Melanie's Ghostly Call
In this article, we will be looking at an experience I've transcribed which was shared by an audience member for OVERNIGHT's web-series 'Haunted Homies'. OVERNIGHT is a paranormal investigation team based in America, and they upload their investigations to YouTube. During their 'Haunted Homies' series, they discuss the paranormal to an audience, and they read out experiences which the audience members have submitted to them prior to the event. Once the experience is read out, the team invites the person the experience belongs to on stage, and then the person is questioned about the experience by the OVERNIGHT team.
This particular experience was shared by Melanie. I have tried my best to transcribe the experience and the interview word for word to keep everything discussed as authentic. Where, in the interview segment, you see (...) it means I've cut out a portion of the conversation. I'm always reluctant to do this, and so cut out as little as possible, but the OVERNIGHT team have a habit of going off topic and joking about things; so it's an unfortunate necessity. Anything I couldn't understand is marked by *inaudible*. The interview was conducted by Elton Castee, and Corey Scherer; the two lead members of the OVERNIGHT paranormal investigation team during the time of this interview. Since this interview was conducted, Corey has left the OVERNIGHT team. As with all articles, my own thoughts will be included at the end of the article.
Melanie's Experience
"I have proof of people being able to manipulate things after death. My mother passed away on February 8th 2021 at home. She was sick for years, but it was still a shock and heartbreaking. She has been in and out of the hospital so many times that we expected her to recover like always. It was hard for me because I've had many paranormal and enexplainable things happen in my life but I couldn't feel her presence at all. I kept asking her to give me a sign. We were best friends and I talked to her three times a day. I just felt this hole in my heart. My dad was doing worse than all of us. She died on their 44th wedding anniversary and he was taking care of her. They had lived together in the house I grew up in and I worried about him being lonely now. About three months after she passed, he was sitting in his recliner and heard a cell phone ring in the other room. He's 78, so he doesn't always have it close to him and still has a landline. He thinks it might be one of his kids, so he gets up to get it; and by the time he reaches his cell, it stops ringing. He looks down and it says missed call from my mother which he has saved as the landline in the house that he's sitting in alone. As he gets the chills, astonished, he gets a notification that there's a message. It sounds like a ghostly hello. I play it twice in the video. No one would sneak in and call him to play a joke during his grief. I told him that she must have wanted him to know she's still there. I've asked to sage the house, but he says 'it's her house too; if she wants to be there, she can'. He is upset that he didn't get to answer the call, and always has his cell phone on him now, but this seemed to ease his pain and excite us. It's definitely something my mum would do."
Melanie's Q&A
*Starts with Melanie playing a video of the voicemail for Elton and Corey - they listen to it a couple of times and play it for the audience to hear*
Melanie: "Don't know why she did it so creepy though, that's the only thing"
Corey: "Wow"
Melanie: "Why did she do it so creepy? I don't know, but, you know, it really has, like, given my father peace that she's still in the house so, you know, it's pretty neat. It's a pretty neat story"
Elton: "So, the landline, just to, just double confirm this..."
Melanie: "Okay"
Elton: "...the landline phone..."
Melanie: "Yes"
Elton: "...from within the house..."
Melanie: "Yes"
Elton: "...that your father was sitting in..."
Melanie: "Yes"
Elton: "...by himself..."
Melanie: "Yes"
Elton: "...called his cellphone..."
Melanie: "Calls his cellphone, right"
Elton: "...and leaves a voicemail..."
Melanie: "Yes"
Elton: "...'hello'..."
Melanie: "Yes"
Elton: "...and he happened to have saved the landline number?"
Melanie: "Under my mum's name, yeah. So, when he checks the phone, it's saying he has a missed call from the house that he's in and he lives by himself, you know, nobody lives there so he's like, and it says my mum's name. So, already he's like, you know, taken aback; and then he sees that it leaves a notification and that the message was left, so, it was pretty cool and we just can't, we don't have any explanation. You know, we've all sat and we're like 'how is this even possible?' Seriously, like, how is that even possible that, you know, a message would be left..."
Elton: "You can't"
Melanie: "...let alone, nobody's gonna break into the house and call him"
Elton: "Yeah, like you can, you can pocket dial and butt dial..."
Melanie: "Right"
Elton: "...but you can't, like, butt dial..."
Melanie: "Right, especially from a landline"
Elton: "...a landline"
(...)
Elton: "Okay, but why did you say, because you said at the end 'it's definitely something my mum would do'. Why, why did you say that?"
