top of page

Church Friend

IA, USA
June 2000

Ok, so I never saw this ghost, but I do believe it happened. It was just too weird to not have.

This happened last winter on a church retreat for sophomores. Due to snow, we had been forced to have the retreat at the school/church instead of going to our normal "place." The retreat went fine and we wrapped up Saturday night. We took all of the teens ( I was a leader) into the church for a final talk and prayer.

Now, the church is new within the last 10 years, and it is real big. We were all in chairs in the back corner of the church, facing the middle and altar. I was sitting next to my buddy Alex (I am going to change the names for their sakes...) with one chair in-between us. Now, one of the adult leaders was talking about something fairly important (exactly what escapes me now) but I happened to notice Alex moving his head in an odd manner, as if he were trying to see something. I kinda thought it rude, and made a note to myself to say something later. So the night ended without incident and some of us went back to Alex's and his wife Kelly's apartment to hang out. We had not been there long when we turned off the lights and prepared to tell ghost stories. Right before we did, Alex turns to us and says, "did you see the ghost in the church tonight?" Right away I felt weird.
Everyone said no, they had not. Most of us, even though we were shocked by him saying that, did not put much faith in his question. So he elaborated.
He said that while we were sitting there, he had seen a ghost. At first he thought it was a parent of one of the kids. He said a lady walked from near the altar to the doors, from left to right from our view. He tried to get a better look, but could not, so he tried to catch their reflection in his glasses. Except there was no reflection. He was clearly seeing someone, except they had no reflection.
Now, even though he was calm, something about his story freaked me out. I didn't know whether to believe him or not.

Not a minute after he was done (a near silent minute at that!) our friend patsy came out of the bathroom at the end of the hall. She had been gone for the entire story, and there was no way that she could have heard it from there... But she came into the room and asked, "has Hank "the parish maintenance guy) ever told anyone about the ghost he has seen in church?" We sat there, stunned, again. Someone managed to ask what the ghost did. At this point I don't remember a whole lot, I think because of the shock. But I think her response was that a lady would walk from the middle of the church to the doors, and then disappear. And Hank now refuses to lock the doors in the church past a certain hour...
Crazy, huh? Needless to say I didn't sleep much that night, and it will be a long time before I go into the church alone at night!

IA, USA
00:00 / 01:04
bottom of page