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Happy Halloween! Are you ready for some spooky tricks and treats? This week, Cassie and Alex are closing out the first season of the Wheeling Haunts podcast with an episode with special interviews, spooky listener stories, and some Halloween legends and lore.
What happens when Wheeling’s history doesn’t die? Listen to Wheeling Haunts each Monday in October to find out!
Hosted by Alex Panas and Cassie Minder, Wheeling Haunts will take listeners on a journey into homes in Wheeling that have a lot of history…and a few ghost stories too!
Each week, Alex and Cassie will talk with local historians who will provide information about each home and the people who once lived there. They will also chat with current residents who will share bone-chilling stories that can quite be explained.
For more podcasts by Wheeling Heritage Media: https://weelunk.com/multimedia/podcasts/
Happy Halloween, everyone!
Yeah Happy Halloween, Alex. So, what are your plans?
Oh, I will... Halloween is on a Monday, obviously it's today. I will be handing out candy at my house for our trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood. It's one of my favorite things. I don't know why it's a flex for me, but I love being the house that hands out full size candy bars. So while it's great for the kids, it's also really great for me. I'm just flexing on all the neighbors.
Love it, awesome. Do you dress up while you hand out or?
I got a onesie at Aldi a couple years ago that is just like pajamas that look like a skeleton, so I will be wearing that. I'll be very cozy, handing out my full size of bars, listening to Monster Mash on repeat all night. That is my favorite way to celebrate Halloween. How about you?
Love it. So yeah, we're gonna hand out candy as well. My biggest flex is dressing up my dog so everybody can see them, and all the little kids love it when they see her. She's going as a dinosaur this year, so she will love it. But yeah, so we don't get too many trick-or-treaters at our house, where we are, so we either go down to the neighborhood right down the road or we go up to my mother-in-law's where she gets tons of people coming, so that way we get to see more people.
Great, yeah. I love when Halloween falls on like an actual day where like trick-or-treat happens, because I think like Halloween in America, as we celebrate it now, it really is: You're either partying on the weekend if you're an adult, or you're trick-or-treating when you're a kid. And I think back to when I was a kid, how special it feels to actually be able to celebrate on the day. So I'm excited for all the trick-or-treaters out there.
Definitely, and I always remember going back to school and like talking to everyone about like, what trick-or-treat was like last night, and this is the candy we got, and you would trade candy. So that's always nice...
Yeah.
They get to go and celebrate at school. Sorry to the teachers, but...
Yeah, and I'm like amazed... I guess not amazed, but when I was a kid, it's just funny how your perception of time changes because when I was a kid, I felt like trick-or-treating was an all night affair. And it's really only an hour now, which is like no time.
Yeah, I definitely feel the same.
Well, welcome back to the Wheeling Haunts Podcast. Hope you guys are all having a very Happy Halloween. We have a lot of treats to share with you today. We have some fun interviews, listener call-ins, and some spooky history. And we're going to start first with just a little treat that refers back to a previous episode. Right, Cassie?
Yes, so we, after Betsy's episode aired, we got a message from the contractor who she referred to in her episode and who was working in her home when the piano mysteriously played a tune. He actually reached out to us and confirmed that he felt that presence too, and he wrote to us in quotes here, "I saw an image approaching the piano quickly and enthusiastically. There was no scare, innocent, just playing the piano. Slight male, 140 pounds, used to live there.
So...
So, what do we make of that?
I mean, I think based on you know, everything that our listeners know from the episode, given this information, and just some other chatter that's been happening in the office outside of the podcast, I think that it's not Betsy's house that's haunted, I think it's very much tied to the piano.
100%
Yeah, so what you're listening to now, what you don't know, is that Betsy has had some other people, in their houses too, make some comments specifically about this piano and the person who's playing it being very enthusiastic and almost wanting to show off. So, I think the Betsy has made it clear that she doesn't want to see any of that, which makes sense why it happens when there's other people in the house.
Yeah, and I think it's one of those things, maybe the spirit understands that Betsy knows he's here, so when other people do come into the house, he has to make sure they know he's here even though Betsy still there too.
Yeah.
So like you said, it's about showing off. "Watch what I can do." Maybe he was going to be a professional concert pianist or something like that that ties him to that piano since Betsy doesn't have a whole lot of history on the specific piano. So...
Yeah, he's just a just an old showboat wanting to be heard.
Awesome. So, today's episode, like we said, will be a little different. First up, we were able to sit down with Amanda DeShong. She is a local spiritual medium and crystal healing practitioner. So she helps channel information from the spiritual world to her clients to provide peace, comfort and understanding. Before offering her services professionally, Amanda was actually an engineer, and through working in a more science-based field, she found that science is more connected to spiritual activity than you would think, which is crazy to think about.
Yeah, I think that's like a component that we've really tried to like... we haven't like, been as head-on about throughout the episodes. We talk about the history, and we talk about the house, and we haven't... And we've obviously talked about spirits, but not necessarily, you know, the kind of professional services that have really been built around this concept that people believe in the afterlife and that we can actually communicate with them. So, I think Amanda's insight is really a necessary component to everything that we've been covering this season, and we're so excited to share a little bit of her expertise with everyone.
Yes. So, without further ado, let's get into our interview with Amanda.
So, today we're with Amanda DeShong. Amanda, thanks for coming on the podcast.
Absolutely, I'm delighted.
Awesome. So tell us a little bit about yourself.
