he greeted them with a well hello there oh that's really sweet that's really cute and they moved even more not only did the orbs move as we stood there listening to the story from the tour guide they started following us on the tour we told the tour guide later on the tour and they said oh were you expecting apparently this is a fairly common occurrence what that's nuts i love that this would have been a bit spooky but that wasn't the last we met with one of those children my son was about two or three years old playing in his room and we heard him talking totally normal he was playing with his toys then we started hearing him talking to someone he was having a conversation that's my worst fear yeah thinking that very little of what he was doing because what two or three year old boy doesn't have imaginary friends we asked my son who he was talking to he said he was talking to his friend haber he comes by sometimes to play we asked him more about his friend he was an older boy oh that's interesting sweetie what was he telling you oh haber said he has to stay in the tree he has to what haber said that he stays in the tree the tree outside your window no another tree he can't come down he has to stay up there to be safe womp womp womp i don't like it be like why did you come to my house i'd be like why are you here it was cool when we were on the tour but why don't you come to my house it was cute when you were orbs what's going on that's why when you leave a haunted place yeah you have to shake everything like if you don't want this to happen you have to shake everything off and you have to explicitly tell the entities you cannot follow me welcome to come home yeah they can't follow you in your car yeah anywhere we had to do that at the uss salem and they actually instructed us to do it like it was serious we did it at the sk pierce mansion at lizzie borden we've done it every single time we do it everywhere now yeah honestly i'm gonna start doing it mom papa's house truly a lot of those things so my ghoulish friends i couldn't find the names of any of the children who were there but i think my son's friend was telling him about one of the sisters who was in charge of the children sister mary catherine herbert want to know the other super creepy thing not long after we were talking to our friend who was half a romani he told us he really doesn't care to go to a lot of older places because of the fun gift he inherited from his family he could see ghosts he confirmed that our house had several thankfully very friendly folks that like to hang around one of whom was a young boy who was chilling near our son's room that's so wild imagine getting confirmation of that like there's a bunch of ghosts in your house they're friendly though i'd be like that's sick yeah i would love it personally but it would make me that would be spooky yeah it would be really scary and hearing that there's like a young kid that like hangs out by your son's room i'd be like i don't think i'd love that i don't know about that i don't really want kid ghosts yeah kid ghosts freak me out but also like old people kind of suck so i know that's the thing like where's the there's fun old people you know i would love like a nice you know mid 30s like an it's britney ghost you know to like mid 40s yeah you know like we can chill watch kill more girls all right you know like i feel like they're they're like i don't really have the energy to do a lot our son is much older now and hasn't spoken about haber in years so i suspect he just wanted a friendly kid to play for for a while play with for a while the moral of this story is that if you want your kid to have a super friendly ghost friend who chills in his room and plays with the stuffed animals give off friendly parent vibes when you go on co-stores if you don't want something following you home though maybe you want to play with a ghost friend maybe don't say hi or go while you're pregnant that's good advice i would say all right and shake it off yeah you gotta shake it off and you gotta establish the boundary you say no thank you no gracias thank you babe stay here you you love it here stay here i like that anonymous thank you for that is mimi the shadow i already love this uh ash and elena i came across your podcaster in covid as it was for the as it was for most people my covet experience wasn't just your typical covet adventure i had a newborn another child that was potty training and a child in school that's horrific i'm so sorry yeah uh my middle child had a pre-existing condition and experienced seizures the few times we were exposed to the virus holy awful you did not have the normal experience my youngest barely slept my oldest also decided this was the time to hold on to the spiteful feelings for her siblings that tag team ousted her from being an only child on top of that i have never ever been a homebody i wasn't just crawling the walls during covid i would do anything to hear the voice of another adult whether it was talk about a new grout cleaning technique or 12th century cooking impact on southern european politics or how to prepare for next year's taxes with fun new complicated forms anything i like to consider myself as a high functioning pisces so when i found myself trapped with more than my usual downtime even after i marie condoed every space in my house i found myself asking casual everyday questions like how fast