Spooked - Friends on the Other Side

Episode Date: August 21, 2021

Sometimes, spirits reach out and ask us for help. And sometimes, they reach out to give us what we need, too. STORIES Night Nurse Dennis is a nurse, a helper. But when spirits of former patients reach out to him, he’s not sure if he can care for them. Big love to Dennis for sharing his story with the Spooked! Produced by Chris Hambrick, original score by Dakim All Dogs go to Heaven It’s confirmed: all dogs do go to heaven. Thank you, Kristin Kent, for sharing your story with us! Produced by Zoë Ferrigno, original score by Moises Nunez Artwork by Teo Ducot Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Now I lay me down to rest. My sometimes love head on my chest, I pray. She never knows me true or asks of deeds I had to do. You're listening to Spoot. Stay. We got questions. Riddle, speculation, smoke. But I do know that this space, this place, this veil, this path between here and there,

it does not only exist in shadow or in sadness or in pain now this place this place too can live under the light of a thousand suns bathe with joy wrapped in wonder because the mystery is not just one thing mystery cannot be defined

the mystery defines itself all real mysteries do book stars to this show they know that some people they can see the fallen They can talk with them. Sometimes they can even help them. This is not news.

We understand that here already. Instead, I want to ask you, how do you decide if you want to use that gift in the first place? My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I was about eight years old. My sister was a nurse, and I would always see her taking care of him. And I wanted to take care of him, but I didn't know what to do. so oftentimes I would feel helpless because I wanted to know how to make him feel better.

Unfortunately, he ended up passing away about a year later. But that kind of steered my course to become a nurse or just be in the medical field. I'm a new nurse and I get hired at this hospital through job fair. And I'm just super ecstatic about it. It was definitely not my first choice to be a night shift, but it was the only one available. I'm being oriented onto the floor. The nurse that's training me is just kind of showing me the ropes. This particular wing is somewhat V-shaped.

The hall is pretty well-kept. Floors are super shiny. We try to be as discreet as possible during the night. We're walking slowly room by room, kind of peeking our heads into the patient's room just to make sure that they're okay. As we continue to progress down, the hall, I just noticed there is a shift in energy. At first it's subtle, but then as we approach

towards the end of the hall, it gets heavier and heavier. I could feel it start from my feet and slowly rising up and crawl up my spine. I felt like little tingles. We finally approach the end of the hall, our backs are turned towards room 323. I felt this sense of anxiety emanating from that room. It was dark, the door was open. It doesn't make sense, though, because it wasn't occupied. I tried to ignore it, but I just couldn't. The nurse that's training me, she's going over the tasks on the computer,

but I'm not even paying attention because my attention is toward that room. room, I wanted to ask her like, hey, is there anything going on in that room? But, you know, I didn't want to, you know, come off as crazy on my first day on the floor. So I just kind of, you know, waved it off at that point. I finished my shift after my orientation. So I'm going home. This memory just popped into my head. I was around nine years old.

And I was outside in the backyard. This was early in the morning. You know, I'm taking care of my dog. And then I start feeling somewhat dizzy, not only in my head, but pretty much throughout my whole body. All of a sudden, I just feel that there is someone behind me. And then right next to my ear, I hear someone just breathe out. Like, I thought it was my brother just messing around with me. But then I look, and then there's no one there.

my whole body just lit up my heart dropped and I just had to get out of there. I just ran back in. Growing up, my mom would tell me, don't be alarmed. It's just sometimes spirits just come passing through and they don't mean you any harm at all. Or they just want to pass a certain message on. The very next day, I go back on to my shift and it's roughly around 3 a.m. finish my tasks. So I'm just sitting on my computer

on the workstation on wheels, charting away. I hear some sniffling. You know, it's kind of subtle at first. And then all of a sudden, I hear sobbing. So I'm thinking, where is this coming from? You know, like do they need help? I'm looking around, and then I look behind me,

and it's coming from room 323. I want to make sure that, Whoever's in there is fine and they need anything, I'll help them out. As I'm getting closer to that room, I'm feeling that same sense of dread again, but now it's just growing more intense. The room is completely dark. My knock on the door, is anyone in here? And that's when sobbing stops. So I step into the room, I start feeling this dizziness.

It's not as bad at first, but with each step I take, that does. and this gets more intense and to the point where I actually have to lean against the wall a little bit. I'm looking around me. It's still dark, but I can see the room is perfectly clean, perfectly set up. The bed was made. That room was obviously ready to take in a patient, so no one should have been there. But there's someone just standing in the corner. She has her hospital gown.

on barefooted, long black hair. I could kind of see right through her. I couldn't really see her face, though. I get this overwhelming sense of confusion, but it's not coming from me. I think it's coming from her. I actually see her take a step back even further into the corner. Like, please don't disturb me.