Certainly, I actually grew up in Mingo Junction, Ohio, right up the river. And I've lived in many states since, but I'm back here in the Valley. And I started noticing my mediumship when I was very young. Although I grew up in a very Christian-oriented family, as many do here in the Valley, and I certainly did not understand what I was seeing at that time, at a young age. And I know a lot of children and their parents come to me now as a medium, because they want to know, you know, what are their children seeing, what's happening with them? And it does happen at young age, because we are still connected very closely with the spirit side of life. Because we are spirit beings having a physical moment. We're eternal beings. So my mediumship, basically, I've learned that mediumship proves that. And when I was young, I just experienced things, and told people about things, and didn't really pay attention to what it was about. But I've been doing my mediumship professionally for about 20 years now, meaning that I'm seeing clients and such. I left the Valley and went for my undergrad, so I guess here's the connection between me and mediumship. It was always with me, but my brain once I got in high school thought, "Geez, maybe this isn't... What am I seeing?" So I thought, "I'll dive into science." So, I went through school, went for my Master's degree after my BS degree, and another Master's degree in engineering. So, I kept myself very science-minded, but the spiritual side never went away. As it does was none of us. None of us can make that science side, or the spirit side go away, because that is truly who we are. We're spirit beings connected to a God force energy, the energy that's around us, loved ones, friends, even, you know, material things like if you have jewelry that someone in your family had, or you may have a car or somebody taught you how to drive your car, when you get in your car, you feel that person's energy there, that's psychometry when you have something of an object that someone else put their energy in. So in a roundabout way, my mediumship started when I was very young. But I didn't know again, what I was doing. And then it proceeded until I realized, about 22 years ago, what I really was doing was helping people in their everyday lives, connect with their spirit loved ones and friends, and even their pets would come in for me.
So can you just take a step back and explain to us what was that transition like for you when you went from just being a child and you know, observing the world around you in a unique way, and then later in your adulthood, like realizing "I have a gift. This is how I'm going to use it." How did you formalize that process? Did you have a mentor or like what, what guides did you have that kind of took you along that path to where you are now.
So, I would say that first, when I was a child, being in that very Christian-oriented family, I was in church a lot. So there was quiet times, certainly listening to the service or singing, where I would see a lot of spirit energy celebrating with us in the service. But again, not quite understanding it. 4, 5, 6, 7 years old, what all of that really was, but I was very comfortable with it. So I was very happy to always have that energy around me and open. Even when I would take a walk in the woods and you know, be by the creek by myself, and those quiet times, I believe, took me to a place where I was peaceful with my mediumship. Sometimes people, because of I coined the phrase "Hollywoodism," takes us to a more frightening place. I believe in life, there is love and there is fear. Fear holds all else. And when we're in a place of love, and calm and compassion, we don't have fear, we don't have judgment. We don't have all those things that bring us to a place of looking at life from a way that takes us away from that side of love and compassion. And so as a child, I didn't have that side. And so I think that helped me just hold on to it. I mean, I went through high school and kind of just living like, a "normal kid." I was... I played basketball, played sports, was in band, just like everyone. But I certainly didn't have that fear of seeing things sometimes. And then I went to college, and I thought, "Okay, I'll dive in, I'll study more, and maybe some of those things will just kind of slip away." And, and they didn't. People would come see me in college for reasons of, you know, things they wanted to know about, and I still didn't understand because I had never been exposed to anything that would be psychic, mediums, any kind of mediumship seers, prophecy, all those things were brought up in the Bible more as a way of, they weren't to be really talked about. So, I just thought it was a normal part of my life. That's how I grew up. And a lot of people are developing their psychic abilities or mediumship ability now, because we're taking the time to do it. And it's not, as... it doesn't have all the negative connotations it used to have. So people are more open with bringing this about in their lives.
Yeah, I think it's a lot about just like, trusting your intuition and being very present. So let's break it down for someone who might be listening who has never seen a medium or not thought much about mediumship. What is that experience like? So when you work with a client, what can what does a new client expect when they walk through your doors?
Well, it's pretty much just like we're sitting here.
Yeah.
So really, it's about understanding to be open to whoever's there to talk with you. So when someone comes to me, I usually have a first name basis. So I don't know that person. And sometimes they have an odd spelling in their name and I don't even know if it's male or female. So, so when someone comes in, I ask spirit to come in and show the continuity of life as my number one goal as a medium. I want you to leave there, knowing without any doubt, exactly who was there talking with you. So I want them to give details for you. Like, possibly, first of all, are they family, friends, co workers who is this? But I also want them to be able to tell you things like maybe what they look like, things they would have done with you, where they live, their personality, whatever it is, they want to come in with, to let you know, without a doubt, it's absolutely them. Then I ask them to tell you things about your past, present, and future. So you can understand they've been with you that are with you, they always will be. And the future is not written as many people think that, you know, mediums are forecasting that future, your future is freedom of will. What they're telling you is the projection of they'll be beside you, no matter what you choose. Basically, we're just going to bring in loved ones and friends and sometimes pets jump in there on their lap. And I really see and hear and feel. So we all have, that's what one of the myths that I try to tell people... We all have the ability to use our intuition, our innate ability was given to us by the Creator. It's never going anywhere. And we can use it in our lives every day. And I mean, the majority of us do 1000 times a day and don't even realize it, you know, so, you know, you see things and they lay it automatically in your life and you're doing them you stop at a stop sign. Why'd you stop at the stop sign, well you were taught to stop at a stop. But you didn't physically think that when you stopped at a stop sign did you?
Yeah, it's just like a muscle...
You just knew you needed to stop.
...you have to flex to really get the most benefit out of it.
So basically, once you practice your intuition all the time, or you practice like I'm doing as a medium, it just becomes stronger and stronger.
What advice would you give to people who were in a similar situation to you when you were younger? Of "Okay, I think I'm seeing something. I don't know..." What what should those people do? Or maybe they think they had an experience where they're like, "Could this be something? How I'm connected?"
I would... The first thing I would say is, first believe that it was. Because if you think it was, it probably was. Then I would say, definitely speak to someone like myself, like a medium, that would be able to help you kind of navigate where you're at, and, and how you want to either bring that into your life or that you want to set those boundaries and not have that in your life. So I never really understood that because I didn't really have mentors or people at a young age that were telling me anything about that. But I also do Intuitive Life coaching. So I get people to understand how they can use all their intuition and their own abilities to understand how to help themselves more and allow spirit energy to help themselves more. And see those signs, understand those signs. So that's what that does. And I suggest that children, if parents are out there and the kids have that energy about them, is to get them to talk with someone that does this, like myself. So that, first of all, the number one thing is, so they don't think they're crazy. Because a lot of parents and kids, they're like, "Oh, that's crazy, you can't be experiencing all of this. What are you talking about?" And they could be, so the basis of it, and again, if they've watched scary movies, or they watch, you know, the paranormal stuff, it could be more frightening to them. So I grew up in that kind of fearless way about it. Whereas now with all this out there for them to latch onto, they could be living in a place of a lot of fear. So getting them to understand, they can have the boundaries, they can set boundaries, they can do things for themselves, but still involve themselves with those spirits, or they can become more disconnected through their own accord, like they can do it themselves.
