My (Ex-Nurse) Mother's Expereince with Ghosts

I've known for awhile that my Mother has stories of "ghostly activity" from her days as a nurse working the wards in the hospitals here in Brisbane.

The other night, however, I had a friend over to watch some football and we got chatting about ghosts. I called my mum in to tell him about her experiences (doors opening and closing when no one was around and assortment of unidentifiable noises) and she surprised me with a story she hadn't mentioned in the past.

In this one children's ward there was a notorious ghost of a past nurse, who all of the nurses on the ward knew about. But the most amazing thing about this ghost is that she didn't just move things, she actually wrote and interacted with medical charts.

Basically, the intravenous fluids in the ward were kept in a locked cabinet and upon taking any fluids out the nurses would have to note down how much fluid they took. This is what blows my mind, not only would the ghost take out fluids she would write on the sheet how much fluids she took (I have no idea if she actually wrote the correct amount, as this was from a long time ago and my mother didn't actually work on the ward, just knew people from it).

But either way it really blows my mind that not only would this ghost interact with physical objects it would also (seemingly) make note of the object it was interacting with and record it in the physical world.

I'm extremely intrigued by this story and its connotations towards the capabilities (especially cognitive capabilities) of ghosts. I mean at the upper level of assumption we have evidence of a ghost being able to comprehend the physical world, apply mathematical skills, and logical ability.

At the lower level of assumption we still have a ghost that is able to move objects and more importantly write numbers.

Assuming ghosts are like a afterimage of a person it is possible the whole writing thing is just a wrote learning the person did during their job, which became so entrenched that their ghostly counterpart simply repeated the writing. I wish i knew if the ghost actually wrote accurate numbers in relation to how much fluid it took. If I knew we could make an assumption on how cognitively complex it was - whether it thought about the amount of fluid it took or whether it merely copied the wrote learnt task of writing an amount after taking fluids.


Ultimately, though its a really cool story which I thought I'd share with you guys!

a reply to: RedEyes619

Interesting story , on further inspection it seems Brisbane and its hospitals have many ghosts.
Perhaps your Mom was talking of her experiences with one of these.

Royal Brisbane Hospital, at Herston, is home to quite a number of spirits, according to legend and newspaper reports. One story relates to a theatre sister who was supposedly murdered many years ago and whose uniformed figure, complete with stiff, triangular veil, has often been seen through frosted glass windows. A mischievous spirit resides in one ward which was once a prison ward, pushing buzzers in the middle of the night and luring nurses into darkened rooms.

Best known of the hospital's ghosts is a female figure dressed in white who keeps vigil beside patients' beds. Staff have often been asked by patients to thank the kind lady who sat with them during the night. Nurses, orderlies, kitchen staff and cleaners have seen her, but most are reluctant to talk about their experiences. No one knows who she is, or was in life, but clearly she brings comfort, not fear, to those who encounter her.

Some people also believed that the Adelaide Billings Ward at the adjacent Royal Children's Hospital was haunted by the nurse after whom it was named. Matron Billings was greatly loved in her lifetime and after her death the hospital authorities decided to honour her memory by naming the ward after her but, it seems, she was not content to be remembered in name only.
According to one story a male nurse found her busily filling a burette from a tap one night. He thought her face was vaguely familiar but did not recognise her at the time. The nurse thought no more about it until he glanced at a photo of Matron Billings hanging in the lobby, and the realisation that he had seen a ghost struck him.

On many other occasions she was observed touring the ward at night checking on her tiny patients, stroking foreheads, tucking in bedclothes and straightening pillows. A few years ago the Adelaide Billings Ward was demolished to make way for new buildings. Hopefully the tireless matron is now having a well-deserved rest.
www.brisbanehistory.com...

Thanks for sharing - interesting story.

Unfortunately it sounds like you mom just "heard of" this ghost. It really sounds like a typical ghost story told around a campfire (or, in this case, - a nurses station). It is like either completely fabricated (not by your mom) or a nurse was playing practical jokes to mess with coworkers.

If true - those records would exist. Hospitals are tight ships.

I believe in mystery and supernatural forces, but this entertaining story doesn't feel like much more than local legend.

a reply to: gortex

As far as I'm aware my mother worked in numerous hospitals in Brisbane's CBD. But I remember her working in the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital most prevalently. I'm assuming that's where this ghost is from as it is probably the main hospital in Brisbane and where she spent most of her career (it would've been the children's/ mothers ward - my mum worked as a Delivery Nurse with women giving birth).

With that said though, she says she experienced the more mundane things like doors being opened/ closed pretty consistently during her time in the hospitals.

It's 12:43am here, but I'll try and get more details in the morning.

a reply to: VegHead

I know it sounds super farfetched. I wouldn't believe it if someone else posted this. In fact I have a very hard time rationalizing the story (don't let my use of the word story demerit its authenticity). But all that I can say is that my mum is an incredibly intelligent woman and would never make anything like this up.

