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People Who Work With Dead Bodies Share Their Best Ghost Stories

People Who Work With Dead Bodies Share Their Best Ghost Stories
Photo by Sacre Bleu on Unsplash

Working around or alongside dead bodies is not a job everyone can handle.

Indeed, it takes a strong stomach, massive discipline, not to mention bravery.

Of course, most people who are brave enough to work as a doctor, nurse, coroner, or a mortician usually also have a high level of compassion as well, honoring the life of the person they are working for.

Particularly if they are superstitious, and wonder if that very person might still be in the same room with them, just out of their bodies.

An idea easy enough to laugh off, but indeed, many of these people have first hand experiences of haunting, sometimes scary encounters of finding themselves in the presence of spirits.


Redditor 8bitEclipse was curious to hear some first hand ghost stories from those who spend time in the company of dead bodies for a living, leading them to ask:
"Redditors who have worked around death/burial, what’s your best ghost story?

Some Unfinished Business, Maybe?

"I used to be a security guard at a hospital."

"One night, while doing my rounds, I went into the surgery wing and was walking down a hallway when I saw a doctor looking at the whiteboard where all the scheduled surgeries are written down."

"I said 'hello doctor' and kept going."

"The doctor didn’t say anything back, just kept studying the whiteboard."

"When I got back to the security office, I was telling one of the guys that’s been there for years about how I greeted this doctor and he didn’t say anything back, I asked if thats the a**hole they told me to watch out for."

"I was asked where I saw him and I said the surgery ward, and he gave me a smirk."

"He then explained that the surgery ward closes at 9pm and that all patients are moved into the monitoring wards; there should be no one there."

"He then asked me if this doctor was studying the schedule board."

"I said yes and he then told me that I just met Dr. Luisitti."- addictedpunk

A Sign Of Comfort, Or Foreboding?

"I worked within hospice and long-term care."

"The spookiest phenomenon was the man in the corner."

"It happens all the time for people actively dying."

"They see a shadowy man in the corner of their room."- LeftandLeaving9006

Poor Guy. Both Of Them.

"Not me, but a colleague found a dead person in a dark smoke filled burned out building during the mop up of fire fighting operations."

"As unfortunately happens sometimes, you find them by stepping on them."

"If they're still intact you kinda bounce off them."

"If they're fried, you can often crunch them up pretty bad under your heavy boot."

"Well this guy stood right on a badly burned corpse's sternum."

"Crunch, right into the chest cavity."

"When he tried to pull his foot out it got stuck on the ribs and the body came up at him."

"Burned up arms flailing about."

"He needed quite a bit of counseling, poor dude."- demoneyesturbo

All In A Day

"I have several stories from when I worked as a Mortuary Transport Tech."

"The job was basically transporting the deceased from where they were to where they needed to go."

"Turns out dead people can have a lot of appointments."

"One time though I had an experience I’ve never forgotten."

"I was dropping someone off at the Science Donation place."

"This is when you donate your body to science and they take it from there."

"So I wheeled in the deceased, unlocked the freezer, and did all my stuff I had to do in there."

"I placed him on the board, got the lift out, and placed him on the shelf."

"The interesting thing about the freezer was that most everything, once it’s processed, was wrapped in this blue tape type thing."

"And you could definitely tell what was inside."

"Legs, hands, feet, etc."

"Kind of interesting to me at the time."

"Anyway, I shut the freezer and locked it back up, and started wheeling the gurney back over to the garage door."

"The science drop off and processing area was a big L shape, with the freezer off to the larger long portion, and then you turn the corner and there’s desks and filing cabinets and whatnot."

"I about had a heart attack as I turned the corner and there is just this guy standing there examining files in the file cabinet."

"Looked just like you or me."

"Dressed modernly, but out of place for what people normally wear back there."

"I stopped and said that he’d have to forgive me but he almost gave me a heart attack."

"It didn’t look like he heard me at all, or even knew I was there."

"I should mention this was also about 1am, and I’d never seen anyone at the place this late."

"So I said, 'well, sorry if I startled you or anything', and went on about my finishing up stuff."