And I feel like she is actually frightened of me. I felt the only logical way to respond back was to just kind of project that I wasn't there to hurt her. But I just didn't know how to verbalize that. So I recited it in my head, hey, look, I'm not here to hurt you. As I turn toward her to face her,

I blink and then she's just gone. She just completely disappears. And as soon as I see, that I feel every terror in my body just stand up. And I knew at that point I just had to get out because this is the first time I've actually really seen an entity. I've never seen someone so clearly. As soon as I get out, the dizziness is completely gone.

It's like as if it wasn't even there. After that, I see one of the nursing assistants just walking down the hall. Curiosity overtakes dread for me. And I ask him like, hey, is there anything going on in that room that I shouldn't know about. And he asked me, like, what just happened? I'm like, I just saw something in there.

I felt something. He's like, yeah, no, we all have. He's like, just not even a big deal. Oh, yeah, the room's haunted. That's why usually that's the room that's last occupied. We try to avoid putting anyone in there unless we really have to. I'm just kind of, how is this not a big deal to you? it was slightly upsetting for me.

I definitely did want to help her out. I just, I didn't know how. Like, how does one help out someone that's not alive anymore? Like, how do you ask, hey, can we get that room to be cleansed? Obviously, you can't stage the place because, you know, smoking allowed. Roughly around three weeks later, I'm nearing my lunch break and it's around 2.30 a.m. Usually, I like to nap during that time because oftentimes I'm not even that hungry anyway.

I really couldn't find a place until one of the other nurses told me, like, you can take a nap in the family room. There's no one there. There's a big set of windows straight across from the exit. There's a TV in the corner. and then the wheelchairs are set up facing the windows. I walk into that room. I do a little check. There was no one there.

I just want to take a 30-minute nap. So walk on over to the couch, set up my alarm. And then as I lay down, I start feeling that sense of dizziness. I sit up again and I just have to take a couple deep breaths. Like maybe I lay down to you. fast. I don't know what's going on. So as I'm sitting there, I look over to my left, and then I notice there's an old person sitting on the wheelchair looking out the window. I see both his hands on the hand rest, and I just see the back of his head, you know, slightly balding, and he's just

looking out. I feel this certain chill go down my spine. I knew from then on that it was an entity. Like my hairs were standing up. It's every bit of my body. telling my logical mind that this person isn't supposed to be here right now. And I just get this sense of I really wish I was out there right now. I want to leave, but I can't. I miss my family, but I can't see them. I start tearing up a little bit. I wasn't even thinking about any sort of sadness.

All I wanted was just to kind of lay down. all this sadness had to be coming from him. Oh, geez, he's probably one of those people that I passed away here, but he's trapped. He doesn't know where to go. I just kind of closed my eyes a little bit. The process what was going on, and I opened my eyes again, and he was gone. There's still that residual effect. There's still that sadness that's kind of lingering around.

I didn't want to deal with it anymore. I was too tired. So I think I'm just going to go nap in my car. I stand to get up, and that's when the door opens and I see one of my coworkers walk right in. I guess because she was on her break, too. She looks at me. She's like, hey, are you okay? I couldn't really verbalize how I was feeling at that point.

She tells me, you look kind of pale. She's like, you saw something, didn't you? I'm like, well, yeah, I just saw a ghost. You know, I just saw an old man just sitting on the wheelchair. She's like, yeah, we've seen them too. I'm like, why aren't you guys telling me this? Why am I left to discover this stuff by myself? She's just like, well, I mean, if we told you, you wouldn't believe us.

I decided never to nap there again. And I was thinking, you know, this can't keep happening while I'm at work. It was definitely that night where I did make that decision that I want to be able to choose who and what. I see, I would love to learn what to do, but at the same time, I cannot bear that responsibility. Because what if I do learn what to do, is everyone just going to come at me at once? It leaves me helpless. So I'd rather just not be in that situation.

I actually did a little bit of research, and that's how I came up with meditation. Through your power of your mind, you can actually form a white, bubble of positivity that prevents any sort of unwanted energy or entity trying to, you know, get to you. At the point where I know that my meditation was working is that certain parts of the day, I'll feel a chill again, like something crawling up from my foot or crawling up my back. And before, I would just kind of let that feeling continue. But I make a conscious effort to say,

No. I'm going to stop you from progressing. That way they can't interact with me or I don't see them. It's like, yeah, maybe my mom was right. It's just a person walking down the street, but I don't even care. I don't even want a live person following me home. So how much more for a person that's already passed on, you know. I did see an opportunity to go day shift. I just went there. I feel like I'm making up for helping people not get to that person. point yet and do everything in my power to help them out while they're still alive. I have specific nine to five business hours only. Big, big love to Dennis for sharing your story to spooked with the original score. Poor that story was by Doc Kim.

