As some Daily Post readers know, my mother, Marilyn, is residing at the Pine Ridge Extended Care Center in Pagosa Springs, CO. She is 92, suffering from advanced dementia and is wheelchair-bound.
At present, Pine Ridge is quarantined, and there is no visitation.
Or is there?
A few months ago Mom was exhibiting symptoms of anxiety due to her dementia. She ping-ponged between irritability, depression, panic attacks, bad dreams, anger, despair – and at one point – she had what could only be described as a psychotic event. The doctor put her on a new anti-psychotic drug and then adjusted it in the following weeks. Thankfully, she calmed down and slowly became more like her old, sweet self.
Around this time I had a little chat with a Certified Nurse’s Aid (CNA). The young lady loves my mother and Mom loves her. I asked if Mom had been saying or doing anything weird lately. The nurse said “they hadn’t noticed any more strange behavior.”
And then she corrected herself. “Oh yeah. A few nights ago, about 3:00am, Miss Marilyn buzzed the night staff. A nurse rushed to Mom’s room to find her sitting up in bed, quite agitated. The nurse held her hand while Marilyn told her that there had been a man in her room.”
I chuckled and said, “Sounds like wishful thinking if you ask me.”
The CNA smiled ‒ and then got serious. “That’s pretty funny… if it wasn’t for the fact that several other women in this hall had recently seen the same man!”
I can’t lie. I had some serious goose bumps. I didn’t know what to think…
The apparition was a man dressed in black and he evidently was the strong, silent type. I asked Mom if the man said anything to her. She answered curtly, “I don’t want to talk about it!” And she hasn’t.
The next day Mom announced that she wanted to move to another room ‒ with a roommate. I promised that I’d look in to it, and I did. Moving her again would be very difficult for many reasons, but she persisted. She was scared.
In the meantime, I chatted with several nurses about the “sighting.” Everyone knew about the mysterious man dressed in black. (And it wasn’t Johnny Cash!) One RN, whom I knew and trusted, had worked at Pine Ridge for years. She told me that there had been many sightings of the man, but in another part of the facility: the section they used for people rehabilitating after surgery or accidents. She told me that these people did not have Alzhiemer’s and were not full-time residents — that they were not imagining this.
The RN then told me a little story: “There was a patient recovering from a bad accident. The woman was sound asleep when she was rudely awakened by someone tugging on her big toe. The night light revealed a little girl standing at the foot of her bed, yanking her toe and giggling. And then, the apparition slowly dissipated!”
Evidently, the “little girl” has been seen several times throughout the years, but only in the out-of-the-way rehab section. This particular RN also mentioned that the man in black had only been sighted in that area – until now.
A few days later I talked to the Social Service director. She informed me that one of the night staff had told her that Mom had had another visit from the ghostly figure. But in a short time, Mom dropped the issue of moving, which I thought was odd.
And then, on Good Friday, my brother Ross and I were visiting. We were in the vestibule having a “window visit” with Mom using our cell phones. (We cannot hug our mother anymore.) Mom was acting very strange and was having a hard time communicating. The day before, she had been very emotional – requiring a tranquilizer ‒ and was still a little out of it. Then she gathered her senses and stated as a matter of fact: “There was a woman in my room last night.”
Mom’s nurse commandeered the phone and said: “She told me this morning that it was a little girl.”
The mere mention of “the little girl” sent a chill up my spine! No one at Pine Ridge would have told any patient a ghost story, knowing it could be quite unsettling. I think my Mom did see her.
No one believes in ghosts ‒ until they actually see one. But I’m not concerned if ghosts exist or not. I’m only concerned about my mother’s peace of mind and her care. It’s bad enough that she’s quarantined in a nursing home during a dangerous pandemic, and that we are slowly losing her day by day. But now there are ghosts involved?
Someone please make this all go away…
DC has been a frustrated musician for over fifty years, and now has decided to become a frustrated writer. Learn more at DCDuncan.com. He’ll keep you posted.