did dna evidence help locate the golden state killer or did they really use handwriting analysis to figure out who jack the ripper was no you know normal questions enter morbid in all its glory uh i have several weird stories visits and impossible coincidences this is my favorite weirdo tale that ended in some self-healing oh i love that despite the hell that was covered 2015 was easily the worst year of my life oh no my father died unexpectedly the week my husband was supposed to deploy overseas oh my god which was delayed only a week to attend the funeral within the month my husband's grandfather and stand-in father figure also passed away worse my husband deployed after my father's funeral but before his granddad passed my father's funeral delayed his deployment and therefore did not allow enough time leave to actually attend his own granddad's funeral oh that's so sad that's awful adding my husband's deployment location he was unofficially denied attending it was awful furthermore during my husband's deployment i faced a series of adulting situations solo we just moved three months prior so that i could start a new job in heavily wooded nowhere virginia i didn't have nearby or a very reliable family my mom walked out when i was young and disney hadn't picked up the rights to my stepmother's villain origin story yet absolutely obsessed with you so with no one to lean on even months after the funeral i felt completely flattened i'm so sorry our my young daughter had a lonely birthday and a few months after that she started pre-k it was a struggle to get through the work day and that is when i began to notice just how much my already chatty child had begun to talk to herself a lot it was exhausting enough to get up and go to work while taking care of a strong-willed four-year-old gemini during this time been there so i don't really know what finally made me realize that my daughter was now talking and singing in what seemed like one-sided conversations sometimes for hours in her room or outside listen she might not have even been talking to ghosts a gemini can talk to a wall but i think i think she was yeah all energy was spent minimally functioning and as my daughter is and always has been talkative and imaginative it wasn't until she started to sing songs i had never heard before and repeat mimi says mimi did that i even asked her who this person mimi was remember when your middle used to talk about her other grandmother yeah she wanted to go visit her one time she got like legitimately angry at us because we were like like you can't go i actually forgot about that so i was just saying like no that wasn't a thing yeah that that did happen she was weird and she was like upset and she would describe her grandmother's house her other grandmother it was pink yeah yeah weird yeah and i was like you don't have another one and she would get like genuinely upset yeah she would so i feel like it was a place for her i don't know what's going on kids are weird man there but actually i asked about her friend who i assumed was a friend from daycare only to get a really judgmental look of disgust on a random trip to the store my daughter then told me that mimi never leaves the house whose house i asked confused our house she answered oh i said feeling like an idiot and finally connecting the dots oh oh okay i realized my child had to invent a friend just to cope with our super depressing home situation i took it as a sign to start connecting with any potential new friends i was already a black belt in mom guilt so i feel that so while i contemplated if imaginary friends are signs of irreversible damage knowing that my kid created an imaginary friend also somehow soothed me as a military brat she was already pretty resilient and the things they came up with were pretty cute this was the little push i needed to rejoin the world i also realized mimi was a good friend she never got into mischief was never really blamed for anything broken or missing and always came up with fun things to create or do i would enjoy me i would enjoy songs or games that i overheard while i cleaned or cooked dinner mimi was everywhere involved in everything sometimes i even stopped stooped to using mimi mimi's approval or suggestions to get things mini struggles like tying shoes or brushing teeth over with again this is a gemini we're talking about she could talk her way out of anything and i needed all the help i could get some days gemini's really do be like that it's true when my husband returned from a deployment having another adult in the house helped orient my grief back to normal or as close as you can get after loss in a series of life-changing events one ritual i managed to keep was that every night we read three books and sang three songs one evening my husband volunteered to start reading but our daughter said she was too busy for a book telling him she wanted to play and needed he needed to leave she said get out right now he tried to read a few times only to be repeatedly dismissed as he was interrupting her playing my husband talked to our kiddo for a few more minutes tucked her in and then returned to our living room seemingly amused but off i was surprised he was back so soon so i asked why because i met mimi he joked huh i was surprised i realized i hadn't told him about this imaginary friend he then described walking into her bedroom after hearing her talking in a one-sided