Obviously the next issue, as you said, is that it could be nurses telling creepy ghost stories a la campfire ghost stories. But I don't know. I don't think my mother is dumb enough to fall for rumors or anything and from everything else she has said about her encounters on the wards, I get the feeling ghosts (or at the very least some form of supernatural activity) is fairly commonplace.

I really can't stress enough that my mother is a very rational and logical person with solid intelligence. I don't think she would have been so sure of this if it was just a campfire story. If it was just a bit of a hospital urban legend she would have phrased it like that. But she plainly stated it as fact. I have a really hard time trying to explain how it could be real etc. etc. I don't even know if I believe in ghosts. But I'm convinced this happened.


Also as a caveat, I thought maybe it was like a nurse stealing drugs or something and trying to blame a ghost (a possible yet ludicrous explanation) but it was IV fluid being taken. So not exactly desirable to steal.


Anyway, I guess this event just makes me curious about all of these things. Funnily enough my dad grew up in pubs in London during the 1950/60's and he also has had encounters with ghosts. I'll report his encounters in the morning, they're far more interesting.

I just find it funny that both my parents have encounters with ghosts but 1. I cant quite believe in ghosts; and 2. They aren't completely blown away. Like the existence of ghosts would have an enormous impact on life. Anyway, philosophical musings best left until the morning!

I appreciate the spirit in which you took my post (no pun intended). I'm glad you shared the story. Nurses are a great source of first hand ghost stories - or more broadly supernatural stories - as they encounter death on a regular basis. I read an interesting book by a hospice nurse about her experience with near death encounters, shared death visions and the like.

I think these stories are far more astounding to those of us doubting, or on the fence, or maybe new to believing in ghosts. For those who already firmly believe and have believed for a long time (like your parents) the supernatural is really just natural - even mundane. That might explain why they don't seem to get overly excited by these stories and encounters.

Looking forward to whatever you can share about your dad's experiences.

Not sure what to make of it.

It's a very interesting story none the less.

There is at least one messageboard for nurses with tons of nurses posting their experiences out there.

If the story here is true, I'd guess a nurse did the writing/fluid removal and blamed it on a ghost

a reply to: VegHead

I guess to accurately describe my position on ghosts I could use a analogy.

The analogy I'd use is the theoretical scientific proof for dark matter. Theoretically we accept it as existing. We have mathematical models to prove it's existence. But we don't really see it or think about it much... until we encounter it for ourselves. If that makes sense.

In context it translates to: that I've always accepted ghosts are theoretically real but I just haven't really experienced them so I don't really think of them as being real (even though I have what I consider solid proof that they are real). It's a bit of a conflicting conundrum!


Moving on though, it blows my mind that people who have advanced past my stage of mild acceptance and into the realm of definite acceptance don't have their worlds turned upside down. I work as a scientist studying human behavior etc. etc. If I discovered definite proof of ghosts the implications for things such as the afterlife, souls, religion, human energy etc. would be huge. I can't understand how people with definite proof aren't blowing the world away with the evidence of ghosts. Maybe we don't want to believe? Or maybe the people with evidence are seen as kooks - there is definitely a persistent stigma that people who believe in ghosts/ the paranormal are kooky conspiracy nuts (probably why we're here on a conspiracy website in the first place :p ).


Honestly, I'm really thinking I should try and devote some time to trying to legitimately investigating some of this stuff. At the very least investigating 1. Why people with solid knowledge/ conviction that ghosts exist don't speak up,; and 2. How having a solid conviction that ghosts exist alters peoples worldviews, views on human life, views on religion. Could be interesting.

These are my Dad's encounters with ghosts.

The first one comes from the pub he lived in - The Village Tavern in Birmingham, England (or around Birmingham - not sure how English Geography works). Unfortunately the place has since been demolished, last I heard I think it was turned into a curry shop.

Anyway, the Tavern was a pretty rowdy place, lots of depressed drunks, lots of fights, and lots of commotion (as you would expect from a pub in England during the 50's/ 60's). A depressed punter also hung himself in the (downstairs) cellar of The Village Tavern. Whether this is what caused the ghost I'm not sure - but my father has always attributed the ghost to being this guy.

Prototypical ghostly events ensued. There was one room in the house that always got cold at the exact time every night (I should mention that the house was above the bar. So the place had three levels: Underground = Cellar, Ground Level = Pub, and Second Level = House/ Living area). Now this aspect I could potentially argue away. For example maybe there was a heating unit that would always fault out at a specific time. The fact that the room always got cold at a precise time seems important to me in disproving or proving ghostly activity. The consistency, to me, suggests something rational. But, if everything logical was ruled out then the consistency would be pretty good evidence for something paranormal. It's annoying no one ever tried to investigate.

