Nurse Ratched: The Unrequited Nurse
*Queue the off-brand music* Now this is the story all about how my mom who’s a psychic medium went to a haunted asylum… Fresh Prince aside, the building she was invited to wasn’t always used as an asylum. But after its construction during the civil war era in America, its uses changed, unlike the spirits who reside in it to this day.
The Invitation
A few years ago my mother was invited to be a part of a paranormal investigation at one of my hometown's most haunted buildings. Originally our family didn’t even know it was “haunted”. Just that it was a big ass, old, pretty building we drove by like 20 times a week. *Shows how “part of the community we were lol..*
At first, she politely declined the offers until she couldn’t take the annoying persistence of her friend who was a member of the investigation team any longer. So she finally relented and asked her friend, “Alright, what time do I have to be there?” At which he enthusiastically replied, “Oh like 10:00 pm. And we’ll be there until about 5 am!”
Aghast at the ridiculous time frame at which the paranormal investigators thought they had to “investigate”, my mother complied and met her friend and his team in the evening to begin.
HUSH!
As soon as my mother arrived she was met by her friend and his teammates who began thanking her for coming. Almost immediately they began talking about the history of the building and paranormal activity they had been experiencing while on their past investigations. But my mother wanted to hear nothing of it.
As psychic mediums, we do not want any backstory behind the area where we may be able to speak with souls nor do we want any information you may already have regarding them or anything else. Spirit will share what they are comfortable with or what they feel they need to say. We do not want or need any preconceived notions or information.
Slipping Away
With that being said, my mother politely excused herself while the paranormal team set up their gadgets and doodads that they use to communicate and perceive the dead with.
As a realtor of the past, my mother was drawn to the basement. She always tells me that, “The basement is the most important part of the house to look at first! Because without a solid foundation the whole thing could fall and you don’t want to buy that!” So I assume this is what drew her there first or maybe it was the old man.
In the basement, she found that there were a few jail cells as this building was once used to hold criminals before they were transferred to a prison.
Her Janitor Escort
On her way to the basement, my mother was met by the current owner of the building who began speaking about what that portion of the building had been used for in the past… Quietly a man in spirit began to introduce himself to her while the owner spoke. Their voice faded into the background. He was in his late 50’s to early 60’s and told my mother he used to work as a janitor and groundskeeper of sorts during his time there. And that is what he still did. Only now in spirit. He was the quiet overseer of the building and its property, an escort, and gentlemanly protector.
Meanwhile, the owner of the building was still talking to my mother and realized she was not quite paying attention. Nicely my mother responded to the owner saying that it was very interesting that the basement used to serve as a jailhouse for the town, but that she would rather not know the building’s history as she was the psychic medium that the paranormal team had brought in to speak with the ghosts and would like to keep an unbiased and unknowing opinion.
At this, the owner was a bit taken aback. Not realizing who my mother was. They had just assumed she was another person interested in the building and its past.
Too Spooky For a Psychic Medium
Now I should take the time to briefly explain that my mother is not someone, especially a medium who would naturally go to a place that non-medium people say is haunted. This kind of stuff frightens us. So she really was doing this for her friend on the investigation team.
With that being said, during the filming of this blog’s sister Youtube video the man in the basement came through to me (Liv) and told me that during my mother’s time there he protected her spiritually. Only allowing respectful and necessary spirits to speak to her. My favorite part about channeling this man was his memory of my mother while she visited. He showed me her fuzzy red hair. So cute! Okay back to the story.
The Tippy Top
After presumably scaring the owner a little bit my mother continued to wander the building by herself. She found herself climbing the ornate staircase up to a room on the highest floor. The room was gorgeous! High peaked ceilings and a finished wooden floor with tiny mirrors that decorated the lowest part of the walls. All hinted at the possibility of the room being a meeting place of wealthy people or a small ballroom.