conversation who are you talking to he asked our daughter said mimi who's mimi he asked probably smiling ear to ear in his persistently optimistic labradoodle-esque way i love him her response was so random that my husband decided to literally act out her response for me i have to explain that my husband is very easygoing not a man of many words and even less likely to mentally unpack anything that he has experienced he is a man of many words and even less likely to mentally his experience he is adorably oblivious i wouldn't say that he ignores things but if he ever points something out saying that it caught his attention really means something he's the most live and let live person i know i love that to clarify there are kitchen appliances that are higher maintenance than my husband's so play acting his response was not only hilariously random of him it is still a creepy joke we have while i was lying down on our bed my husband sat down on the floor next to me to act out our four-year-old's response to his question who's mimi she is singing and freezes annoyed mid-song while she's seated on the ground looking down she then very slowly deliberately and intermittently lifted her eyes like they're slowly moving then pausing and moving up again up like going up a five rung ladder she then locked eyes with her father and said in an unnervingly hoarse voice mimi's a shadow what the fuck what the actual fuck bitch i don't know if i'm equipped for this i'm nervous i would literally be like love you so much good night that's why he that's what he did he was like okay uh my husband said it was so creepy but we were already laughing enough when i asked him to say it in the weird way she said it at least three more times we laughed about how odd it was and i definitely got goosebumps but we found the whole thing mildly entertaining i shared with my husband that mimi was a better friend than i ever had been the year of loss and grief put a lot of into perspective i was motivated to make some changes and enjoy life more within a few years we were more settled still struggling with the family loss but mimi visited less and less we then moved further north to a city and stopped thank you girl um we moved further north to a city and stopped hearing about mimi altogether ironically my now teenager has no memory of mimi despite their numerous songs that i recorded he always says that he always says that shit and that's where i sit normally so please don't be there maybe he's a beyonce fan uh to the left to the left their backyard walks to make fairy houses or multi-course tea parties several months passed until i had an unexpected call with my grandmother gg gg is the unofficial mayor of her town i love that for gg she's in a nursing home a few states away firmly within her community by community i mean she's literally one phone call away from bootlegged booze in her room or a ride to anywhere in town queen i have called dozens of times for her to answer and tell me she has to go because so-and-so is visiting or that she has to go because she has plans so on a call catching up with gg i'm telling her about our move from the woods to the city and how different it was i was going on and on about taking a hike and all the great pictures we took that's when she said yes mimi always loved that the best and i felt like the blood drained from my body despite being a bit of a woo woo pisces i'm a professional skeptic i've had plenty of supernatural experiences but i never first assume otherworldly explanations i feel that i don't i literally work in facts so hearing mimi's name surprised me hearing my very religious gg say the name that i had only heard in the context as an imaginary friend was bewildering i got chills my stomach did somersaults that's when i realized i hadn't said anything and gg just continued to talk about the weather and cute old lady things i waited for a break in the conversation and finally as normal sauce as you can several minutes after moving out on from a topic i said who did you say likes the fall who who who is that i tried not to stutter my mother mimi well she went by mimi that's what we called her she explained she had never talked about her mother and in her very tennessee way she then went on to inform me all about mimi's people family background she had never talked about her mother and in her very tennessee way she then went on to inform me all about mimi's people family background and their successful family background and their successful family background and their successful careers football related achievements careers football related achievements careers football related achievements love of animals and the water and the love of animals and the water and the love of animals and the water and the woods i love when southern people call woods i love when southern people call woods i love when southern people call like family they're people they're people like family they're people they're people like family they're people they're people who are your people yeah you're my people who are your people yeah you're my people who are your people yeah you're my people you're my people yeah i love it i went on you're my people yeah i love it i went on you're my people yeah i love it i went on to learn that mimi was a very musical to learn that mimi was a very musical to learn that mimi was a very musical person person the songs she was a