Next up a slightly funnier encounter. One day while making one of the beds my father's mother was pinched on the bottom. She turned around expecting dad's dad to be there (or some other jokester) but as I'm sure you can guess, no one was there. Again, this encounter isn't definitive for me. Human error could have occurred, but I guess it's unlikely.

My dad's dad also saw something - although he never believed the place was haunted/ believed in ghosts. He one night woke up and saw a dark shadowy figure in the bedroom, before it moved - passing through a wall. How you could see this and not believe I don't know. But maybe it could be attributable to shadows playing tricks and other environmental factors.

The final, and most convincing, encounter was witnessed by my dad and a group of his mates (as well by proxy his mother and father I would assume). The group came home one night from drinking and where preparing to go to sleep downstairs in the bar area, when the German Shepard's my dads family started barking like mad. Next, every door in the pub and house apparently started opening and slamming shut. One of my dad's friends is purported to have picked up some darts from the pub area and shouted "Come on you f**king ghost, I'll have ya!". This here, to me, seems hard to explain away, but also seems to illustrate the nonchalant way everyone just accepted that "Oh yeah ghosts are real, by the way did the Blues beat Villa in the football?!?".

I'm a little frustrated that nobody seemed to want to investigate or take the ghost activity seriously. Because if they didn't take it seriously it seems to discredit the encounter. Either way it's hard to explain away every door in a house opening and slamming shut. Not even the wind could do that.



Lastly, my Dad also had an encounter with a ghost at his school (not sure the name of the school this time, as he never mentioned it). Once again the ghost is attributed to someone who hung themselves - This time a disgruntled school teacher who hung themselves in the teacher's staff room. After the suicide the staff room was locked off, but my father and a group of friends were sent in as part of a Math's project (Each group of students were given a room in the school to measure and find the volume of the room).

When in the staff room they were measuring toilet stalls when one of the toilets started flushing. Being schoolboys they all joked around and thought it was one of them playing a joke. But of course it wasn't, none of them were in the stall that was flushing. After this dad says they all exited the stalls and a black shadowy human figure was in the room. The figure chased them out of the toilets and they all ran like headless chooks back to class.

Once again I have a hard time trying to explain away this encounter. It has multiple witnesses and I have no idea how you can explain the dark human figure. Unless they were all just scared and spooked out and imagined the whole thing.


I've texted my dad to see if he has any other encounters, but at the moment that's all of the stories I've got. As you can probably see I remain uncommitted on the existence of ghosts, in-spite of what I consider to be glaring evidence from two very intelligent people that are not want to lie and tell stories. As I've said in earlier comments, I think I accept that ghosts - in some form exist - but until I encounter them I cannot make a judgement on the nature of ghosts and what they truly are.

At the moment I would conclude that they are energy afterimages of humans, left behind by some people who for whatever reason have a unique or strong amount of energy. I'd assume that in the most case the ghost repeats or mimics what it did in it's life and is incapable of conscious behavior or interacting with the physical world in a meaningful manner.

For example, the nurse ghost that would write the amount of fluid she "took", I suggest that the amount written would have been a standard amount and would not accurately match up to the amount of fluid taken - as the ghost was just mimicking what she did in her life and not consciously judging the amount of liquid she was taken. If that makes sense?

That is juts my interpretation though, I fully expect everyone here to take away something different from these encounters and I guess that is the purpose of ATS. So I am glad I could finally contribute something!

I also have a quick story from Royal Womens Hospital Herston Brisbane...I had my son 21 years ago...at a different hospital (Logan) by c section but he was transferred to the neo natel intensive care unit the following day at Royal Brisbane.... I was allocated a bed in a very very old ground floor section...because the maternity section was to capacity...the beds were very old...sinks rusting the tv room looked like it hadn't been updated since the 1950's, I was in a 2 bed room... this being my 5th child... quite an experienced mum. Within minutes of being put into this room...the big old cupboard had me feeling very scared....I didnt look into it...but was very large....the whole floor had a feeling like it was an old mental patient ward...I dont know...but you could tell it had been opened up for overflow of patients. I was genuinely frightened....within 1/2 hour of being allocated this room and doing all the official paperwork...My hubby and I were talking to the nurses...and I discharged myself, I told them exactly why...I dont remember what they said...but I could NOT stay there one more minute...even though my son was hooked up to life support...( he is now a healthy 21 year old!) and the odd thing is...for 2 weeks at home after this I had recurring nightmares and a feeling something had followed me home... Now it was not hormones and fanciful thinking...I am prone to the paranormal..and sensitive...but this place freaked me out.

Reality is inter-dimensional. When the layers between worlds begins to thin, energies from the otherside can interact with our digital dream world.