The Hobby Shop Ghost

 

    Today’s tale comes from Quora User Marcia Mason, a former Mechanical Engineer who ran a small hobby machine shop, the location of which was not disclosed.

    For a time Marcia had an employee called Terry, who, though a former veteran with a disability was a good machinist who worked the machines until he suddenly died one day of an apparent heart attack.

    In life Terry had resided on sight in a small efficiency apartment above the shop and Marcia was left with the task of settling his estate before reorganizing the shop for the next possible employee.

    It was during this time, as Marcia was taking inventory, that they discovered a special tool was missing and after searching in vain for some time Marcia shouted in frustration, “Where is it???”

    Marcia was not expecting a reply. But shockingly a disembodied voice simply replied, “Second drawer on the left.”

    Marcia opened the drawer, and there inside, was the missing tool.

    Not long after this creaking noises could be heard on the stairway leading upstairs. Marcia described the creaking as being not dissimilar to the sound of someone with a severe limp walking up or down the stairs.

    The strange occurrences didn’t stop there. Things began to fall off the walls. Not once but twice a taxidermy head fell off the wall hitting the same person.

    One day sheriffs arrived at the hobby shop, responding to a 911 call. Marcia was shaken and perhaps a bit confused as nothing was taking place at that moment that would require the police. They verified the address and time of call and realized that it was exactly one year, to the very hour, since Terry’s passing. Marcia simply exclaimed, “Knock it off Terry!”

    Finally, after replacing the glass of a license frame for the second time before finally screwing it directly into the wall Marcia decided enough was enough! It was time to bring in the big guns. Marcia called a priest.

    Apparently, as the story goes, Terry had not received a proper funeral service, and together with the priest they said their ceremonial good-bye to his departed soul right there in the hobby shop, asking the man to “go home to God”.

    And it all stopped there. No more creaky steps, no disembodied voices, and no more randomly falling things from the walls. Nothing to report but the relief that Marcia must have felt now that Terry had finally moved on.

    As I read this story, in my own stupidity, I thought about how sad it would be to die and end up haunting your place of work. I thought of my own day job and how being stuck there would be tantamount to purgatory for me. But for Terry I don’t think it was like this. Not just because he lived there, but to die and have no proper funeral, he must have been in life a very lonely man, having served his country only to be left with a disability and no friends or family in the end to fare him well.

    I can’t help but wonder if Marcia and their colleagues in that small hobby shop were to Terry more than just the people he worked with, and maybe he spent the year following his death reminding them of that fact? Who knows? I also can’t help but wonder what Terry had against the person who on two occasions met with a falling taxidermy head?

    But having the priest come and perform a funeral reminded me of the stories I have read of Padre Pio, the 20th Century Catholic Saint who was frequently visited by spirits caught in purgatory who longed for someone to pray for them so that their suffering would end. You can check out my video about Padre Pio here!

    But what about you? Has anything of this nature happened at your place of work? Please share your story with me at tellyourtalehere@gmail.com, and until next time, don’t stand under taxidermy heads if you can help it!