pianist a violin the songs she was a pianist a violin the songs she was a pianist a violin player and a singer this all made sense player and a singer this all made sense player and a singer this all made sense as my grandmother was in every singing as my grandmother was in every singing as my grandmother was in every singing group that would allow that they would group that would allow that they would group that would allow that they would allow her allow her allow her gg also had a song for the most random gg also had a song for the most random gg also had a song for the most random drinking songs songs about people that drinking songs songs about people that drinking songs songs about people that don't mind their own business etc don't mind their own business etc don't mind their own business etc i want to know that song please the more i want to know that song please the more gg shared the more i mentally came gg shared the more i mentally came gg shared the more i mentally came undone but i couldn't say anything other undone but i couldn't say anything other undone but i couldn't say anything other than than than wow mimi was the oldest of three wow mimi was the oldest of three wow mimi was the oldest of three children and had a tough childhood children and had a tough childhood children and had a tough childhood apparently mimi's mother divorced her apparently mimi's mother divorced her apparently mimi's mother divorced her d-bag cheating husband when she was about d-bag cheating husband when she was about d-bag cheating husband when she was about 10 to raise mimi and her brothers on 10 to raise mimi and her brothers on her own. Mimi was kept to a high standard in school and she not only played the violin and piano and orchestra, she was in debate, glee club, latin club, choral, what is chorale? Like the golden chorale. Chorale? What's chorale? Chorus. Oh that's what that is? Chorale. Chorale. What is chorale? What is chorale? Tell me. It's chorus. And I love Mikey went, it's chorus. That's why I said chorale. Flourish. I liked that. Why it's chorus. He said chorus. Chorus. And other clubs with names I do not understand. Okay I'm glad you don't understand either. She went on to meet her husband and have four children. Gigi said she didn't always see eye to eye with her mother but Mimi didn't put up with anyone's nonsense. Hell nah. She encouraged Gigi not to marry young but rather go to school and make her own money. This led my grandmother into a lifelong career in teaching, a gift she uses whenever she gets the chance. Aww. I had such an out-of-body experience hearing about Mimi. It never felt like a mere coincidence that my child's imaginary friend also had the nickname of my late great grandmother who happened to only be around during one of the darkest periods of my life. I didn't even think about that part. Yeah. That's really beautiful. I still have never met anyone or heard of my child knowing anyone with that name. This conversation was so upsetting that it took me years to even tell anyone and I still can't share this story without getting very emotional. On top of that this experience never qualified as a tell me about yourself without sounding batshit crazy kind of thing. So thank you for having a weirdo platform to share this. Of course. The most unnerving part of all of this is that Gigi is my mother's mother so having any discussion about mothers let alone my mother was taboo or upsetting. Conversations about my mother involve shame, guilt, or the insistence that I forgive her for her many transgressions. I heard that. So hearing that my own Gigi had issues with her mom was illuminating. I finally decided I needed to tell Gigi. With the complexity of our relationship and my own mother lingering in the past it took me nine full years to tell my grandma about this bizarre coincidence. It also took a while because it never felt right telling Gigi randomly through a phone call that maybe her late mother might have been visiting her great great granddaughter to take care of us while I was a mentally a ghost myself. I couldn't have said the words out loud if I tried and I did. So nine years later I finally mustered the courage to share this experience with Gigi. at this point she was in a nursing home after a bad fall and was having several complications she also had found out my mother had recently committed some shenanigans with her bank account why do people do that shit that we know them yep we know them i didn't know any of this was going on when i called and she was so glad just to talk to someone when i asked if i could share a weird story and then told her about mimi the shadow guest she took a long pause before speaking the kind any sane person would need to take if their loved one told them that they were communicating with their dead mother when she started to talk i realized she had paused because she was crying this was out of character and i started to feel like an idiot when she finally said thank you that brings me a lot of comfort she always has this power positive veneer so when she went on to open up about the shitty things going on she admitted her frustration of feeling like a burden and her disappointment with my mother all things we had never discussed before so then i cried even though it was due to me saying this possibly batshit crazy thing we were definitely being real discussing her mother seemed to open the door