Spooky Stuff

JudithL_in_NH · Jan 4, 2005

I know animals can sense a lot of thigs we humans can't.
One of our family dogs was particularly sensitive to bad things like fires, floods and bad rainstorms and earthquakes. Somehow, Caesar ust knew and he would't let the entire neighbourhood sleep with his howling...

With the recent tragedy in southeast Asia, I've read many reports stating the loss of animal life is nearly nil compared to the horrific human toll. Seems they all knew to head for the hills . . .

Justmeandmycat · Jan 4, 2005

Anybody out there ever have any spooky things happen at work? You know, like ghost stories?

This isn't a ghost story, per se, but falls into the realm of the paranormal. Everything I'm about to tell you is true.

I worked as a CNA at a LTC prior to becoming a nurse. A lady I took care of, I'll call her Mary, was such a pitiful patient, completely contracted in her elbows and knees and unable to move. She would become quite depressed and cry, saying that she couldn't do anything "not even blow my own nose".

In the course of my year of taking care of her, I discovered that she used to sing in church. So one day when she was completely depressed, I asked her "You can still sing can't you?" and I started to sing softly that 70's song, "Sing, sing a song, sing out loud, sing out strong. Sing of happy not sad, sing of good things not bad..." She joined in and each morning thereafter we would sing as I dressed her and as we wheeled down the hall to breakfast. Her depression broke when others heard her and would ask her for a tune. "Mary, sing about the apple tree." And she would start, "Don't sit under the apple tree with any one else but me..."She became quite talkative and would chatter away at breakfast. Needless to say we became quite attached, but sadly, I had to move on to another job.

A few months after I left the facility, I had a dream about Mary. I was going into church and she was just coming out of it with her husband. Both husband and wife were quite short and I remember thinking what a cute couple they made. Mary was dressed in a blue coat and had a cute hat on and paused on the steps to say hello. She looked so good! She asked me how I was and I said I was fine and her? She said she was fine, now, too, and gave her a husband arm a squeeze and continued down the church steps.

Shortly after that dream, about a week later, I ran into the nurse who trained me in my CNA class. I asked her about some of my former residents and inquired about Mary. But before she answered completely, I interrupted and told her about my dream. My trainer paused and said simply with a smile" I think Mary is just fine" and we continued on about a few others.

A day or two after that, I ran into a fellow CNA who had also left the facility. I told her about my chance encounter with our trainer. I asked her if she knew anything about Mary and she paused. "Mary died last week. Cathy (the trainer) tell you?"

After putting the events together, I realized my instructor had known about Mary and was about to tell me when I interrupted her with my dream story. She knew Mary was dead when I didn't and my dream confirmed that Mary was "just fine."

It's been a long time since I had the chance to take care of Mary and I haven't dreamed about her since. But whenever I wonder about an afterlife, I think of Mary coming out of the church and I know that, somehow, it's true.

SusanJean · Jan 4, 2005

Don't know if this counts but, at one facility I worked at we had a reident cat (pet therapy for the residents) that usually ignored residents unless they were feeding him. The cat never jumped up on beds or tables in the usual course of events. When he did jump up on a resident's bed though we all knew to watch the resident and make sure we had proper code for the person because invariably the resident would decline and die within 48 hours. And that cat would not move from the resident's bed unless we moved him to change the bedding or clean the resident. We would then watch for the cat to leave the room because as soon as he did we knew the res had died, and the cat was never wrong.

My neighbor's 99 yr old grandmother was brought to her home w/ hospice care to die. (Had been in nursing home.) She lingered, much longer than anyone expected.

The dog had ignored grandma, until recently. Around the same time, grandma started getting visits from dead relatives. And the dog would spend the day curled up w/ grandma.

Hospice care told my friend that this is very common that the animals will come around, can sense "the end."

Grandma was gone w/in the week.