Glenn Washington (2:53)

My boy, he asked me one day, daddy, do you believe in magic? No, Daddy, have you ever seen magic? Yes, but Daddy, that doesn't make any sense. Correct Spook starts now. Sam. Yes, unspooked we gaze into the darkness. You know this. We seek out the shadow, the monsters. But sometimes we do turn toward the light in order to properly understand the dark. And that is why I am so excited to introduce to you our next guest, who was asked to remain anonymous, and I want to give sensitive listeners a heads up. The story contains instances of premature birth, pregnancy loss, and cancer. Please take care when listening. We're going to call our speaker, Alfea. And Althea is studying to become a nurse. Spooked.

Althea (5:07)

Zio is my mom's brother, and he is my godfather. He was a big part of my life as a little girl. He is always just kind of magical and a little scary because he would do, like, strange magic tricks and pull things out of my ear and tell scary stories, but he's just ridiculous and wonderful. My mom called to tell me that Zao was very sick and gave me the stage three lung cancer prognosis. And then my uncle called me on the phone and he said, sweetheart, there's a famous priest who's coming to this church. People say he's healed so many people. If you go to see him, you're going to get healed. And, you know, would you want to go with me? At that point, I was really finishing up with school, and I saw that I actually had to work that day. I was working also as a medical tech in the hospital while I was waiting to become an rn. So I said, zio, you know, I'm sorry, this time. I. I can't make that. I can't. I can't do this one. And he's like, you know, it's okay. Don't worry. It's fine. You know how when you have a regular dream, it's like a regular dream, and then sometimes you have a very, very vivid dream where it's just so very bright and so clear. It's around that time, maybe a few days later, that I had that dream that I'm in the hospital that I'm working at. I'm walking down a white corridor, and there are doors, and there's that shiny linoleum and the bad paintings. And I keep walking. And as I get closer to a corner, I see a woman come out and kind of like, give me the come on over here signal with her hands. And so I pointed at myself again, like, me, you talking to me? And she nods. So I turned the corner, and she kind of just gets me up against the wall. I remember her being Filipino, older lady, robust. But she was right in my face. She was like, right against the Wall and, like, in my space. And she said, you know, your uncle's really sick. And I said, yeah, I know my uncle is very, very sick. And she said, what are you doing about it? And then she looked at me and she said, well, you know that nothing medical is going to save your uncle. So I just blinked at her and stopped and then said, well, then, what should I do? And she said, well, it sounds like you better think of something. And I woke up and I bolted up in bed and just said, oh, my God. Oh, my God, I have to take him to see this priest. So I called him the next day. I said, zio, I'm going to take you. We're going to go. And he said, no, I thought you were working. No, no, no. I said, nope, nope, we're going to go. We're going to do this, and don't worry, I took care of it. It's all good. And so we're going.

Glenn Washington (9:08)

To.

Althea (9:10)

So we got there early and grabbed seats in the pews pretty close up front. Within hours, it was just jam packed with people, and they were wheeling in little children on beds with IV lines and oxygen tanks. And my uncle looked at me and he said, what am I doing here? Like, I'm asking for me to get better. Look at. God has to take care of these children. Look at those children. Oh, my God. Hours went by, and then the priest came out and he speaks, and you could see the wounds on his hands and I think on his forehead. And the priest was. He looked like Johnny Depp. He's really handsome. He had kind of like long dark hair, dramatic. And at one point, he came around with the big golden cross, and it's very shiny. And he definitely passed in front of us, but I was taking it all with a measure of salt. It just seemed kind of melodramatic and crazy, and yet I was feeling a little swept up with it, too. And of course, I was. I'm praying for my uncle, praying for these children. And I had a little, like, secret guilty prayer. And I prayed, dear God, you know, help me know when I'm really a nurse, because I'm going to be a nurse really soon, and I don't feel like one yet. And just at that moment, the priest walked right in front of us with the big cross, and an old lady just. She fainted right at my feet, landed literally on my feet, face up, holding a crucifix that was sort of like jammed into her neck. She was unconscious. And I, of course, you know, crouched down very quickly. Security came very quickly and I pushed them all away. I just pushed my arms out and I said, it's fine, I'm a nurse. And everyone just kind of stepped away. You know, security said, if you need something, let us know. And I'm like, we're good, I'll let you know. And I took care of her. I assessed her and she was breathing normally and I recognized she just got very excited and, you know, she just needed a little, little fresh air and a drink of water and she was fine.