Seemingly out of place and sitting on the floor of the extravagant room were balls. Ones that children might roll around and play with. But sitting down against the wall of mirrors near the floor sat the spirit of a small boy. He presented to her at the age of 4 or 5. Then again at the age of 16-18. Politely he told my mother, “Don’t go through the doors over there. Bad things happen.” She looked behind herself.
The Doors and A Nurse
There on the other side of the floor were big double doors. The little boy did not specify what exactly happened behind those closed doors but another spirit did. A woman. A nurse to be exact.
As a mental medium, spirits show my mother and my thoughts, images, feelings, and emotions that we recognize as not our own. We use our varying spectrum of “Clairs” aka the different metaphysical senses souls use to convey their information to us, to receive the information they provide us.
The soul of this woman began showing my mother so much information that my mother simply sat down on the stairs outside of the “doors not to be crossed” and began writing down what the woman’s soul had to say.
She showed my mother things about the history of the building, who she was, the role she played in the building and when, as well as the reasoning behind her coming there to work and much much more.
Too Scary For a Paranormal Investigator
A long while passed and finally the paranormal team had set up all of their equipment and were ready to begin. When they couldn’t find my mother they began radioing to one another asking where she had gone.
Once they figured out where she was, nobody was willing to go get her because she had apparently wandered to the most haunted part of the building. No investigator was willing to walk up and get her. Eventually one member built up the courage to run to the bottom of the staircase and call for her so they could begin.
A Human EVP
They told my mother that she was there to act as a human EVP. And for all of you reading this who don’t know what an EVP is, it's the doohickey that most paranormal investigators use to catch souls speaking physically. EVP means “Electronic Voice Phenomenon”.
Specifically, the investigation team wanted to try and communicate with the soul of a woman they had dubbed, “Nurse Ratched”… BOOM! Immediately the woman my mother had been channeling upstairs and behind the “doors not to be crossed” came through and she was angry. She showed my mother that one of the team’s regular members was not present that night and the reason why.
Don’t Disrespect Spirit
My mother had never met the team of investigators before so she asked, “Hey. Is one of your guys not present tonight? Because he’s scared?….Did she hurt him?”Immediately the group of investigators got very uneasy. Shooting looks of worry and disbelief to one another. One man piped up.
“Uh yeah… The last time we were here she scratched him. Left red nail marks all down his back.” The soul of the woman replied to my mother with a feeling of, “He deserved it because he was taunting me and being extremely rude.”
While the woman conveyed this to my mom the investigator went on to say that their team member was very freaked out by the incident and refused to come back to the building with them. Going on to say that the ghost of “Nurse Ratched” was evil and malignant. And that according to the history of the building that they could “piece together” this “nurse” wasn’t a nurse at all but some women’s prison inmate sent to mediate the mentally ill patients stashed on the topmost floor of the building. *Insert sad medium sigh of disappointment here*
Finally, my mother understood why the spirit had spoken to her first because she needed someone to tell her story. Her true story.
Makeshift Identity
Apparently many years ago a flood had ruined many of the building’s historical and business records that were kept on the lower floors of the building resulting in many documents, including the spirit of the nurse’s, being ruined. So the paranormal investigators had pieced together a story of their own using the small tidbits of information they had for the soul of this nurse.
To them, the investigators knew that the building had once imported inmates from local state prisons to help care for the estate’s members but not all of its members were mentally ill.
Sad Facts
In the early 1900s up until the early 1950s (at least) it was common for women and other sorts of people to be proclaimed “mentally ill” for reasons that were not provable or otherwise documented aside from choice family member’s dictation. So people of complete normalcy to slight mental illnesses were also housed in this building during its time as an “asylum”. Not just the severely mentally compromised.
The paranormal investigators had assumed that the soul of the nurse had been an imported inmate from the female prison assigned to take care of the severely mentally ill patients housed on the top most floor of the building. Dubbing her a law-breaking woman utterly unfit and uneducated to help the poor souls kept on the top floor. Hence her angry behavior towards their team members. But as you can now probably guess this was not her story. At all.