What would you say is the most common misconception when people think of mediums or walk in to meet you?
Well, one of the things I can do in a crowd of people... I can usually, like feel people's reaction. So when they first find out I'm a medium, some of them, I see this fear on their face. Because they think that mediums can read your mind. I can't read everybody's mind, or, quite frankly, I would probably be crazy at this point. Because you can't let all those thoughts invade your mind while you're still trying to function as a person. So that's one of the things I think people have a misconception of like, "oh, geez, they know everything. They're gonna read your mind don't say anything," or they try to become very stoic, and, you know, not say anything. But I feel emotions from those people, just like I do in the readings sometimes. So what I tried to do, a lot of people say, "Well, what do you do? Do you carry this around with you all the time?" And no, I actually have, like, you could say, it's an open sign in my mind. And when I want to talk with spirit energy, I can certainly then say, "Okay, I'm in my office, I'm meditating, I'm open." And when I leave my office, I actually turn off the lights, I pray, I am thankful for that day and meeting with all those spirits. But then I turn that all off, and I erase the day, meaning that anything that happened in all those readings, I literally remember them not. Most of the time, I don't even remember the person's face. So if they run into me like a year later and say, "My daughter had a baby, you told her it was gonna be a baby boy." And they're telling me all this, but and I'm smiling, because I'm happy for them. But I literally do not remember.
So you don't remember our session?
No.
Wow.
Yeah.
It was a great reading.
Okay, I recognized you when you came around the corner. As in like, I knew I had seen your face, but I didn't know you had never came to me. And you didn't say that in your message. You just said you had heard about me.
Yeah.
So I didn't even... I didn't even know you were there.
No, I feel like, like you said, you definitely need that to be able to turn that off sign.
Absolutely.
Or else I could not imagine...
Yeah. So it's like I tell people, "I'm driving down the road." You know, even though I do this for a living, would I really want a spirit jumping in the car seat beside me? I think, "it doesn't matter if I do this for a living, that would still terrify me." because your mind isn't ready for it, you're driving down the road, you're paying attention to traffic, and again, that's a "Hollywoodism" thing. They've shown people doing that and they still continue to drive down the road, which is nonsense because they would probably wreck. But I feel like people need to understand you can shut it off. You have control of this. A lot of people that are starting to see things out in our world think that, you know, "how do I stop it? How do I turn it off? It's bothering me in the middle of the night." And I literally set up times. That's why I have a schedule. And Spirit knows when I'm going to see people. And if there's some flex in that, I'll let spirit energy know, "okay, I'm okay with this." But that's the only time like, it doesn't come up when I'm out eating, or, you know, talking, meeting with friends, I don't allow that part of my energy to open up.
That's what I was going to ask. Has there ever been a time where you're out in public shopping, and you see someone and there's a spirit that just shows up, and they're like, you have to go talk to this person.
That's only happened a couple times. I have to say it's happened where I see the people around them or feel that energy. But I haven't said anything, because they're with other people, and you never know if they're, you know, their family members are very religious, or they would believe in it. Or I feel like most people, if they heard a message, they would feel heartfelt, especially if it was like, right on the button. But there could be people around them that then looked at them differently. So I don't want to... I don't ever want to approach someone like that. I did one time when there was... I was in a restaurant, and this military presence from the Civil War, kept walking back and forth behind this table, and he'd walked over to me and he kept saying, "You have to tell him. You have to tell him. He's my great, great grandson. You have to tell him that you know about the buckle." And I'm like "Okay," I mean, he was quite annoying, so I said, "Okay." So I walked over, and I just quietly said to him that "I know this is gonna sound strange. I'm a medium. But, your grandfather's here, and he's several generations back. He was in the military in the Civil War. And you have the belt buckle, he says. And he just looked at me froze. And he did have his belt buckle. And like they were actually going to some civil war enactment. And when he went to those and dressed up, he did portray that great, great grandfather, and he did have his belt buckle from that Civil War time.
Wow.
So, I think that was just his way of saying, "Hey, I'm here with him. Let him know that I know, there's still that connection." So I felt pretty safe since it was just that gentleman and his wife, not in a crowd that I could say it quietly. But as far as jumping in and saying something to you know, I'm checking out at Kroger's...
Yeah.
...there's like 50 people around and I'm going to say something to, you know, to the woman or man checking me out, I wouldn't do that. That's too, they could actually have, you know, I mean, somebody could have a heart attack if they heard something from someone, and it was so important for them to hear it and they had a heart condition or something. I just want it to be where the person is comfortable and calm. That's why I like doing it in my reading rooms. My offices.
Yeah. It seems like a lot of what you do is provide a sense of calm and comfort to the clients that you work with. Have you ever had an experience where you had to deliver some not great news? And how do you navigate those conversations, if at all?
So... I feel like sometimes, well, 99% of the time family members understand how their loved ones passed. But sometimes it is by someone else's hands. And I have let them understand that the information would come about and then it did. So I never asked... I ask spirit for proof of what's being said whether it's proof that they already have or proof that's coming. So then they found you know, that proof to be when their loved ones life was taken. And then they found out by who, you know, the vehicle color, who it was, when it was, how it was. But that they're at peace now. So that's usually what they want me to understand. I asked not to see the horrific parts of passing when it's something like that. I do want to know enough that I understand how that person's energy went into spirit. So if it was somehow by a gun, I just, I don't ask for those details of what Hollywood would show... Again that "Hollywoodism." I just ask for a cold object to be placed in my hand, which would say that was metal, that was a gun. Or they just reach their hands out to me and that's all I see is just hands. That says to me, they passed into spirit by their own hands. So some things are, I believe, hard. Beyond our words for loved ones to hear. Or friends, or husband, wife, someone that is hearing that about their partner, but...
