Our Visitor, Melissa!

            After an action packed Saturday night with friends and Bobby Shook ghost hunting at the Mansfield Fire Museum and Firehouse Bingo Hall in Mansfield, Ohio (both of which Bobby manages), I went home to get a good nights rest. All was well that is until several nights later.

          I was sleeping peacefully next to my husband in our king bed when around 3am, Tuesday morning; I woke up to a blond woman looking straight at me and standing at the foot of our bed. 

          As I looked at the strange woman I could tell that she was defiantly in her early 30’s however she was dressed and styled like it was 1980. She had light blond, permed hair and was thin. She told me her name was Melissa. She had on a pair of light denim-mom jeans (as we would call them now-a-days) and a light pink half- sleeve shirt. She was kind but extremely talkative! Wow…! Did she like to talk! My husband however, never woke up or became alarmed at all. Nor did he ever move. I was used to visitors in the night because of my gifts and knew they liked to come and talk sometimes. So I tried not to be rude and stay awake but it was pretty hard to do!

          The kind soul, spoke to me as I drifted in and out of consciousness telling many stories about how she loved Bobby Shook, his staff of volunteers, and the Bingo Hall. She also spoke about enjoying playing bingo and winning prizes at the Firehouse Bingo Hall! Melissa looked like a real human-being as she stood before me in a solid-form, and spoke to me most of the night.

          Unfortunately for her she caught me in an inopportune moment, and I kept falling asleep and waking up again later to find her still talking away. This happened many times and seemed to upset her after awhile. Once, I woke up to hear her say, “Are awake?” with her hands placed firmly on the sides of her hips as she starred straight at me. I could tell she was looking to see if I was indeed, awake.

          “Did you fall asleep again?” she said in frustration, Then Melissa sat down on the edge of my kind bed, right beside me. As she sat, I felt my two white-fleece blankets, that I was wrapped-in, push up against my two legs. Feeling the pressure of her body against mine, I wasn’t sure what to do!

          In shock, I let out a small laugh innately from the event that had just taken place as Melissa smiled with confidence. As I looked at her I could see that she knew I was awake now. She placed her hands on her lap and looked down at me as I lay in bed.

          “There, now you won’t fall asleep!” Melissa informed me, still grinning ear to ear. I chuckled again at her words and her strong-confidence as she began to speak again. “Now, I see you have a tabby-cat. I just love cats. Let me tell you about the cat I had. I just loved my cat and he looked just like yours!” Melissa exclaimed acting like school girl who just wanted to girl chat. She was really enjoying herself!

          I must have fallen asleep soon after that because I woke up in the morning to my alarm, as usual, and saw that Melissa had gone.  Her visit was surely interesting, to say the least, and very comical. I wonder if she will ever visit again.

           I called Bobby later on that day and told him about my visit from Melissa and some things she had said to me. He loved it!  But unfortunately he informed me that he had known many Melissa’s over the years that had played bingo and was unclear as to which one she could be.

          Despite that fact Bobby called me two nights later telling me HE HAD SEEN HER! According to him, he woke up around 2-3am and was lying on his right side in fetal position, just like I was. Bobby had fallen asleep while watching TV and had woken up when the felt the tops of his two legs get warmer than the rest of his body. When he opened his eyes he saw the same woman (Melissa) sitting on the edge of his bed, up against him.

          Bobby said she was not facing him, she was looking away from him but his legs were up against her lower-back area. Bobby also described the same woman I saw, he said she had medium length hair, brown in color (I saw blondish-brown I thought, but in dark) and he said she had on a white dress (that was different then mine). He never saw her face but guessed she was middle age.

          When Bobby moved his warm legs he says, she stood up and walked away and was gone. Bobby called out to her, “Where did you go?” Bobby told me that he has not seen her since. He also said, “Nothing like this has ever happened before to ME.....Oh Hell! Maybe she was just watching TV and did not want to be disturbed. Now I sleep with one Eye Open!” Bobby told me with a chuckle.

          He also told me about another interesting experience about three weeks ago when he came home from AmVets to find a blue colored light reflecting off his living room wall. He said to me, “I went into my living room to find my TV had been turned on.  However, that TV is not hooked to the cable, but is plugged into an electrical outlet.  And that TV has not been on for at least 4 Yrs. I never use it!” He went on to say, “It’s strange that the TV would be on.” After that Bobby says he hit the "power” button he says it turned off. “Strange thing,” he said.

                Perhaps we’ll never know why Melissa chose to visit Bobby and I, or how Bobby’s TV was turned on but I do remember the last time I was at the hall and Bobby had shown me a board filled with obituaries of deceased bingo players. That board had really resonated with me and stuck with me. I respected that he and his volunteers at the bingo hall had made the board “in memory of their past players” to show their respect and how much they cared for them. It was a beautiful thing.

          I think Melissa really loved the board that Bobby showed me that night and that’s why she had come to see us both! She was simply trying to get a message to Bobby and needed his attention so that she could tell him and his volunteers, “Thank You!”

 ©Rosella C. Rowe