Melanie: "I think that just because she would want def, she knew that he was really suffering and going through it and I think, for her, she just had such a, like, she would get a kick out of it. She would get a kick out of us wondering, um, and I just think that it's, you know, it's just something that she would do. She would want, in her own way, to reach out. So, um, and she knew that he was hurting the most I guess, so you know, um, I, I mean I've had a lot of things that have happened since I was a little girl. I've lived, I live like ten minutes away from the Bellaire House and then like ten minutes away from, um, Westward Moundsville State Penitentiary and most importantly Liadina Native American Indian Mounds. So, it's like I feel like there's a ley line around there, so there's a lot of like, you know, neat creepy things that happen because there's a lot of energy in that area. So, I have stories going back from when I was like a little kid. Um, so, you know, I've always, there's never been a time where I haven't personally believed; but it's fun. I think that's what draws me to, personally to, like, your channel and in just such the community of ghost hunting because it's like, it gives you peace and knowing that there's something else besides, like, like, life can be great and amazing, but it can also be, like, painful and hard and so it's just like knowing that 'hey, there's something else besides, you know, us running around and dirtying up this planet'. There's something else that we don't know about and it, like, brings me peace personally"
Elton: "Yeah"
Melanie: "Even the, like, really creepy things bring me peace knowing that, like, you know it's stuff that I don't know about, or we, we don't know about"
Elton: "Did you, did your mum, like, ever let you know that she was going to do something like that with all those hospital visits and kind of knowing?"
Melanie: "You know, it's really weird because I, I don't at all claim to have a gift or anything like that, but I have had a lot of strange things happen to me in my life, so I thought that when she passed away I would automatically be able to feel her and I'd be able to feel her presence; I'd be able to feel her presence around me, and honestly I have not. We never, we never talked about anything happening. So, that's what I think made it a lot harder for me dealing with her death is because I just, like, expected her to come to me; or I expected to feel something and I never did. So, when I heard that message, it honestly to me does sound like her voice and honestly to me I, again, I don't know why she did it so creepy but I, I feel like she would, you know, like"
Elton: "Maybe it wasn't a choice"
Melanie: "That's true"
Elton: "Maybe that was her, like, trying her best..."
Melanie: "That's true"
Elton: "...and that's just how it dictates through"
Melanie: "You're right, you're right. Yeah"
(...)
Melanie: "I'm glad it happened, you know and, and um, I think it brought all of us peace; but it is just something that's, like, unexplainable"
Elton: *To Corey* "Why do I feel like that story shook you up so much?"
Corey: "I was tearing up a little bit"
Elton: "Yeah, I was gonna say. I saw your, like, eyes, yeah, I heard you, like, kind of sniffle a couple of times"
Corey: "I, I like that. I, I'm happy. Like, you feel comfortable and you're glad that that happened?"
Melanie: "Absolutely, absolutely, and especially for my dad because he was really struggling and he still, like, talks to her at home and he's still, you know, it, he still acts like she's there but not in like a, you know, not in a way that's bad but, um, so it, it just is something that it's like, you know, I have a code word. My daughter's here, and I have a code word, we have a code word already 'cause I'm like, I just hope; and if that's some advice I can give anybody here that we have a code word that we're not going to tell anybody else so that if something happens to me, if something happens to her that we'll just, like, know, you know that it, it's a way for us to reach out to each other but I wish I would have done that with her"
Corey: "The, the exact same thing just happened to someone in my family about a month ago too and, like, I won't go into too much detail about it, but, um, one of my younger cousins just passed away and, uh, his phone called someone and it was impossible that it could have called someone because they can't even unlock his phone because they don't even know his password..."
Melanie: "Wow"
Corey: "...and so just kinda hearing that made me, you know"
Melanie: "Yeah, yeah"
Corey: "Yeah. It's cool, it's really cool"
Melanie: "Thank you. Thank you so much, and thank you so much for having this event for all of us"
Elton: "Yeah, thank you for coming and sharing your story and everyone else here. Yeah, it's, it's really cool. I mean, it's cool to hear those kinds of stories too because sometimes people, like, they hear it and it rattles them but you you, it was..."
Melanie: "Right"
Elton: "...it was a really light beneficial positive..."
Melanie: "Yes"
Elton: "...experience that happened"
Melanie: "Absolutely. Absolutely"
Elton: "How did your, your father feel afterwards? Was he, like, more, like, in shock? Was he excited? Was he scared? Like?"
Melanie: "No, not at all, no. He, you know, usually with everything, even with coming here tonight he is like 'don't bring anything back', like, you know, he, he's afraid of spiritual things but this did not bring him any because he's like 'you know what, if there's anything bad in your house, in this house, you know your mum would get them'. Like, you know, for him it didn't scare him at all because he just really truly feels like it was her and like there's nothing. She's, there's nothing to be afraid of with her. You know, she loved us so much so she's not gonna do anything to hurt us"
Corey: "It's them just letting you know, like, 'hey..."