[END PART 1]
[START PART 2]
…it's, I feel, important for them to also know, details that that energy wants them to know. But I ask, no negativity in the readings. I always ask for spirit to show that. No negativity, no dark side of things, so to speak. I never deliver when someone's passing. I know people that have been told that, like, you know, I had a friend years ago, you're going to pass or your husband is going to pass like, you know, before you. Okay, when you're 100? When you're sitting on your front porch? You know, in an accident when he's 50, you're 90? When is that going to happen? First of all, we don't... I never want to take that much energy from the Universe into my own hands and tell someone that. But the fact is, you could be in an accident, and that person could pass one split second before you, then they did pass before you, but you lived out life together. So I never want to deliver that kind of news to anyone and I ask it to never come in.
Yeah, I can't imagine why anyone would want to know that. We were all gonna die someday. I don't want to know how. I don't want to know if it's tomorrow, or 10 years from now, or fifty years from now.
Absolutely.
And maybe that's a good misconception, because as someone who's never seen a medium but has kind of always wanted to but has been nervous and scared of maybe getting some type of bad news, it's good to hear that that's something that you don't want to share. You don't want to bring that...
Absolutely not.
...and so that would make me more comfortable... not comfortable, I guess more? I don't know...
Just prepared.
...yeah, more prepared to come see you. Because like I said, it's just something I've wanted to do, but I guess I've been nervous of what's gonna come about it. What advice do you have for people who are similar to that feeling?
So, people that are frightened about having the reading, it's kind of like, we're just having this conversation today, only you would understand without a doubt that that family member or friend is here with you. Because they would give you details that you would strongly understand. But they'll also tell you things that are happening in your life, with relationships, or maybe your work, or finances. Whatever it is, they'll tell you, or some of your goals, that you would wonder, "How would they have known that?" Well, they're beside you. But it's in a calm way that they tell you all this. And again, they don't take that freedom of choice away that we spoke about a minute ago. So when they don't take your freedom of choice away, then you can really see that they're just standing there in comfort, they're standing there as support, but they're also limitless in spirit. We're all sitting in this room right now, and so you know your energy as a physical being. You can't be five other places or ten other places. Your mind can, of course, we multitask, but our physical energy... But spirit can be. Spirit can be multiple places at once. So they can be here with you. They can be with siblings, your parents, everyone, all at once. They don't have to be housed in a body anymore, so they're energy. So just like the energy we're putting out there right now that people are gonna hear this via YouTube or radio, you know, when you're thinking in that realm, you know, radio stations right now? We know that there's thousands of them around our country. It just depends what you want to tune into. So, all you're doing is tuning into kind of your station with your family, and hearing what they have to say.
That's a great way to put it. I had never thought about it that way before. That's cool. So one of the recurring themes many of our guests have talked about over the last month is that if they have been in a home where they felt a presence, and they, you know, weren't sure how they wanted to interact, but they would just talk to the house and say, 'Hey, don't scare me. No funny business." Would you recommend that? Or do you have any other tips for people who feel like they are, you know, in a house or in a space in general, where there are spirits present?
Absolutely, because there certainly is this building we're in right now. But there is in all the buildings of Wheeling being that it's a, you know, a much older town and the energy that's here. And the good and the bad things that have certainly happened in Wheeling and throughout the Ohio Valley. So you're gonna always have energy in certain places. I would suggest that A you never are mean to them in a sense of just rude. But I would say... because you wouldn't do that to somebody that just like came to visit you in your house, right? So you want to say to them things like"It's okay if you're here, if you're of love and light." That is telling them right away that if it's a negative energy, if it's harmful energy, they cannot stay in your house. The major misconception with all of this, people think they don't have control of it. You do. Again, it's that Hollywood thing. They teach us that you don't. But actually, you truly, truly do. Why is because the Creator made the spirit side still connect with us, still live as a part of us as close as our breath. But it cannot interfere with our life here, in those ways that we don't wish it to. Now, if you're accepting the negativity, if you're accepting things happening, then you're not demanding it be gone, then that energy is going to stay there. So all you have to do is be considerate, and when you know it's family members, and you see them leaving you a sign or doing something for you. Give them a thank you, because you would to people that are still here, you would say, "Thanks for helping me, or thank you for that information." So just don't ever be afraid to thank them. Because that increases the connection between you and them, in a sense of you become more open, they're always going to be there beside you. But you'll become more open in realizing you can actually have a communication with them.
So you do some intuitive coaching, you are a practicing medium. For people who want to learn more about you and the different services that you offer, where can they find that information? And what would you like our listeners to know?
Okay, well, I also have a store. Amanda's Gifts and More...
All right.
...in Steubenville, Ohio. It's a metaphysical store. So I do not practice any certain religion. I let everyone be their own individually led spirit. So their spirituality is really up to them. We have lots and lots of things there in the store, crystals and you can see all my jewelry here. Many things: prayer flags, and candles, and you name it. So people can come there and learn different things about mediumship, about spirituality, their intuition. I also teach classes, and you can find out about all that on Facebook under "Amanda DeShong Medium," under "Amanda's Gifts and More." And I also have a website under amandasgiftsandmore.com. And I have my mediumship. amandadeshong.com is my medium page. And if you have any questions at all, I'm also connected there on Facebook Messenger, multiple ways. So you can find that as well. And I look at those multiple times a day so people can respond or talk to me about things that are happening in their life. And quite frankly, a lot of people out there now are dealing with anxiety and issues of you know, things that I believe COVID brought into our world even stronger, and spirit can help with that as well. They can really help us understand that we're never alone, and that we can seek assistance maybe in other directions. That hasn't been common in your life up till now.
Awesome. So you have the shop up in Steubenville you said.
Yes.
You also recently opened an office in Tridelphia?
No, actually Tridelphia, I've been there since 2014.
Oh, I didn't realize that. I thought that was a newer thing. Okay.
Oh, no. So so I'm actually located at A Journey Within at 4235 National Road in Tridelphia. And I have business hours there. And I have business hours in Steubenville. But if you actually get on my website, amandadeshong.com, you'll be able to see a calendar that tells you when I'm there, or you can just look at the phone number and give me a call. A lot of people still want to do that phone contact, so that's a good thing. I'm there any way you want to do it. So social media or phone, I'm there.
Yeah. Well, we'll be sure to link all of your information in the show notes. So if any of our listeners want to come visit you wherever you're at. Wherever you're listening in the Ohio Valley, you're probably not too far from Amanda.
All right.