to discuss her daughter with me for the first time in an honest way it also confirmed that there was still an unbreakable motherly thread of love and human dignity in the non-stop soap opera that is my family we heard that we heard we were finally able to discuss a painful and unwelcome elephant in the room that seemed to taint every conversation i had with gigi as an adult it felt like we could finally move past what had been left unsaid since then we've been able to talk more honestly about anything i can call her for wisdom anytime that is when she isn't too busy entertaining her neighbors or enjoying a bootlegged margarita what an absolute i mean these visits seem to have healed us both i've attached some photos of mimi and her epic bob below i love a good bob i love a good bob you need it i know i kind of want like a bob you need a bob even looking at this length on you it's not quite bob but like the shorter length the long length looks incredible but the short length you have that like jaw that just like eats something thank you yeah i want a and that's from a bad dress that is i take it seriously hair off well maybe i will step maybe we'll snap clap uh so we're getting some photos of mimi i'm so excited an epic bob thank you for reading this and thank you for having the weirdo platform to read these stories and in true pisces fashion keep it weird but not so weird that you don't receive a possible message of love and comfort from a deceased relative that just wants to let you know that you aren't alone when you need it the most take it away ash i think you did the damn thing for me also the over the shoulder just like you can't touch me he's like i'm mimi she said i'm in the glee club i'm in corral she said that picture is giving i'm in corral she's a queen with her little choker oh that me she's that me oh that's for the glee club she's that she is oh there's more oh tea party with mimi oh so let the creep factor oh my god i love it oh i want to have tea parties with my great-grandkids when i'm dead you're gonna i'm gonna that's you know you can do whatever you want when you're done i'm pretty sure so okay the next one is all the ghosties love me the listener tale of a creepy ass kid oh my god the ghosties love me too i know they do love you apparently they hate me hey guys i'm jacqui or jackie or jackie i don't know uh but you can just call me the girl who talks to ghosts because that's what my first grade teacher used to call me behind my back what a what a i know she didn't talk behind your back she couldn't even say your name jacqui yeah jacqui jacqui my adhd is kicking in real hard my adhd is kicking in real hard so there might be some spelling mistakes and i definitely rambled a bit but i'm gonna just leave this here i have to say i love you guys can i just say that my boyfriend finds murder creepy and gets super uneasy when i have my headphones in and i'm laughing out loud because he knows i'm listening to you thank you for keeping it so weird that i have tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard at the two of you bullying a murderer yeah bullying is only okay when the person is literal human trash period agreed anyways let me tell you just one of the reasons i don't with any superstitions let's go okay look i was always a kind of weird kind of creepy kid me too according to my mom i chased away most all of my babysitters at first they thought it was because our house backed an old water town yes massachusetts hell yeah uh cemetery but they later found out that at least a couple of them were really just over me telling them about my friends you know the man in the wheelchair the old lady with a red cane or whoever else decided to hang outside my bedroom window lived on the second floor that's weird but don't leave what can i say i'm friendly the kid has to say yeah i'm friendly in a good goddamn time yeah my preschool class didn't think so though so none of them ever talked to me oh i hate that that's not cool you're just a baby they're adults now she's just a baby trust me i'll fight them uh i guess they were a little older than me but they always pretended that i didn't exist at least from what i could remember i remember being in this class and being ignored by the other kids who are older than me anyways strap in you're on the site yeah we'll fight them for you here's the story of my first ever full memory my school was basically in our backyard and my mom brought me there all the time so you better believe my ass was confused when my teacher was in my room one morning waking me up because i was late for the class easter egg hunt what i'm sorry did i did i read that correct okay okay my mom grew up in summerville during the sugar hill gang slash whitey bulger era oh no and her neighbor went missing when she was a kid oh plus my friend group wasn't exactly kosher for a four-year-old so you better believe that my house was nearly impossible to get into from the outside time to go my teacher said get dressed we're late i hate this in every way that you could hate something hey so are you being kidnapped yeah what's going on where the is your who's your teacher uh well i was four so i looked them up in the news like probably she waited for me to put on my white snow boots and my purple snow suit all by myself we were quiet because my parents were still sleeping i'm you're being upset right now you're being kidnapped