According to what the nurse explained to my mother it was not the imported female inmates that took care of “her floor”. The inmates were assigned to tend to the lower-level residents. The people that were normal or just a tad different.
During her explanation to my mother, the soul of the nurse hinted at the possibility of her name starting with the letter “D”. Dorothy or Dolores perhaps. So for the rest of this narrative, we will call her “Nurse D.”
Nurse D’s Story
Unlike the female convicts, Nurse D was educated. She was a legal and lawful nurse who completed Nursing School so that she could help others. She even traveled from her home state to the state this facility was located in so that she could help the people living there.
She had read and heard about the head doctor at this building that was using “revolutionary” medical practices and procedures to help cure his most severe patients. And she wanted to be a part of that good. But eventually, she learned first hand what was happening was quite the opposite.
After her shocking and sad revaluation, she realized she was stuck in a different state far from home at a job she had originally traveled to help change people’s lives for the better. To honestly and truly help them. But she couldn’t.
She had told my mom about her utter despair at learning the truth about the evil doctor and what really went on, but what could she do?
An Unrequited Nurse
She resolved to stay and help in any little ways she could. She learned each of her patients in and out and cared for them in any way possible. Protecting them from what she could and being the only one there for them when she couldn't. The only soul who really understood. So why was she still there as a soul?
Afraid of Facing Judgment
At this question, Nurse D replied that she was afraid. Afraid to cross over due to the atrocities she had to be a part of during her life. She was afraid to be judged on the other side so she stayed. Now eternally taking care of any of her dear patients who had yet to cross over. Caring for them forever. A truly unrequited nurse.
Empathy? Sympathy? Or Neither?
Well, you may now be thinking, “Well, she scratched a guy! She can’t be good!” etc.. But try to ask yourself this; if you had her story to tell but some bumbling paranormal investigators came into your eternal home, started calling you “Nurse Ratched” and telling everyone and their mother that you were an uneducated outlaw who was unqualified to take care of “the crazies” wouldn’t you be extremely mad too?
After my mother finished recounting Nurse D’s actual story, the investigators seemed a bit taken aback. Except for one. But we’ll get back to him in a minute.
They continued on with their investigation with my mother acting like their human EVP. They walked from room to room while she and the lead investigator sat on the floor. The investigator would ask a question while the EVP recorded and then they would wait 3 minutes until my mother would say what she had heard, or not, as a medium.
From room to room they went with nothing but silence from both the EVP and my mother until the one investigator mentioned above had a turn to ask the questions. He began rudely asking his question aloud. Almost shouting and becoming more and more aggressive and confrontational with his demands.
Spirit Knows, Sees, and Hears Everything
In rapid-fire succession Nurse D. began showing things to my mother regarding this rude man. In high school, he was injured playing football. He had taken a moderate injury to his knee that still caused him pain to this day. Then Nurse D. showed my mother that if he didn’t knock it off she was going to kick his keel right out from underneath him…
So my mother politely waited for the investigator to stop shouting to ask about his knee, specifying exactly what Nurse D. had shown her. Almost immediately the color drained from his face. But then he had the audacity to ask, “Then what does she want?” And my mother heard, “Shut Up.” And so she told him.
Shut. Up.
Flash forward.
Many months had passed when my mother received a call from her friend on the paranormal investigation team and he was excited. They had caught an EVP on one of their recordings. He had to play it for my mother a few times until finally chills ran down her spine. In a quiet whisper, she heard a female voice say, “Shut. Up.”
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I hope you like this story and learned a few things from it too! Let us know in the comments below! If reading inset your forte or you’re just dying for more, make sure to check out our Podcast and Youtube Video on this story and others! If you have any questions or ideas on topics you’d like us to cover next comment below. For more true paranormal stories of a medium from my mother and me as well as all your information and entertainment on all things, Metaphysical Em and I are your META PSYCKICKS!