All right. Thank you so much for popping in.
You are very welcome.
This was amazing. I think it's gonna be an awesome wrap up...
Yeah.
...to our series.
It's so special having you here. Thank you.
You're very welcome, I was delighted that you asked.
The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra is a proud partner of Wheeling Heritage. Visit wheelingsymphony.com for information on all of their upcoming performances including their American Story Season and Symphony on Ice. These performances are presented by Main Street Bank and EQT Foundation.
What an interview.
Yeah, so I don't know about you guys, but I would like to make an appointment with Amanda like today. So...
Yeah, as a former client of Amanda who has seen her, I can attest that it is really a special experience. She makes you feel comfortable. It's not scary. Like she said, you know, it's something that provides comfort and calmness and positivity and light. So, I really hope that anyone who's listening that's kind of like teetering on the fence or was always curious about what it was like to see a medium now feels a little bit more prepared for what that might be like for them.
Most definitely. And I think it's one thing that maybe you don't realize that you need to see a medium or something like that, where you have this feeling of discomfort or you just might feel lost that maybe her services will help you, guide you where you need to go next or...
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's something too that stuck with me. You know, while it's great that professional services like this exists... Mediumship, it's almost like a gift that we all have. It's just how much you choose to lean into your own intuition. So even if you're not seeking out these services, just as you're going through life thinking about, you know, "What is this? What is the universe telling me right now? And what how do I want to read into that?" I think that's really cool.
Yeah. And if any of you out there have had an encounter where you're like, "Is someone trying to communicate with me right now?" And you're just like brushing it off, like Amanda said, embrace that. Go talk to someone who has experience and see if that's a gift that you have. And if you want to tap into that, I think she's going to be a really good resource for that.
Yeah, absolutely. So next up, we had a listener write in with a story so spooky that we had to bring them in. So Terry Jill Bonar is one of our VIP listeners, she wrote in about a haunted house that she grew up in, just over in Warwood with her mother, Barbara. And Barbara actually still lives in the house, so she agreed to come on, and they both have had some very interesting spiritual experiences in the house. And Barbara still actually talks to some of them. One of them she believes is her former husband, but I won't give too much away.
Yeah, so the interview was really fun. We were able to have a good chat about it and lots of stories. So let's jump into that story. We are here with Barbara Bland, and Terry Jill. So they're going to tell us a little bit about the house that they have lived in for a long time now in Warwood. How many years was that?
I think it's 54. We moved in in ‘65?
No, like... Well, I'm 58 now. So it was before that. So almost 60 years.
All right.
What was Warwood like at that time? How has it changed since you've first moved in?
I was born in Warwood. Warwood hasn't changed since I was a little girl, not much. Except businesses come and go. People don't seem to support Warwood very much. So, it's a shame.
Yeah. Well, we're big fans of Warwood. And obviously you are since you've been there...
Oh yes.
..what do you love most about living in Warwood?
Ah, it's close enough to big cities. It's close enough to small cities. But it's a nice community.
You're a good spokesperson, love it.
So when you were originally looking at this house, what attracted you to it?
Price.
Alright, we love the honesty.
It's true. We lived in an apartment up on Warwood Avenue that actually my husband's... or my grandfather lived in as a child. They used to have seances up there. Right on the corner has three apartments. We lived there for a while. And this house came up for sale. And we went to see it and the price was right. And I said, "Well let's buy it." Well, we didn't have no money, but we got enough for a down payment and, in fact the last payment we made on it, the bank paid it for us because we never missed a payment.
Awesome, that doesn't happen anymore.
That was a good, old Warwood bank, but they've changed hands. I don't know how many times, but I still stay there.
All right. So we're here obviously because you have some spooky stories. Where would you like to start with that?
I never really felt that it was haunted.
Okay.
First time that I thought it was haunted, I was at home with my dog laying on the couch. And my dog started running around like crazy, and there wasn't nobody else in the house. And it started me, and I sat up and I would have swore I saw two figures standing in my hallway. But by the time I got up off the couch, they weren't there. And I screamed crazy, but nobody else saw it. And then my neighbor started saying, "Who's up in the attic at night?" I said, "Nobody." But they would see a light up in the attic. I don't know, if they saw people walking around...
They would see somebody walking around. And they would think somebody was up there, even my friends, but I was very young and some of my youngest memories of those, like coordinating stories were that there were floor registers that were in the attic, but they open to the bedrooms. And at night, sometimes you would hear what sounded like a footstep or somebody walking over those registers. And it was a very distinct sound, that couldn't be mistaken. You know what I mean? Like we played in the attic all the time, me and my friends, I had all my Barbies and everything up there. We would go up there and play. So that was always, you know, interesting that people would say, "What were you doing in the attic," and we weren't up there. But I would hear, like in the middle of the night, those kinds of things. And then to add on to that story, we feel that whatever this was, was a very mischievous, feminine...
Yeah, in fact, I recall going in the one bedroom, that's the front bedroom, and it looked like there was a figure standing in front of the window. It was like, more like a shadow. But there was nothing there. But nothing scary, nothing ever...
Things would go missing. My mom washed the lace curtains, she'd taken the panels down and wash them all out, and she kind of, I think hung them over the ironing board or across the bed to dry, and when she would put them back up, there was a panel missing. So I mean, from where she washed them to the bed, like not anything. And then you know, she would get angry and you know, kind of...
Bring those back. I need that.
...And sure enough, she would go about her business and then come back up and there it would be laying there.
Wow.