somebody call somebody call someone i don't like i'm upset retroactive 911 i'd like to report i want to stop this as it's happening my teacher took me i took my hand and walked me outside to join the egg hunt i was frustrated because the big kids were all finding the eggs and i hadn't got any my not so tiny legs your girl was lanky kept getting stuck in the mounds of snow she was leading me through i could retrace every step i took i could tell you what the big kids said to tease me i could reenact the entire day it was my first real memory what kid is teasing a four-year-old also give me the names of every one of these kids because they're adults now and they deserve to get walloped wallop she's into that word lately wallop i like pummeled so let's fast forward a couple of years when you weren't kidnapped what happened i don't want to fast forward a couple of years i'm not going to fast forward a couple of years what is going on well we have to fast forward a couple of years i'm looking through old photo albums with my mom or the teacher that stole you you know 80s baby style we come across this picture of me knee deep in a pile of snow hair a mess and my purple snowsuit a snowsuit was that my egg hunt i asked my mom she gave me a confused look no this is my first ever memory the egg hunt with my class the look she gave me made me feel self-conscious is that how you remember it she asked yeah with the winnie the pooh school i'm so nervous now she looked annoyed i told her it was my first memory and that my teacher had to wake me up so that i didn't miss it you still believe that she asked me obviously well of course i have very vivid memories of that day i remember the picture being taken when i found my first egg i looked at the photo again and i was holding a snowball no mom i remember the egg hunt oh no jack she said in the sweetest voice that was the day you got up got yourself dressed and went outside to play by yourself your dad and i almost lost it when you weren't in your bed i didn't remember that but i started flipping through the album to find the picture of me and my egg i know you took the picture where is it i asked my mom she was shocked there was no picture there was no egg hunt there was no teacher there was no school what the but i remember the big kids were always mean they ignored me i begged her to remember you used to say that she told me when you were younger the big kids don't like me you said it all the time i remember some of their names though i remember who picked on me and who just ignored me the winnie the pooh school mom i begged her to remember the classroom she took me to the room with winnie the pooh painted on the wall she used my full name when she told me to cut the and that's when i realized something was weird apparently when i was a kid i didn't just have imaginary friends i had an imaginary classroom what the apparently my mom and i would sit and play question mark in the cemetery for hours in the mornings i have real memories of this school vivid memories i could draw a picture of the teacher that woke me up that morning if you asked me to i used to tell my mom what i learned in school colors numbers the alphabet she always just went with it 30 years later i found out i actually didn't go to school years later when we were living in a different house don't worry by that point i had younger sisters so i guess i finally had some real friends i've never had the guts to look into the cemetery or a reason that i thought i was in school all of that time this is wild but you can say for sure that someone helped me get dressed that morning someone held my hand while i climbed to the snow and i actually heard the big kids laughing at me when i only found one egg which also i will still wallop them yeah even if they're not real in the afterlife that pisses me off this was probably why i couldn't keep a babysitter for more than one night maybe spirits were my spirits were my friends and my teachers even the big kid bullies never tried to hurt me they just pretended i didn't exist maybe because they didn't see you because they were just like ghosts and you weren't this story doesn't really have a climactic ending or even a point it was pretty climactic but to this day i'm very respectful of spirit folklore because spirits were always friends to me yeah ash i'm gonna take this one and say keep it so weird that spirits just want to be around you and you want to be and want to be your friends definitely keep it that weird i had no idea at any point during that story where it was going to go next i thought that you fully got kidnapped i thought you were going to discover that you had been kidnapped and you were traumatized so they didn't tell you and they just told you it was an egg hunt yeah i thought so too i thought your mom was gonna be like fuck jack i thought that you didn't know that you got kidnapped i didn't know that you were going to discover that you were going to discover that you got kidnapped that's crazy babe i'm proud of you that's wild good for you girl damn i'll still hit those kids for you hit them uh they're adults now i'll hit them as adults uh holy shit damn you guys are creepy so far yeah you are that was crazy this one's creepy too this next one's called spoopy ass kids in a haunted daycare all right oh good another school is this one real i hope so hello ladies my name is hannah feel free to use my