Lullaby in the Nursery

by Jon
(Portland, OR)

I'll start off by saying I am a skeptic when it comes to "ghost", I dont believe "ghost" exist, though I do believe in poltergeist because I am somewhat religious and the scripture does claim they exist, so I dont argue with it. I believe that a poltergeist is a demon and are granted access to peoples lives and are there to "toy" with individuals in their most vulnerable times to shake their beliefs or cause turmoil and take your eyes off your main focus. I also believe that you shouldn't mess with or go seeking these entities because you just might find them in all the ways you wish you hadn't. So this is my encounter...

I grew up in a military family, we use to live at Ft. Riley, KS on a military base. My father was an officer (and a Chaplain) and we were lucky enough to be able to live in some of the older houses on the base. They were extremely nice for the age they were (built before 1903). The house had a large basement, first and second floors and an attic (I lived in the attic with my brother who had returned from college to make some money during the summer). There were 3 rooms in the basement, 3 rooms in the attic (2 bedrooms and 1 large common area in between) and the first and second floors had a total of 8 rooms, 3 full bathrooms and 1 half bath, so it was a very big house. While we were living there, this house being old, we heard noises such as floors and doors creaking, no big deal, it was an old house. At times, doors would shut on their own or come open by themselves, but for a old foundations, this isn't uncommon. Probably the 3rd year living in the house, my parents were having their wedding anniversary and decided to travel to Maui, Hawaii to celebrate, leaving us at home to take care of the house. I was also in college at the time and had work/papers to do. One of the nights they were away, I was up late, around 12:30 to 1am-ish typing to my female friend (who is now my wife) via MSN chat online in the room that we made into an office that was connected onto the houses master bedroom (my parents room). While chatting, I began to hear a very low tone lullaby being hummed in a female voice, I was startled but at the same time, it was extremely soothing and pleasent. As I sat there frozen, the humming seemed to come through my parents closed bedroom door becoming increasingly louder, right next to me as if someone walked up to me, and then up into our attic through the ceiling and faded off. Well, at that time I was pretty much pissing myself. I jumped up and made it quickly to my sister's room (who lived on the second floor, down the hall from the office I was in) to make sure it was not her humming. She was asleep with her door closed, I woke her up and asked her if she had been dreaming of something that could have provoked her humming, she said she couldn't remember dreaming anything and didn't have any reason to humm (honestly, i've never heard her humm even when awake). I told her what I had heard and she dismissed it to go back to sleep, so I left her to go and check up on my brother, who was also alseep in the attic (keep in mind, the attic is where the voice disappeared off to, roughly into what would be my room above the office). When I got up there, I was very quick about waking him up to see how long he had been asleep thinking maybe he had been watching TV and that was the noise I had heard, he said he had been asleep for some time. Now my hair standing on end, I told him what I had heard, and again, I was blown off and he went back to sleep though he himself had claimed to of heard things in the house prior to this event. So, I said screw it, im out of the house. I grabbed my keys to my parents car and headed out to a parking lot on the base just to calm my nerves. While I was there, I gave a call to my parents to give them the story as well. While talking to my mom, and I had known this, during the ealier days of the base, there was a major cholera epidemic that swept through that area and killed many people. There is a gavesite on the base (though it is not close to my house) from the era that will not be disturbed due to victims of the epidemic are still buried there. Some of the houses that were on my block (being the some of the oldest houses on the base) were used as supplementary hospitals to house some of the families that suffered from cholera. Though the information my mother told me next, I hadn't known... during the conversation, I was told that the room that we had made into the family office, the room that I was in when I heard the humming, use to be a nursery during that time, and my parents room (that was connected onto the office) was the nurses quarters so they could stay close by to the infants that suffered from the disease. After hearing that, it made more sense. Im guessing what I had heard, was a nurse that was checking up on a waking sick child during the late hours of the night. I can still remember the tune she hummed that night, I can still hear it in my head as clear as day. It gives me chills, yet still soothes me at the same time. Anyways, thats my experience, though I dont believe it was a "ghost", I do believe it was something toying with me due to my parents being out of town and finding us (my bother, myself and my younger sister) at a vulnerable time. I finally joined the military myself and moved out in 2004, over the last year we lived there, we would still hear noises here and there, doors open and close by-themselves, sounds that I would say would be like creaking of someone walking up the stairs into the attic during the day or at night, but nothing that alarmed me or had such strong concrete evidence like that night.