Yeah, and I can remember I had a pair of diamond earrings that were given to me. And I always kept them in my little dish, you know, on the dresser. And I went to put them in and there was one missing. And I was like, you know, sick. I was sick about it, it was my diamond earrings. And I went and I told my mom, like, I don't know what happened to it, it's gone. I can't find it. I've been all over the floor, under the dresser, all around. And my mom, you know, I would go off to school, whatever. And my mom frequently would clean my room and make my bed and things like that like moms do. And she got very upset and was like "Now bring that bring that earring back." And when I came home from school that day, the bed was made completely made, and the earring was laying right in the middle of the bed. So that was interesting. Another time a friend of mine, and I were going up to the attic to play, and sometimes it was sort of a game of like avalanche climbing because we would leave boxes and things sitting on the steps. And I was... she was behind me, and I was maneuvering my way up the steps, and I lost my balance. And I started to fall backwards, I mean, started to fall really hard. And I felt myself going backwards, but it felt like two hands on my back just kind of pushing me up. And she was like, "Whoa, what just happened?" And I'm like, I'm looking back because I thought it was her. She was still at the bottom of the steps watching this happen. So yeah, it gives me goosebumps even to talk about it today. Because I can just remember that feeling of like, "Oh, you know, like, oh, I didn't fall," you know, and you look back and you're like, you're thinking that was your friend who pushed you back up but it wasn't. There was no one there. And we would be in my room, and I remember one time the steps were actually cleared off, and it sounded like a baton rolling down the steps. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and it hit the door. And I was like, you know, we would just sit and look at each other like, "What was that?" and we'd go open up the open up the door like this, and nothing there. And so those just like... It was mischievous. It was jovial fun. I know when I was a senior in high school. I had my senior portraits done, and we had gotten them back. And there was a specific picture that I wanted to be in my bedroom. I was like, "Mom, I want that picture in my room." She's like, "You're not getting it in your room, it's staying in my room." So I was kind of angsty about it you know, like, "Hey, that's my picture. I want it." So I went to bed that night, and I was laying in my bed and the windows were opened, and it was raining and the wind was blowing, I could see my curtains blowing in the rain. And I kind of woke up a little bit partially out of my sleep. And I saw what I thought was my mom's standing at the foot of my bed. And I was like, "Oh, good. She'll close my windows." And I rolled over and went back to sleep. I woke up in the morning, wet, cold, windows open. But the picture was on my dresser. And I went in and and I said to her, "When you were in my room last night, bringing that picture, why didn't you shut my windows?" She goes, "I was not in your room last night." But I mean, just as clear as day there was, I saw someone standing at the foot of my bed. So, and my sister would say, you know that she experienced from that same bedroom, because when she left, I moved into the big room, you would catch... We had our makeup mirror set, like with the back to the door. And every once in awhile, you would catch like a flash in the hallway. You know what I mean? That you'd like, turn suddenly. But there was always that feeling that there was something there. And still, to this day, I've taken my pets up to my mom's house. And they'll sit and they stare at this stairway. Like, look, look, look and I'm like, "What are you looking at? What are you looking at?" Like, I can't see anything, but she still has...
Yeah, even a few weeks ago. I asked her, I said I'm sitting in my living room, and I see this... I had a little lantern sitting on one of my tables and it wasn't lit and it didn't come on automatic. But all of a sudden, I see this light blink, blink, blink blink. And I though, "Something must be coming from the TV," and I tried to block the view, I looked outside to see if there was a car coming down the street, saw nothing. But then I went out back and I looked in and I thought, "Well maybe it's the light in the kitchen reflecting on something," and I tried to block it but when I went back in, there was no light blinking anymore, but I saw nowhere where it could have come from. But it just kept blinking. This was just a couple of weeks ago.
Wow. And she still will occasionally have doors…
[END PART 2]
[START PART 3]
...And specifically, she says that my dad is there with her.
Yeah.
Because my dad, you know, had a house full of women. And we were not the most modest young ladies in the house. And my dad used to say, "Oh, my God Barbara, please buy them a robe." Anyways, and he was he was very, he was very modest. And my mother, you know, he would, he would prefer that the bathroom door be shut. You know, when you use the bathroom, the door should be shut to this day, when she goes in to use the bathroom. The door will slowly close while she's in there. Like as if my dad's...
And I say thanks.
Like there's nobody there. I'm not closing the door. But it's like my dad is there now with her. And he's like, "Can you please shut the door?"
Yeah, that's something we talked with Amanda DeShong, a local medium, just the other day. And she was talking a lot about how you know, when people in your life pass on, they stay with you. And they don't, they aren't, it's not like you're confined to your body now where you can only be one place at once. So your husband can be with you and your dad can be with you at the same time. And I wonder... I think that's yeah... Not that I wonder, but I think that's cool that he's still with you.
That's true. I'm saying thanks to my husband almost every day for something. Because he does something for me almost every day. And then I think, "Oh, he's gonna forget me." Well, I don't think he does.
She said, "He's not gonna recognize me." I said, "Oh, he sees you."
I mean, it was 20-some years ago, but it seems like yesterday. So that fact I woke up this morning yelling for you. I thought you were in my house. And I said, "Terry, don't go," and you didn't answer, and I thought, well, she must have went.
Yeah, I wasn't there this morning.
Did you believe in spirits or anything before you moved into this house?
No, and I still don't really believe in scary things. I think there's spirits that are around everybody that they don't recognize. But mine are things, and I never really paid too much attention to them till she told me I had to come down here, and I said "I don't want nobody going through my house."
Nobody's gonna go through your house.
All right, good.
It's just, like I said, it's happy memories in a way because, you know, we've all had some kind of experience. I know, my brother-in-law did not like to stay there. No, he's when he did not like it. My parents went on a vacation one time, and I was still a minor. So I had to be supervised. And he's like, I don't want to stay here. You know, he would, he would get very uncomfortable. He didn't like it. So. And I don't know, my kids never really felt anything that I know of, Riley and Chase didn't really actually ever experience anything that I'm aware of. But it's pretty awesome.
I didn't know he didn't like staying at my house. Just recently, you know, a year or so ago, he was gonna stay there, and he said, "No, I don't think I want to stay here." But he didn't say why.
Is there anything else you guys want to add or any other stories you can think of?
When I was a kid, my parents... I used to have crazy slumber parties for my birthday. That was always like a highlight of my growing up, and all of my friends will attest to the insanity of the parties that we have at my home.
Yeah, we did haunted Halloween.
She would do haunted Halloween parties for me because my birthday was the 24th. So, we would always theme it kind of around that. And she, my dad, my sister, whoever was available would be in this mastermind plan to scare us, which I don't know that they really needed to do that because we were already kind of scared anyway, you know?
We used to make a ghost and hang it out my bedroom window and it would come down in front of the dining room window. And we'd have it on a long string, and we'd swing that back and forth in front of the windows. We did terrible things, and now today I say, "You shouldn't scare kids like that."