name because i will lose it if this is ever read on a listener tales episode lose it hannah do you know what i just remembered recently one time we took this was real one time we took a field trip to this like school and we had to pick old-timey names and i picked hannah because it was of the choices it was of the choices why'd you have to pick an old-timey name because we were pretending to be old-timey it was when i had that crazy sunburn remember yeah with the bubble oh my god yeah with the blister it popped at that it was like a one-room school that we all went to for like a field trip but why was hannah an old-timey name i i don't know anything about any of this i picked it because one i think it's pretty and two it's a palindrome oh there you go hannah hannah hannah hannah hannah i like how you're a nice car see what i mean yeah that's weird i just randomly remembered that the other day that's one of your first memories there you go but not one of my first was it real who knows it was real because the sunburn who can be sure trust me i'm sure that sunburn rocked my life that sunburn wow i think it was a third degree burn i yes dr dr h was pissed i believe it yeah anyway there's that you know dr h so i changed the names of everyone involved for you so no need to worry about them thank you all right you two are absolutely hilarious oh my god thank you i've been listening to you since late 2020 and it really is covid and you both brought so much joy to sanity these insanity sanity uh whenever i need a mood booster i know i can look forward to a new episode or find an old one to re-listen to because you get it and always provide a laugh when it's needed oh i'm a fellow new englander hey neighboring state of connecticut uh my youngest one would say connect the car yeah so all your new england cases really hit different i wanted to share this listener tale because it was one of my best friend's favorite stories to be kept up to date on she was going through cancer treatment while this was happening so it was something i could tell her to make her laugh she passed away in 2019 i'm sorry and i miss her every day your banter and love for each other reminds me of her he said power power sister shit that was crazy um your banter and love for each other reminds me of her and i can't thank you and i don't you dare turn him off i saw that mikey i saw that mikey just tried to silence nicholas and it's me he doesn't like it oh no you're the liar you're the liar see wow not like being silenced you're cheating well i got that mom peripheral vision that's like don't do that like you see it i thought you were scratching your leg to be honest oh no look at him owning it oh no he's gonna kill me what did he say tombstone well girl don't silence a ghost he's so mad somebody already tried to silence him because he's dead he's dead all right this is a tale from my days of working in a daycare oh god when i started at the school i was given a brief history of the building it was originally built as a wealthy wealthy family's house then turned into a restaurant slash bar and finally became a school seems like a logical progression right sure it's an artsy nature-based bougie school for kids birth to kindergarten birth in my classroom to school you go there you go learn the two-year-old room where there was there was a large fireplace that went floor to ceiling in the middle of the room it was raised so we put pillows in it to make a space we called the cozy nook for kids to relax in you let them relax in the fireplace i doubt it was work guys my favorite part of the job was basically telling the kids to sit in the fireplace when they needed to calm down can't say that every day the teacher said the year before one kid always used to ask what's in the nook when it was empty or who's in the nook i thought they were just trying to fuck with me as the new teacher but old ladies was i dead wrong sometimes like you said old ladies was i wrong and i was like excuse me she said old bitches let me tell you she said you elderly fucks sometime in november one of the boys pointed to the top of the fireplace looked at me and said it's a ghost okay all i could think was nope there was nothing there so i ignored it she's a early november yeah bail us then there you go he was two and still learning english so i just hoped ghost was another word for something much less ominous in his language he ended up moving to at the end of the month so i figured it was over little did i know it was just beginning oh good in january i was sitting behind the fireplace at the snack table with another girl julie julie looked at me and said there's a ghost and when i asked where she just casually said it's here now you may think all right this little ragamuffin heard for this from someone else and was just repeating it since she was two and what else do you do it to no freaking way this girl was beyond her years when it came to her language you could have a full conversation with her and convince yourself she was a kindergartner in kindergarten even though she could fit in your pocket she was the only kid who i would hands down believe i mean the kid built a panera out of blocks one morning how can you not trust her judgment i respect that i had chills all day the next day during lunch four kids started laughing getting really silly and pointing to the spot my old student pointed at in november the spot