It was produced by Chris Hamburg. I don't want to give too much a way for this story. I just want to state plainly that not everything hidden is scary. A lot of things are. I know that by now, but not all of them. I'm 22 years old. I'm living with my mom and dad in northern New Jersey. I had dropped out of art school.

So I was working at the mall. I was working as a makeup artist. I was just trying to kind of figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. I had gone down the shore that summer a couple times. That's what you do in New Jersey. Just drive around in your car and go hang out with your friends. And, you know, when people's mom and dad are out of town, they would have parties. Janine is a very good friend in mine. She's somebody that I had met waitressing at a job a year earlier.

So she invited me one night to one of her friends from high school's house, her friend Yvette. And I had never been to Yvette's house before. And I'd actually only met her a couple times. I have to work at the mall that night. But after I get off work at 9, I head straight over to the party. So I pull into the neighborhood and it's a very nice suburban neighborhood, you know, big, beautiful split-level homes. big yards, long driveways. It's dark out by the time I arrive. Janine had told me earlier in the day that when I got to the house

just to head straight to the backyard. So I get out of my car and I start heading towards the driveway and I see this dog about 30 feet away from me on the driveway. It's a collie dog. It looks like Lassie from the 1950s TV show. Brown and white and very fluffy.

Those dogs have a longer snout and they kind of always look like they're smiling. When their mouth is open and they're panting, they have this little cute kind of smiley look to them. So I kind of kneel down and I call to it to get it to come closer to me and it does. It comes about six feet away from me. And he's standing there looking at me. I'm kind of going like, come here, come here. Like I wanted to pet it.

He seems friendly, but he wouldn't get close to me. He just turns around and just kind of trots off into the backyard. I get into the backyard and everybody's back. There, it's a big party. There's probably about 30 people. It's a beautiful summer night. There's people playing beer pong. There's people hanging out. There's music playing. Some really awesome 90s music. There's chairs set up out in the middle of the yard. People were sitting around drinking beer. There was people kind of throwing a football around. There's a big deck. People are up on the deck. So I immediately find Janine. She shows me where the beers are. I'm hanging out. I'm having a good time.

getting introduced to people. Over the course of the next few hours, I see the dog, and the dog is just having the time of his life. First, it's kind of running really quick, doing circles around the yard. And then I later on, I see it, you know, running and catching a ball in its mouth, jumped up and caught the ball right in its mouth. And I'm thinking, gosh, this is so nice that these guys at this party are playing with this dog. So it starts to rain, and everybody starts grabbing things to bring inside.

I think I grabbed some, like, paper cups. and things like that. The rain is coming down pretty good. I'm running up the deck stairs with a bunch of things in my arms. And as I get to the top of the deck stairs where it goes into the kitchen, I just happen to turn and look out into the yard

and the dog is just standing in the middle of the yard. And he's staring up at me. Our eyes meet and I'm thinking, oh, this poor dog is getting all wet out here in the yard. So now I go into the kitchen and Janine and Yvette are kind of cleaning up from having brought everything into the house. house and I say, hey, Yvette, just so you know, your dog is still out in the yard.

Yvette says, oh, I don't have a dog. And I said, oh, well, then, you know, whoever brought their dog to the party, their dog is still out in the yard. And she kind of looks at me and she's like, there was no dog here tonight. And Janine is standing there too. And she's like, yeah, Kristen, there was no dog. And I said, no, there was definitely a dog here tonight. Like maybe, was it the neighbors?

Do your neighbors have a dog? They're kind of looking at me like I'm crazy and they're like there was no dog here at this party tonight what are you talking about. I can't believe what I'm hearing because I know what I had just seen. I'm feeling confused and I'm getting frustrated and I said well I saw a dog. It came up to me on the driveway when I got here

and I saw it running around all night. It was playing. It was running. I mean it was catching balls in its mouth. And then I said it was, you know, this collie dog And then that's when Yvette kind of stopped and was like, a collie dog, did it look like Lassie? And I said it looked exactly like Lassie. And that's when she says, well, we did have a collie that looked like Lassie.