Melanie: "Right"
Corey: "...like, I'm still here' "
Melanie: "Yep. Exactly"
Elton: "I have, I have one more question because this is, this is one of those I kind of like asking when people share these kinds of stories. Do you feel as though you should, or want to, try and communicate with her knowing that that ability is within the house; or do you feel as though that, that's on her time, her watch, her choice?"
Melanie: "I guess, you know, I have played with the idea of even just like setting a recorder out and just seeing how it goes, um, but I've played with the idea; but it's just no I, I haven't, I haven't done anything. I mean, I guess it is on her, on her terms, I guess, because you know, I feel if she has the power to call my dad, hopefully she has the power if she wants to, and I talk to her too. I mean, I still talk to her, but I haven't, you know, physically gone out of my way over to the house to try to do anything and I'm hoping that even if I'm driving in my car talking to her, I'm hoping that she can hear me there. It doesn't really necessarily have to be like at their house. I'm hoping, I hope and pray that her spirit isn't just stuck in their house, you know, I hope she's like, you know, happy and going on to wherever she's supposed to be, but I do think that, you know, she has the power to come back and maybe visit the house or visit us, you know?"
Corey: Yeah, for sure"
Elton: "Yeah. That's, that's the story of the Bellaire House"
Melanie: "What is?"
Elton: "Someone passed away, and they decided to try and communicate, and"
Melanie: "Right"
Corey: "How, uh, how long was it after, um, she passed that he got the call? Do you remember?"
Melanie: "It was three months"
Corey: "Three months?"
Elton: "Wow"
Melanie: "Yeah, three months"
Corey: "Wow"
Melanie: "Yeah"
Corey: "I, I just got told recently that, um, for the first; this is, this is just a theory..."
Melanie: "Mhm"
Corey: "...but for the first forty days of someone passing, they kind of roam around everywhere and they go to anywhere that they've ever wanted to go"
Elton: "They go on a gap year"
Corey: "Yeah"
Elton: "A spiritual gap year"
Corey: "Yeah, and then after the forty days then that's when they can kind of either decide if they wanna stay somewhere here on earth; or if they wanna go to heaven but make, come back and make visits, you know, and stuff like that"
Melanie: "I completely believe that"
Corey: "Yeah"
Melanie: "I, I've also, I worked with a friend. I'll just, a real quick story, I worked with a friend who, um, we worked at a department store and, um, one day he came back from break and he said 'Mel, there's blood in my urine'; I said 'we have to get that checked out'. Well, anyways, he was gay and fabulous and one of the things that he always did was he would..."
Elton: "They typically are"
Melanie: "...poke, yeah, he would poke me so hard in my ribs, like, right in-between sometimes where you almost get mad at him..."
Elton: "Yeah"
Melanie: "...and he'd be like 'look at that hot guy over', you know, like, 'hot guy over there'; but he would shock me when he would do it. Well, anyway, so, a week after he had come back from break, he was in the hospital and we were texting. I'm like 'I won't be able to see you tomorrow, I'll see you but I'm going to come in the next day'. Anyways, he passed away during the surgery and I don't even see it coming. Like, I just, he really hid his pain. I just thought it was, like, routine. I didn't realise it was as bad as it was. So, I couldn't work in that department anymore because working with where his little reader glasses were and his jacket and everything it just, like, tore me up. So, I switched to being a price changer merchandiser and I would work nights in the store, completely by myself, and one night I was in the store and I was just, um, doing jewellery and I heard this comforter fell off the wall. So, I went over and shoved it back in, took a couple of steps, yeah, it did, it did it again. I went back to the jewellery, and I'm pricing the jewellery, and all of a sudden I get a poke in my ribs; and I'm telling you, it was that boney finger of his, like, it was that same poke"
Corey: "No"
Melanie: "And I turned around, I mean, I was just, like, the shivers, you know?"
Corey: "Yeah"
Melanie: "You know that feeling. I could feel his presence"
Corey: "Yeah"
Melanie: "Like, I could feel him there. At that same time, the comforter, boom boom, falls off the wall again"
Corey: "Wow"
Melanie: "It was just something, like you couldn't, and I'm the only one in the store and, I acknowledged. I'm like 'Justin', you know, like 'hey, I know you, I'm here buddy. I, I got, I gotcha'. Well, after that, it was, and again it wasn't scary at all, like, it was just he wanted me to know he was there"
Corey: "Mhm"
Melanie: "I mean, for five minutes later I could still feel that finger, you know? And, after that, every now and then, like, things would fall or whatever when I was up there and I would always just acknowledge him and it would stop, you know? So, anyways I think sometimes our loved ones like to just reach out to us..."