She did. I had friends that would be in tears, scared. They wrote in stage blood on the mirror one time "beware" or something like that.
It wasn't blood though.
It was stage blood, it was fake blood. And then my sister said that they dressed the vacuum cleaner up in her wedding gown or something and they would drag it by the cord through the hallway. I mean it was rigged up pretty good.
We scared the poor spirits that were there.
Yeah, they weren't a participant of it. They were probably enjoying watching you play tom foolery.
Yeah, well I think it's really cool that you guys have just embraced this because I think a theme through our episodes is, you know, some of our guests who've had experiences when they were younger, their parents weren't necessarily bought in. But I love that you kind of embrace it all the way through and you leaned into it around the holidays with some haunted parties.
Yeah, we did. Haven't had any recently.
And every Halloween my mom and dad used to dress up for Halloween and hand out candy and kids would come from all over the valley to their house to get their trick or treat candy cause she is an amazing witch.
I make a really good witch.
She does a pretty awesome witch laugh too. I have to say that I've inherited it, but she does it best.
Can we get a witch laugh for the podcast?
[witch laugh] My little pretties. Come on in, I need something good for Halloween dinner.
That's great.
Thank you so much.
I'm coming to your house for Halloween this year.
Not sure if you're gonna be out there, but I'll find it.
Oh no, I don't do that anymore.
She doesn't do it anymore.
We'll bring you the candy this year.
Who'd I do that for and scared one of my grandchildren? Who was it?
It might've been David.
Maybe? Yeah, yeah. And then I said, "No, that's not nice thing to do."
Well, awesome. So where can we find you guys around town?
Well, you can find me at Making Magic on Warwood Avenue. 1913 Warwood Avenue. Although I'm in the middle of transition right now. So, things are a bit a mess. But I'm getting there, trying to get things accomplished.
And find her on social media. Facebook, Instagram.
Yeah, Terry, you're being modest. Terry is an amazing florist that makes beautiful arrangements for all occasions. So definitely check her out.
Thank you.
And then I'm retired, but I still work. And I think that's the key to being happy is keep busy. Don't sit around and... I have a TV and I put the game things on now. I don't watch nothing bloodied, scary anymore. Life's scary enough.
Yeah. And we'll be able to find you at Handmade Holiday, which is our one day pop-up market on December 3rd. You'll have all of your beautiful Christmas trees.
Hopefully, hopefully, if it wasn't for them helping me I couldn't do it. I couldn't bring all that stuff. It would be way too much.
Well, thank you guys for stopping in and telling your stories. We really appreciate it and...
Happy Halloween!
They were fun things. Nothing really scary. Like I said, the first time I thought I saw something, that scared me.
Oh, I bet.
But that was the end of that. Whoever I scared, didn't come around anymore.
Thank you guys so much. This was awesome.
Lots of things.
All right. What do you think, Cassie?
I love how much they embrace everything that's going on in that house.
Yeah. Everything from the 1 just like the actual, physical spooky things that happen: Terry Jill almost falling down the steps, knowing that someone's walking upstairs. But 2 just the fun stuff that they did like the Halloween parties, and the ways that like they lean in that aren't spiritual at all. It's just like, fully embracing spooky season. I love it all.
And I love how when they would do those spooky things themselves. They're like, "Yeah, the spirits just stayed away. They probably thought we were entertaining and like laughing at us for trying to do all this." Like, I just loved every minute of it. And they... just to see that it's one of those things that kind of brings them joy. It's good memories they have of growing up and being in their house. It's not like "Our house was haunted and it was awful." No, it was like "Our house is haunted, and yeah, it was a little scary. But it was pretty cool."
Yeah, yeah. I love all of this episode. If there's a theme at all, it's just like the positivity and light and the funness of Halloween time. Yeah, it's great.
And can we mention Barbara's witch laugh?
Yes.
Are we sure that she's not like a little witchy in there?
Right? I remember when I did trick-or-treat, there was a specific house where one year there was one of my neighbors dressed up as a witch and was just sitting on a bench and like moved and like made noises and I can only imagine if like that experience was paired with that, like spot on witch's laugh. I would have peed myself. So, in the spirit of spooky season, I have really been leaning into all of the things, one of which is, I've been listening to a lot of podcasts about the origins of Halloween, and I just thought it would be fun to share some of that since there is... Throughout the season, we've had like a history component. And while this isn't really specific to Wheeling, it is specific to the holiday and I just wanted to share some of that. Is that okay, Cassie?
Let's hear it, I'm so excited to find out.
Okay, so what I learned is that really the ancient origins of Halloween actually originates in a Celtic spiritual tradition called Samhein. And if you see it spelled out, it's Sam Hein, so, but it is pronounced Samhein. And it's celebrated from October 31st to November 1st, and it is a time where ancient Celts would be celebrating the harvest season. And then also they believed that it was a time where the veil between the dead and the living could really interact with one another. And I think that's pretty common lore in Halloween now, so none of that's really surprising. But what was really cool was just some of the interesting you know, traditions that are... how the traditions have changed through time to really be a time of like harvest and connecting with ancestors to really the commercialized Halloween that it is now. One of the story... the only one because we don't have that much time. But one of the traditions and folklore that I really liked surrounding Halloween and Samhein is jack-o-lanterns. Have you carved a pumpkin this year?
I have not this year but my dog has...
Okay, what a talented a dog you have.
...little nibbles out of the pumpkin then we just go for it.
Okay, so yeah, we're all familiar with Jack-o-lanterns. But are you familiar with how that tradition began?
I'm not.
All right. Well, let's have at it. So the origin of the jack-o-lantern starts with this little scoundrel named Stingy Jack. So as the tale goes, Stingy Jack was invited by the devil to have a drink with him. And true to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink and convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy the drinks. And when the devil did that, Jack decided to keep the money and put it in his pocket next to a silver cross and that kept the devil trapped as the coin. So he, you know pulled one over on the devil, which is pretty bold, if you asked me. Eventually, Jack freed the devil under the condition that he would not bother jack for one year, and should Jack die the devil would not claim his soul. That was like "alright, whatever, that's fine." The devil comes back to meet Jack, one year later, and convinced the devil again, tricked him twice, by climbing up into a tree to grab him an apple. And when the devil is up in the tree, Jack did it again. He carved across into the tree and trapped the devil in there. So the devil could not come down until he promised Jack not to bother him for 10 more years. So...
