I See a Ghost by the Refrigerator

Full transcript of the My True Ghost Stories episode “I See a Ghost by the Refrigerator.” Listen to this episode.

An old storage room gets a new life and a new ghost. Welcome to episode 40 of My True Ghost Stories. Years ago when I first began attending my church, the church that I've been talking about in so many episodes, the paranormal hotspot full of ghosts with a big heavenly portal to the other side, that one. Well, when I began attending services there, it was so great. The building was beautiful, the music was beautiful, the people were friendly, it seemed almost perfect.

But the one thing that kept it from being perfect was that there was no bathroom on the main floor where the services take place. One of the first times I was there, I asked Margaret, who I had just met, where the bathroom was. Oh, it's a whole drama, she answered. And she gave me the directions, which were indeed quite a drama. And I listened to her directions and headed for the bathroom.

And this was the route. Go up the steps next to the choir, through the little chapel and then through the door into the dark hallway that runs behind the sanctuary, make a right onto the little steps that wind down into the basement and then go through the creaky door there. So I did all that and I opened that creaky door at the bottom of the steps to reveal a dark, musty storage room. And this room was full of all the three-foot Christmas angels that they put out on the lawn in December. It was about 50 in all.

But this was mid-summer and it was humid down there. There was some light coming in through a window over a slop sync in the corner, which was of course dripping, peeling paint all over the walls. And to my right was the bathroom, which looked like a closet until I opened the door. And you can imagine how not nice this bathroom was, but it was a bathroom so I could not complain. But the one surprising thing about this room, dark and hidden in what seemed like the catacombs of the church, what was surprising was that it was not spooky down there.

Just icky. I sensed no spirits, no negativity, nobody trying to get my attention, no one was watching me. It looked like the set of a horror film, but nothing. So I used the bathroom, retraced my steps, threw the creaky door, up the dark steps into the dark hallway behind the sanctuary through the little chapel and down the steps next to the choir and back to my seat. Phew.

Because of the complete inconvenience of going to the bathroom, a church, I tried to do this as little as possible and a few years into my membership there, they actually built a bathroom right there on the main floor in the hallway right off to the side of where I usually sit. I had immense gratitude and forgot all about that non-spooky room downstairs. But that room did not remain non-spooky. When they built the bathroom upstairs, there was apparently a dual purpose to this construction. Besides making services way more convenient for parishioners, they were also converting that storage room downstairs into a meeting room, so a full renovation began.

During the renovations, when I walked down the side street of the church, I could see into that little window over the dripping slop-sync. I could see new tile floors, new sheet rock, it was looking good. And eventually I saw a light rose-colored paint on the walls, so now it was looking like it was almost finished. I was somewhat involved here at this church at that time and I heard that one of the reasons they were renovating that room was so that small group meetings could be held outside of the rectory. And this is what happened.

I was thrilled to hear that my next group meeting would not be in the basement room of the rectory, but in this new rose-colored, freshly renovated non-spooky room with the bathroom. The reveal was about to happen. When I arrived for my group, I saw through the little window that the lights were already on downstairs. I excitedly used the side door of the church, which led down the now well lit stairs, and the creaky storage room door had been replaced with a glass door, which was propped open. I walked through it and I was barely able to greet the group members who were already there because I was looking excitedly at the beautiful new room.

It looked like a mini-cairing hall with new beautiful paint, new tile floors, recessed lighting, new bathroom, new refrigerator next to the new sink. And it took just a few seconds for me to see the new ghost. It was a teenage girl wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and she was sitting on the floor leaning against the new refrigerator. Arms at her sides, legs straight out in front of her, and staring at me. Not talking, not moving, just staring blankly.

And this formerly non-spooky room was now spooky. I sat down at the table as the meeting began, and I put my back to the girl ghost and did my best to concentrate on the meeting and not on the very prominent feeling of being watched from the floor in front of the refrigerator behind me. And this ghost was always there at every meeting I attended. Always on the floor, leaning against the refrigerator, legs straight out in front of her, arms at her side, staring at me. And I could not communicate with her.

Partly, because they were always people there with me, so I didn't really ever have the opportunity to stand there and have a conversation with the refrigerator, which is how it would look to my fellow group members. But it was also because she did not ever try to talk to me. She just stared at me. And when I asked St. Michael how I could help her, he said, she's not ready.

Now for my whole life, I have felt like someone was watching me. That's because of all the spirits who needed my help following me around and staring at me, like this girl ghost was doing. So I am used to this. It's a tough thing to get used to, but it is part of my life and I don't really have a choice. I have a rule in my house that no spirit is allowed to be in my bedroom.

And they actually seem to respect that. I've told them that I can't help anybody if I'm sleep deprived. And the ghosts seem to get that. But out in the world, I can't eat them away from me. I have learned to ignore them until I'm ready to help, but they are always there.

And I think this ghost came to this room because people were regularly in there now. When it was a dark storage room, there was nothing there for a spirit. It would have been lonely for her. That's why the most haunted places I've ever encountered have been places like wedding halls and subway stations because spirits are people and they want to be around other people. So I got used to this girl staring at me through every single meeting I attended in that basement room.

She was so spooky though with the staring and the no moving. She was so spooky that I refused to be the last person in that room. If we were closing up and leaving the room, I would run ahead of everyone so as not to be the last person in there. And if someone left something down there, I for sure wasn't the one who was going to go down and get it. She never tried to talk to me and she never moved from that spot for every single meeting I attended for years.