Corey: "Yeah, just, just say hi"
Melanie: "...and if you, you're, like, receptive"
My Thoughts
I find this experience absolutely fascinating because Melanie played the voicemail for everyone, and so everyone could hear it. This kind of proof isn't often provided when these experiences are shared, so this seems to add more credibility to me. Now, was the voicemail recording clear? No. Melanie says it sounds like her mum saying hello, but to me it sounds similar to typical E.V.Ps which are often captured and shared during investigations. By this, I mean that it sounded muffled and filled with static which really leaves the 'message' down to your own interpretation instead of clear and definitive words being communicated.
So, with the voicemail, I suspect that Melanie hears her mum say 'hello' because that's what her grief at the time caused her to hear. It's the same kind of thing as when you see a face where there isn't one, or when you hear words which aren't necessarily there because there are subtitles playing over the sound. As it's the start of a call, her brain could have assumed the first word would have been 'hello', and her grief could have paired with the detail of the number being saved as her mum. Either this, or her dad experienced all of this and Melanie heard the same because her dad had already relayed the story to her.
There is a blatant question though which is discussed in the Q&A segment, and that is how did the landline call her dad's phone without anyone being in the house except him? To that, I honestly don't know the answer. The only thing I can think of is that they went purely off saved name and not saved number, meaning that a different phone number could have been saved under the same name. As it's her dad's phone which was called, I suspect he could have had the landline number saved under his wife's name and not anything specific to her. So, it's possible that if it was saved under, for example, 'Sarah', then perhaps a different Sarah saved in the phone could have called. The grief then could have freaked him out at seeing the name, there may have been poor phone signal causing the poor quality message, and then that's how it could all be explained through a skeptical lense.
As I don't know for sure what the number was named under, and as I don't know if there were other contacts under that name, there isn't a way for me to definitively explain the experience as not being down to the paranormal. So, looking at it from the possibility that it could have been a paranormal event; it's incredibly exciting. One debate in the paranormal community centres around a spirits capability regarding the use of technology to communicate with the living. Most commonly, this debate focuses on phone apps which are created which often resemble random word generators with the claim that spirits can manipulate the words to not be random. It's claimed they do this through manipulating things, such as motion, which are detected by the phone's sensors. If this ghostly phone call was legitimate, then perhaps this experience lends credence to the argument that spirits can manipulate phone related technology in order to produce communication.
This is an incredibly interesting experience to me due to it factoring into the debate, and it would be interesting to learn if the same name was saved in the phone for other numbers. If not, then I honestly can't think of an explanation for the event happening. As for the second experience, the only non-paranormal explanation I can think of is possibly a trapped nerve in Melanie's side, or a muscle pulled, caused possibly by hanging the comforter back up on the wall. Melanie says she could still feel it five minutes later, and so that tells me it's either a muscle being pulled or her brain thinking the sensation was still there because it was a wierd event to her. The fact that the feeling coincided with the comforter falling, and that it fell again, is interesting. This could be a case of what I've already discussed combined with her not putting it back properly the first time.
Again, I wasn't there and so I don't know, plus I haven't interviewed her and so I don't know all of the details; only what has been shared here. It's always awkward to think of rational explanations to paranormal events when they revolve around a loved one, whether that be a friend or family member, as it feels like it's kind of invalidating that experience, or their presence, or saying that they aren't there when they may be. It is incredibly important though that we can't let these things get in the way of properly trying to explain these events. If we explain these events, like I've attempted to here, it doesn't mean your loved ones aren't around you; it just means that one event may not have been caused by them. This is something I think everyone needs to keep in mind, especially when it comes to debunking and having an experience of yours being debunked. It doesn't mean there's nothing, just that you possibly haven't found it yet.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading this article! I really do find this experience fascinating, and so I will label it under 'Experiences Of Interest' due to it providing possible credence to spirits being able to interact with phone technology. It's also a good experience because I don't think I've ever seen such an emotional Q&A be conducted by the OVERNIGHT team before. It was a fascinating watch, and you want to see the full episode of OVERNIGHT'S Haunted Homies, then you can click on the link below:
The next article will be published on Tuesday the 24th of March and will document a haunted location in Cornwall, England. The following article will be published on Friday the 27th of March and will document an artifact. If you want to follow The True Paranormal you can do so on buymeacoffee, Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube, X (formerly known as Twitter), Tumblr, and Pinterest. You can also subscribe to The True Paranormal on YouTube, or directly to this website through the bar on the left which will give you email notifications. That bar also lists all of the links which will take you to The True Paranormal's various social media platforms. If you want to contact me about your own experiences, or about anything at all paranormal, you can email thetrueparanormal1@gmail.com
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