This guy's a clever man.
I know. I can't imagine. I mean, it's folklore, but, you know, typically the devil is not to be messed with, and this guy Jack just does not give a crap. So, soon after that whole interaction Jack died. And as the legend goes, you know, Jack died, he went to heaven, when he got to the gates of heaven, they're like, "um, you kind of suck. We don't want you up here. So, you are going down to hell." And when Jack was sent in to hell the Devil and Jack had an agreement like "I won't take your soul, so you can't come to hell." And he gave him a burning piece of coal and sent him on his way to purgatory where he'd spend out all of his days. So when Jack left to roam Purgatory for the rest of his spiritual life, he took the coal, the burning coal, and put it in a turnip, which how we celebrate jack-o-laterns here, we use pumpkins, because that's what's native here in the Americas. But in Ireland, obviously turnips and potatoes were more popular and readily available. So he stuck the burning coal into a carved turnip and use that to light his way. And that is how the origin of the jack-o-latern started. All because a Stingy Jack.
Wow.
Yep.
That's a lot.
Yeah, it was fun. There are so many fun podcasts out there, so if you want to dig into more of the history of Samhein and all of the other fun, Samhein traditions, there's one called a "dumb dinner" where you just sit around a table in silence and have dinner but you set an extra place and you can't look at it the entire dinner. It's inviting your ancestors to have a meal with you before they pass on into the spiritual realm. There's a lot of folklore around how trick or treating started. People would leave food out on their doorsteps as an offering to the spirits and, you know, people would dress up and take them because they wanted the food. So that kind of started trick-or-treating. And, you know, there's so much to unpack. So if you're into Halloween as much as I am definitely do some digging more digging on that because it's really fun.
Definitely, and we have a ton of stuff in Weelunk between quizzes, and especially the haunted Tunnel Green, that you can check out a lot more of what research we've done and some stories we've given out.
Yeah, what a great segue into are Weelunk content. Yeah, we have tons of Wheeling-based history and folklore that you can check out there. So weelunk.com, baby. Visit it.
Awesome. So thank you guys, for hanging out with us this month. We hope that you enjoyed this podcast as much as we have enjoyed talking each week to many people and each other and doing some research for ourselves. As mentioned, if you want some more spooky content, be sure to visit weelunk.com and dig through some of those articles and quizzes that we have there. And we are going to leave you with some haunted listener stories that they left on our voicemail.
Yeah, thank you to those who called in. And just to reiterate what Cassie said, thanks for hanging with us this Halloween. And, who knows, maybe we'll be back next year. I sure hope so.
I hope so as well.
All right. Well, Happy Halloween. And don't forget to...
Stay spooky!
I actually had one in East Wheeling. The people who previously lived there, it was a couple and two girls. And they never married, never had kids. So I just had moved in, and me, my 17-year-old son, and maybe my seven year old son was there. It was kind of odd, we just got... I didn't have money for a plasma, a flat screen. But I had a one of those giant, heavy ones that were kind of angled on the back. Well, I had it tilted in a doorway, and then we just decided to break. So I had a couple of dishes over by the sink, me and my son were abreast of this doorway. And something happened maybe we moved, I don't know, and a plate came down and it had a knife on it. And the plate broke somehow, and then it flew like about three feet off the ground and we measured it by the tiles on the ground. It flew for 12 feet, then it hit the back of this leaned TV set, and it made a right angle, and it came within inches of my youngest son's hand, the point pointing towards him. But I've never seen anything like that before. So this is... While, so I had a feeling of a female ghost. Because if I left the toilet seat up, maybe 10 or 20 minutes later, it would slam down. So when my boys left, I said to the spirits, I says, "I'm sorry, you never had any children," I go, "but these are my children, and I'm going to protect them. You can stay if you're not mischievous," and I says, "I'm putting this chair outside so you can sit on the porch."
Hello. Throughout the story of paranormal activity, I would like to remain anonymous. Within the story I will be referring to myself who has experienced this story, as Steven Gingerysick. In 2010, and throughout 2011, Steven Gingerysick had experienced multiple, multiple paranormal activity attacks in his bedroom in Lafferty, Ohio. He, to this day, has never figured out anything about why it happened, how it happened, and whenever it decided to stop. What started as simple footsteps coming up the staircase in the middle of the night, or the doorknob of his bedroom turning as he's laying in bed at three in the morning, turned into friends coming over, seeing things in the mirror, multiple cases of sleep paralysis in which a white face had been seen directly in front of people (some records show that it would be an attempt of eating their face). This had gone on for him for what felt like forever, but it only been a short year and a half length. In that time, he had multiple scenarios in which these ghostly figures would slam the wall of his stairwell that butted up against his bedroom, knocking over windows, and even a display knife that had pierced the pillow that he was sleeping on in the middle of the night. As time went on, these events got more and more serious, louder, more walking, and it even had happened when his parents were home and sleeping. And to his dismay, no one had believed him. At one point, he had been walking up the street to his house, at which time he looked in the top left window of the front of the house and had seen someone, a bodily figure, holding the curtain of his parents’ bedroom wide open, and as soon as he had noticed them, he said the body had left, at which time he went to his neighbor's house and asked his neighbor's house to help clear the area to make sure that it was safe. Time and time again these moments would happen until one day, it seemed as if everything and started to get better. The intensity of the attacks would dwindle back down to just the doorknob shaking, his mirror being in different positions as they were before he fell asleep, until eventually they stopped. There was no explanation, and there was no reason for these things to happen to such a young man. But he lives to tell the tale.
The Ohio Valley's favorite holiday show Symphony on Ice returns this December. Join the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra December 1st, along with champion professional skaters, the Pittsburgh and Wheeling Figure Skating Club, the local middle and high school choirs, as we welcome in the sounds of the season. It's the holiday tradition the entire family will enjoy. Tickets available now on wheelingsymphony.com.
Wheeling Haunts is a production of Wheeling Heritage Media. Learn more about our podcasts by visiting weelunk.com/wheelinghaunts or follow us on socials @Weelunk.