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Althea (14:22)

You know after it was all over. I'm with my uncle. I said, wow, you know, that was amazing. I'm praying for you, Zio. And he said, oh, no, no, no, no. This was not for me. Let's pray for those children and the people really need. I've had a good life. The next time my uncle did his labs, the doctor was like, wow, those numbers are, like, amazing. My Zio had imaging, and that part that they couldn't take care of was not there anymore. That's just amazing. You know, that's it. Like, the doctor didn't understand, and I don't know. I don't know. But he's never had a recurrence, and he still runs his barbershop during COVID against my better guidance. So that happened at the very, very beginning of my nursing career. And, you know, I transitioned and became a labor and delivery nurse on the night shift. And gaining in confidence, starting, I would say, at this point, I wasn't a liability anymore in labor and delivery. It takes a couple years to not be a burden and actually be a help. Then it was years between the time that happened, and I had that second dream. It happened after a long, awful night shift. It was one of those dreams that I can only describe as from the other side. I'm in the neonatal intensive care unit, which is a place I don't go very often, and I'm walking around different isolettes with the babies inside, and there are nurses next to each isolette. And I'm just walking by, and there are beeps and lights, and it's kind of dark, and I come up to a isolette, and I see this baby. And in the dream, I say, wow, the baby's alive. That's. That's. That's really nice. And I look over to the nurse, and she had a very particular. Her hair was kind of up in a modified bun, but some of it was down in the back and little freckles on her face. Her body type was smallish and a little bit on the more round side, pleasing. As I was looking at her, I noticed behind her this huge form, this brilliant, large form of what you would picture to be an angel, but it's right over her, standing over her and towering over her. But around the darkness is a lot of light, and there's actually wings. And I see the angel moving its arms around this nurse. And kind of if the angel moves a certain way, the nurse would, like, move this baby's wire or guide the nurse's hands to this pump or. It was like this angel, this creature was guiding her and standing behind her. When I woke up from the dream, I was laying in bed and thinking, you know, this is the baby. This is the baby that this mom and dad first time couple came in unexpected, unexpectedly in labor with an extremely premature baby. This baby was too early to be considered viable, which means the baby was too young to be expected to survive, even with high tech, tech interventions. My friend, she actually took pictures of the baby and she said, you know, oh, what a pretty baby. Do you want to see the pictures? I said, oh, my God, yeah. So I'm looking at the pictures and I see, like, the baby looks pretty pink, like some good color on the baby and kind of had some nice tone in, you know, its arms reflexed. And I said to my friend, you know, this baby looks pretty alive, you know, are you sure, Nic? You came and said, no, you know, this is too not viable. She said, no, no, no. It's, you know, they were very clear. You know, I don't want to step on my friend's space and her autonomy, but I really feel like this baby was defying all of the typical things that happen when a baby is born that prematurely. So I felt I needed to shift and respond to that. So I squared my shoulders and dialed the NICU and asked to speak with the NICU doc. And I said, can you please come downstairs? She does, and she says, there's nothing I can do. And I say, there's a mystery that, you know, when something's just really knocking on our door, we have to. We have to like, at least consider it. So the doctor said, no, I can't do it. And she was tearful and left. And unbeknownst to me, she called her priest, who says to her, yeah, why don't you give this baby a trial of life? Like maybe there is mystery.

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Althea (21:39)

Hey, Fidelity.

Dr. Horton Advertiser (21:41)

How can I remember to invest every month?

Althea (21:44)

With the Fidelity app, you can choose a schedule and set up recurring investments in stocks and ETFs. Oh, that sounds easier than I thought. You got this? Yeah. I do now. Where did I put my keys? You will find them where you left them. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss.