His name was Chancy, but he died a few years ago. And he's actually buried in the backyard. So now the hair's on my next stand up. I kind of start to feel like, oh my gosh, what is happening? What did I see? Why am I the only person that saw this? It's like a very eerie, creepy feeling. Yvette now leads me down this little hallway off the kitchen, and she points to a picture in a collage frame on the wall.

And sure enough, there's this dog in one of those little collage pictures. The dog in the picture had that same smile. He had the same coloring. He looked to be the same size and weight as the dog I had seen. I didn't really have any doubt on my mind. And I said, this is absolutely the same dog. It was the same dog. I can just tell Yvette is freaked out and she's shutting down a little bit.

She says, okay, I don't really want to talk about this anymore. And she walks away and goes back to the kitchen and is doing what she was doing before. I was creeped out, but she was very creeped out. I'm kind of dealing with this disbelief of like, oh my gosh, what did I see? My stomach is feeling that weird roller coastery feeling where you just kind of feel like you're swirling. I kind of started to think like, well, who was throwing those balls to the dog? I mean, I know I saw the dog catching balls, but I never saw who threw them. Now I go back outside in the rain and I'm standing at the top of the deck and I'm looking out over the whole.

yard and I see no dog. I'm searching for this dog because I want to find him. I want to see that he's there. I don't want to believe what I've just seen. I can tell Yvette is kind of giving me a little bit of a side eye. She didn't really, I don't think like what I was telling her and I can understand. I can fully, fully understand. I had never been to this house before and here I am telling her, I just saw her dog in the backyard. So I just decided to leave. leave. It's still raining. It's coming down pretty good. It's a big summer storm. I'm walking down the driveway past the same exact spot. I had just seen that dog earlier that night, but the dog is gone. The dog is nowhere to be found. Fast forward a couple of years, Janine got engaged and being

that she and Yvette were good friends. Evette's family hosted Janine's Brattle Shower at their house. So now it's going to be the second time I'm going back to the same house. So the day of the I get there early and it's daylight, so, you know, everything looks different. We're setting things up. I say to Janine, you know, gosh, it's kind of interesting being back here. I haven't been here since this, you know, strange occurrence that had happened. And, you know, Janine says, you know, do you want to go see where Chansey's grave is? So she leads me to the very back right-hand corner of the yard. It's kind of a shady corner. There's lots of trees above it.

and there's a little stone that is for Chancy, and it has his name on it. I tried to talk to Chancy in my head, which sounds silly, but I tried to say, you know, Chancy, if you want to show yourself to me again, I'd love to say hi. He did not show himself to me again. You know, in the time after this happened, I kind of have thought to myself a lot about why was I the one that saw this dog? Yvette remembers Chancy from her childhood. being just the sweet, beloved family pet that got very old and unfortunately had to get put to sleep.

Of course, the dog that I saw was this vibrant, you know, just energetic young dog, running and jumping and having a great time. Even though he had struggled and had such a hard time in his older years, he showed himself to me and he was happy. He was a really happy dog from what I gathered that night. I feel almost in a way that it was a sign to me that, you know, dogs are going to be okay on the other side. In the time from when I had had the first experience at Yvette's house,

we had also lost our family dog, Gretchen. She was a miniature schnauzer. And it was our family pet I had since I was in fifth grade. She was very old when she passed. And it was really a hard thing for our family to go through. One of her last couple days, I whispered to my dog. I said, Gretchen, if you ever want to come back and say hi, to me. After you leave, you can. You can come back. I would love to see you again.

Thank you, Kristen Kent, for sharing your story with the spooked. Kristen is a spook listener. She wrote in to tell us her story we love. When listeners shared their stories with us, the original score. For that story is by Moises Nunez. It was produced by Zoe Ferreigno. Dunning. It's that time, that time, the end, but it is never over. Never. If you have a personal story that spooked you, where you had a relationship with the force, a power, a being that was not supposed to be there,

a relationship that changed you, this is your story. Spooked at snapjudgment.org, there was nothing better than a spook story from a spook listener. And if you like your storytelling, under the light of a thousand sons, subscribe to the amazing Snap Judgment podcast, it might just change your life.

It was brought to you by the team that knows full well that dogs are better than cats. Everyone agrees. Everyone. Except for Mark Ristich and its ferret. Anna Sussman, our chief spooker is Eliza Smith. Chris Hambric. Aine Nguyen Nguyenuyn.

Morrow. Morrowroo. Lenzel Goreau. Tailed Decott. Marissaude. Dahlia Yates. Zoe Ferrigno. Greta Weber. Jacob Winick. Seneca.

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But you know, that's how they get you by not thinking ahead. My advice? My advice? Never, ever, never, ever, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, the lights.