"Got the gurney back in the van, closed and locked the large garage door from the inside, all the while this guy is just standing there, staring at an open file in front of him, not paying any attention to me."

"I had to use the bathroom so I told him that’s where I’d be going and I’d be right back."

"Again, no response."

'I thought maybe he’s deaf and couldn’t hear me."

"So I went to the bathroom, and came back to the garage and the guy is gone but the file cabinet is still open."

"I didn’t know where he went, and I hadn’t heard anyone walk down the hallway past the bathroom."

"I checked and made sure everything I was responsible for was still locked, and it was."

"So I just announced that I was going to be leaving and locking up to set the alarm."

"No response."

"And that’s what I did, and left."

"I’m not sure who he was, or is, or what happened."

"But it was definitely an odd experience and one I still remember perfectly."

"I have a few other memories about my time at the job, if anyone else wants to hear."

"Nothing like what happened above though."- OlliverClozzoff

Unsettling Doppleganger

"I was once working at a mortuary and had to go pick up a man from the medical examiner’s office."

"When you do that (at least where I’m from) you get a receipt when they release the body to you."

"The receipt has all of the personal belongings that are with the deceased."

"When I brought the man back to the office I opened up the body bag to make sure all the belongings were there and double checking the receipt."

"When I opened up the bag I was stunned to find this dude looked almost exactly like me."

"He was my age, had similar tattoos In similar spots, had the same long hair I do, even had the same style of jewelry I was wearing."

"It took me so off guard that I stood there in an existential crisis until the embalmer came in and was like 'hey SpartanM00 how’s it goin—ahhh holy sh*t that guy looks like you!'"

"It’s the only case I’ve had nightmares about."

"I’ll be the one in the body bag with the deceased man opening me up."- SpartanM00

The More You Know

"Corpses move when you cremate em."

"People who don't know this get spooked a lot."- rocharox

The Unseen Help

"During my apprenticeship, I worked at a funeral home said to be 'haunted' by an old funeral director assistant who had a heart attack in the building and died."

"All he ever did was mess with the chapel lights and if you called him out, something like 'John the family is coming, please don't' they would return to normal."

"Not really sure if I believe it was really haunted, but saying something always fixed the issue so I kept doing it my entire time there."- _bobbykelso

Nightmare Inducing

"I used to work in a nursing home."

"The residents in certain rooms would complain about a man in their room at night but hallucinations are common in the elderly so it wasn't really noticed."

"One night I was moping the dinning room which had huge windows over looking the garden, it was around 1am so pitch black outside and low lighting inside."

"I had this horrible feeling of being watched so looked up and reflected in the window was a man behind me."

"He had a brown suit in, a bowler hat and the cruelest look on his face, he grinned and his mouth was too big."

"This happened in seconds and when I turned around there was obviously no one there but I'll never forget that look of evil on his face."

"I paid more attention to the residents after that and they'd all seen the same man, he just enjoyed terrorizing people."- mycatiscalledFrodo

Holding Out Hope

"I used to be a driver for a funeral home corporation."

"Like, drive the hearse and pick up the bodies."

"Never had anything creepy happened, a few funny things, a few traumatic things."

"In general it was a chill job."

"However, I did get incredibly uncomfortable one night picking up a man who died at home."

"He still had the defibrillator leads on his chest and his eyes were closed, which is unusual because the eyes are always open."

"He just looked like he was asleep or unconscious."

"Not rigid or pale or anything."

"I just had this sinking feeling for about half an hour in traffic that he was going to suddenly gasp and wake up in the body bag."

"Then it hit me."

"That would be the coolest thing ever."

"I’d take him home and he’d be back with his family."

"So I just kind of drove slowly and turned up some music and sang along and talked to him."

"When I got him to the funeral home I left him out of the cooler for about an hour while I did paperwork and played on my phone."

"When I got another call I checked on him and his limbs had started to stiffen."

"I was kind of bummed."

"I put him in the cooler and went on my next call."- Chemistry-Least

Working alongside the dead is a challenging. poignant, and frequently scary occupation.

As you always have the feeling that someone is watching you.

And more often than not, you may be right.

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.