I Believe in Ghost Stories – I Was in One

A quick back story before I talk about what happened.

First, I’ve never, at any point in my life, had some kind of spooky event where I was convinced that I had encountered something from the netherworld; except for the time that I was napping on the couch in an old house that some friends and I were renting.

We called it “The Mansion,” 2 stories, 100 years old, 5 beds, 5 baths, and a creepy old attic. The place took up half a city block. And a guy was murdered there.

During my nap, on the couch in the library, I had a dream that I was harassing some sort of demonic thing. I woke up, gasping for breath, and felt like there was something standing next to me.

But who knows, that can easily be explained away. I didn’t see or hear anything. I told some friends about it, we laughed it off, and I never had an encounter like that again, until the one I’m getting ready to talk about.

Second, about 100 years ago, the city of Denver decided to move one of its cemeteries, and turn it into a park, now called Cheesman Park.

Families were given 90 days to dig up their loved ones and bury them somewhere else. Not many responded, and the city was left with 100’s of bodies to deal with.

A guy named E.P. Mcgovern was hired, and offered $1.90 for each body exhumed, given a fresh casket, and relocated to Denver’s Riverside cemetery. McGovern took the deal, and quickly figured out that he could make more money if he put each body in a child-sized coffin. Most of the bodies he relocated were hacked up and stuffed in the smaller caskets.

All of this was done in public – broad daylight. The Denver Republic broke the story, describing the macabre scene:

The line of desecrated graves at the southern boundary of the cemetery sickened and horrified everybody by the appearance they presented. Around their edges were piled broken coffins, rent and tattered shrouds and fragments of clothing that had been torn from the dead bodies … All were trampled into the ground by the footsteps of the gravediggers like rejected junk.

Around the time this was happening, a church was being built, the Asbury Methodist Episcopal church, a huge, beautiful three story stone structure that stands today in the Highlands neighborhood just north of Downtown Denver.

It’s rumored that some of E.P. Mcgovern’s bodies were buried underneath this church while it was being built.

Fast-forward to now.

About 10 years ago, a small church purchased the Asbury building, set up their offices, and began holding Sunday meetings in the beautiful sanctuary area. A friend of the pastor’s named Robert asked to use the sanctuary so he could get some writing done. Just before he left for the day, he took a video of the sanctuary so he could show his kids. Here’s the video – apologies for the quality:

Video credit: http://relentless-love.org/sermons/jesus-in-the-land-of-ghosts-the-light-of-the-world/

Obviously a bird, right? A local Fox News reporter covered this, and everyone cried “bird,” quickly dismissing the video.

But there’s a huge problem with the bird theory. The cameraman, Robert, is a well-know pastor in the Denver area, with a sterling reputation. I’ve met him, I know a bit of his story, and I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative about him.

He never saw a bird. It only showed up in the video. I have no problem believing him.

You just saw a ghost.

And just underneath the sanctuary, in the basement, is where I had my encounter.

A few years ago, our church needed a place to meet, so we rented the Asbury building on Friday nights. I was on staff at the time, responsible for closing the place down and locking everything up. I was usually the last person in the building.

Sometimes we’d have parties/gatherings after church, and I’d be left alone to lock up sometime past 10:00 PM.

It was on one of these nights that it happened.

I had locked up everything upstairs in the sanctuary (where the bird video took place), and was walking through the basement area, checking all the doors. I’m sure I was the last person in the building, but I heard a piano – a single note from one of the middle keys…

… loud. and. clear.

Like, seriously – I heard a piano.

I said “hello?” and confirmed that nobody else was in the building.

Then I remembered that there are no pianos in the building.

Maybe there was more to come, maybe the ghost was just warming up, but I didn’t hang around to find out – I got the H out of that old spooky building faster than the bat out of hell that was probably playing that piano that didn’t exist. Part of me wishes I would have stayed, or taken a video, but I’m getting the shivers just writing about it. If this happened again, I don’t think I could conjure the huevos to hang around.

I know, I only heard one note on a piano. Not much of a ghost story eh? It’s enough for me though. I’m done, convinced, a firm believer.

Happy Halloween.