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Althea (23:58)

Nicutein comes down with a big isolate. And at that point, my friend confronts me and she said, wait, what's happening and why? And did you call? And I said, you know, I'm sorry. I so respect you as a nurse. You're so wonderful. But I just couldn't. I really Everything inside is me is screaming, I had to do this. And so she was very angry. So we went our separate ways. I went home. And that's when I had that dream. That evening I went to my labor and delivery unit. You know, I lock up my car and I start walking back to the unit. You know, the labor and delivery entrance. I'd come a few minutes early because I wanted to, before punching in, go up to NICU to just sort of peek in and kind of get the story about what what happened, how it unfolded. And as I'm approaching the labor and delivery Unit entrance. I see a woman in front of me walking, and I'm not paying attention. I'm behind her. And as I get closer, I see that she's fumbling with, you know, an ID thing. And so I said, oh, you know, I'll let you in, because she. She had scrubs on. She thanked me, but as I'm looking at her, I start getting, like, prickles and up my neck, and I think she looks really familiar. Why do I feel like she's familiar, but I don't know her, you know? And then again, I started looking at my time and getting. You know, realizing I have to run up to NICU to be on time to be there for report. So I run upstairs to nicu, start walking around the unit, looking at isolettes. As I get close to the isolette, I see the nurse standing next to the isolette. It was the lady that was in front of me. And as I see her standing next to the isolette, I recognize that that's the woman in my dream. Like, that's exactly her. That's her face and her glasses and her hair and her freckles and everything. I'm just standing there just like, oh, my God. And I'm looking behind her, thinking there's probably this really big, glorious, angelic being right behind her. I can't see it, but I'm just like. Like, flummoxed a little. And I introduced myself, and I said, you know, I've never met you before. And she's like, no, I'm a visiting, like a traveler. And I've just started. I said, you know, this is gonna sound really weird, but I dreamed about you. And she's like, oh, really? I said, yeah. I had a dream about you, and you were taking care of this baby, and behind you is this really, really, really big angel watching over you and guiding you. And now that I know that you were in the dream, this was you in the dream, I know that this baby's gonna live. Like, this sounds crazy. I know it sounds crazy. And she just looked at me, and she goes, don't sound crazy at all. I was so relieved. You know, she took it all in stride. Well, the baby was in the NICU for months. And of course, at that point, every shift, I'd say, you know, how's the baby? And they're like, oh, she's doing great. You know, and the gift was to see the baby going home, you know, and whole and wonderful. And afterwards, I'd say, like, on the holidays, we would get. Nikki would get a card from the parents with the baby for a few years. So we got the treat of seeing a picture of this baby every year, doing great, meeting milestones. So with Zio, it was kind of a cause and effect because if I didn't take him, that nurse in the dream told me my Zia wasn't going to survive by medical means. And with this lovely baby, it wasn't the dream that created the chain of events, you know, it was the waking decisions that were made that night. But the dream illuminated to me that indeed there is a mystery, you know, and bigger forces at play.

Glenn Washington (29:32)

Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Althea, for sharing your story with us. Althea is a spooked listener who wrote in and shared her story. And if you have a story to share, make sure you drop us a line spooked@snapjudgment.org the original score for this story was by Sooty Watch Press. It was produced by Annie Nguyen. Now spooksters, we walk this dark path together. Spook Season 6 Spook swag it awaits. Snapjudgment.org and remember, if you like your spirit storytelling under the bright light of day, get the amazing stupendous Snap Judgment podcast. It's storytelling with a beat. This book was created by the team that has been taught the three incantations for silence. Except of course, for Mark Ristich. He insists on using Pig Latin instead of Latin Latin. There's Anna Sussman. Our chief spookster is Eliza Smith. Chris Hambrick, Annie Nguyen, Lauren Newsom, Leon Morimoto, Renzo Gorilla, Teo Da Cott, Davey K. Kim, Marissa Dodge, Zoe Frignall, Tiffany Deleza, Ann Ford, Jacob Winick and Doug Stewart. The spooked theme song is by Pat Mesini Miller. My name is Glenn Washington and some will tell you that the light and the dark are a continuum, a spectrum that in reality one is the same as the other. This is a distortion, a trick they play for their own purposes. Not know that you will always need an anchor. And this is why I advise to anyone who will listen to Never ever, never ever, never ever ever, never turn out the lights.

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