And then came the pandemic. For the first week or so before the total shutdown of everything, I attended one or two meetings in the room and the number of people had to total less than 10. But that ended quickly. And then we had a few meetings on folding chairs outside in the driveway. But then everything at my church went online.

Services meetings everything. I, like everyone, was so in shock from it all that it took some serious getting used to the whole stay at home thing. Actually, I never completely got used to it. But when I had somewhat settled into staying home and having meetings online, I thought about that meeting room, the beautiful rose colored renovated meeting room. And I wondered what the ghost of that girl was doing.

She did not appear to me like other ghosts might. She did not appear to me in a dream and my house, nothing. I thought about her, but she was not trying to contact me. So we all know how the pandemic went. In New York City, it took a while for things to finally open back up again.

What they did, I will never forget the first in-person church service that I went to after lockdown. It was so beautiful to be back in the room with everyone. Even if we were all masked and standing six feet apart, I still had such renewed gratitude for community. And soon after the services opened back up again, they started to be talk of starting small groups up again. And I had a group that I wanted to start.

I contacted the office and they were interested in my proposal and they invited me to come and see the room because they had done additional renovations over the pandemic. And they seemed excited to show them off. I met the pastor and the office manager one afternoon. We went in the side door and down the steps, I had really missed this room and going down there to check it out for a possible small group. Was a beautiful sign that things were truly opening back up again.

And we walked in. The walls were now a cool gray, which was not as wonderful as the rose color from before, but still very nice. They had made some changes to the walls, removed some shelves and changed the incandescent bulbs to LED ones. So the feeling was much cooler now with the gray color and the cool light. I didn't love it, to be honest, but it was neat and clean and still a very nice meeting room.

After this little tour of the room, I realized that the girl ghost was not there, not leaning against the refrigerator. And I looked around for her. There was a very large storage closet in this room and that door had always been locked. I had never seen what was in there, but I realized that that's where she was. I could sense it.

And for some reason, over the pandemic, this ghost had gone into that large closet. And I wouldn't say that she was talking to me, but I got a very strong feeling that we should open that door. And a quick quiet question to St. Michael confirmed this. Open that door.

Can we open that door? I asked the pastor. The tour of the room was over, so it was the right time to ask. I said, there's a ghost in there. Now this pastor knows all about me and my relationship to ghosts, and he had been there for almost all of my supernatural adventures there at this church.

So he immediately said, yes, of course, and started going through his keys to unlock the closet door. But that poor office manager who was with us was new, and she just stood there looking completely horrified with her eyes wide and darting back and forth between me and the pastor. And she actually started to back up slowly away from us. Oh, sorry, I said, he's used to this. Do you want to come in there with us?

Obviously, she did not say yes, and she quickly headed for the door as I described to the pastor that this girl ghost had been there for years, but she was always leaning against the refrigerator. But for some reason, she seems to have gone into this closet. And the office manager was practically running by the time I had finished my description. I entered the closet, the pastor stood in the doorway. I looked around and I eventually found her sitting on the floor in the corner, and it was really sad.

For some reason, over the pandemic, she had gone out of the main room by the refrigerator, and I think she had been waiting for us all to come back. And maybe she got confused and looked for us in the closet. I don't know, but it was heartbreaking. I spoke to her. I told her that the people would be coming back to the room soon.

I told her that she could come out of that closet, but she was still not talking to me. And St. Michael told me that what I had said to her was good for now, and she still wasn't ready. So the group I had been trying to start, the reason I had gotten the tour of that room, that group did not start. And no other group started either.

It took a long time for people to congregate again in those small groups, in those small rooms. So that room sat empty. And I didn't know if the girl had come out of the closet or not. Was she leaning against the fridge now? Did she leave the closet?

Did she leave the room? I didn't know. It was during Holy Week of that year that I finally saw her again, but not in the meeting room. It was on Holy Thursday when our church, like many churches, stayed open after the service until 10 p.m. And there you could stay in the church to pray, to meditate, and to silence.

It was about 9.30, and I was pretty much the only person there. Although I think the clergy were around somewhere, but I couldn't see anyone. I was sitting there, enjoying the silence, and the relative darkness, when I saw her. The girl ghost in her jeans and t-shirt, I saw her come walking up through the room next to the altar, which was at the top of the steps that led downstairs to that meeting room. She was emerging from the basement through the room next to the altar, and then out into the sanctuary.

She was looking at me, and I was looking at her. She said, Cross her over, St. Michael whispered to me. She's ready now. I communicated with her.

I told her the things that Michael told me to tell her. Tell her that she doesn't have to stay here. Tell her that it's better on the other side. I told her all those hopeful things that help a spirit to leave this plain and find the next one. And she went.

I don't know who she was. I don't know why she lingered. I don't know why she became ready to cross over, but I'm glad she did. And I pray that she has now found peace and companionship on the other side. As always, if you have enjoyed this episode of My True Ghost Stories, please take a second to subscribe, review it, and share it with a friend to help this show grow.

And that's all for today. Thank you for listening to today's episode. And if you think your house is haunted, want energy cleared from your space, or need a custom spiritual ritual, I'm here to help. Get J.P.Clearing.com or email me at J.P.Clearing60 at gmail.com. Don't forget to join me here every Tuesday for a new episode. Until next time.