above the fireplace i should also mention this is like eight feet off the ground the teachers couldn't even reach the top one of the girls at the table turns and looks me dead in the eye before saying that's not safe that baby shouldn't be up there what the fuck again nothing was there my heart dropped into my butt and i was like yep it's time to leave this place the crescendo of the haunting was two days later i was having a snack with julie again when she finally cut when she calmly stated i can't understand i asked about what she was listening to the school was on a busy road and there was always something fun happening outside she looks up from her homemade granola cereal again boozy boozy ass school with personal chefs just say what's he what he's saying i can't understand what he's saying to me now sitting there probably hung over from wine wednesday i partook in the night before i'm like i don't have the energy for this bullshit today when i asked her what she was talking figuring she met one of her three classmates also sitting with us she said him that red guy what while pointing to the empty chair next to me ladies my uber was there i looked at her my heart now in my toes and asked her to tell me success and asked her to tell me again who uh who it was and she said that guy that stripy guy over there and pointed next to the table my mind went to a million places at that point i think all right you motherfucker there's either one small child and red stripes walking around or we have accumulated three ghosties a baby someone covered in blood and an old-time escape escape prisoner personally i wasn't about any of these options best part of all of this i was the last one to take my break so for an hour every day i just sit in the class alone i'm not gonna get up again because that didn't go well last time but that motherfucker just said his name he just said he's astute nicholas you are astute okay um so she had to sit in there alone wait an hour i don't know what else to do so she had to sit in there an hour every day during lunch or during nap time in a pitch black room with 16 sleeping children and a loud ass noise machine going oh that would overstimulate me in a way i can't describe oh i would fall asleep can't even count how many times everything would be dead silent i would fall asleep i would fall asleep i would wake up crying or i'd look up from my paperwork to see one of the gremlins awake and just silently staring at me from their cot nightmare fuel anyone you just gotta look at them and say don't do that don't do that go back to sleep none of the children were ever frightened or upset by the ghost if anything it would make them laugh if it thought no one was watching for the rest of the time i worked there i walked in and greeted the ghost slash ghosts in the morning to let him slash them know we were taking care of the room and we were making sure the kids were safe other teachers in the classroom and they let me know that their children wake up screaming during nap so it's going a little differently now a little different i told them just to greet him and their kids haven't been bothered since well so he just wanted to be recognized he was like just say hello that's my just in case anybody hears that. The school chefs have seen someone running through the school on weekends. Awesome. I hate that. And heard footsteps upstairs when there are only the two of them in the building. That's freaky. I've tried researching the history of the school, but sadly I can't find anything. Basically, I just laugh thinking about that crazy-ass ghost fucking up teachers' days while making kids laugh. I've since moved on to a new career as a sonographer. I'm about to start an evening shift where I expect to see some insanity on a different level. But I always laugh thinking about my otherworldly friends back at the school. I hope to see you both at a live show soon. You should come to Radio City. Keep it weird, but not so weird that some little asshole kids tell you about the spoopy, invisible, murdered prisoner, baby, sitting next to you, and then you sit alone in a dark room. It is strange, man. It is strange. And then you sit alone in a dark room wondering who's watching you. Bye! Bye! That was a scary one. That was spooky! I like that it was either a baby, someone, a bloody man, or an old-timey prisoner. What have you. All of those are really scary. Take your pick. That's scary shit. Yeah, that's spooky. Those were good. Wow. If you guys have listener tales, please send them in to morbidpodcasts at gmail.com with listener tales somewhere in the subject line. Yeah, Nicholas will love it. He'll appreciate it. He literally said his own name. He said his name. That's actually wild. He was like, say my name, say my name. And then he was like, I'll do it. He was like, I'll do it. Tell me about it. He just said it. Maybe he is a Beyoncé fan. He said, tell me about it. Say my name, Destiny's Child. Uh, yeah. Beyoncé's in that, right? Yeah. See? Yes. Do you like Beyoncé? Are you in the B house? I was just going to ask that! The way he said, tell me about it. He got a little. All right. Well, we love ya. We do. We hope you keep listening. We hope you. Keep it. We. - But that's so weird that you don't reach out to Beyonce until we got a fan in the office. - Am I right, Nicholas? - From the afterlife. - Got anything else to say? - Yeah. © transcript Emily Beynon