Last Night's Paranormal Experience

Last night was the night I had been especially anticipating all week. I toured the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, which is one of the most haunted places in the world, featured on Ghost Hunters, Scariest Places on Earth, and many other paranormal shows. It served as a tuberculosis hospital for about 50 years throughout the 20th century when the epidemic was widely spreading. It's estimated that around 63,000 people died there. 

The tour started off on the right end where the body chute was. I walked down all 526 feet to the bottom where the dead corpses were tossed. Approximately one person died every hour at the peak of the disease. There was a morgue in the sanatorium, but it wasn't sustainable enough for the death rate.

Doctors performed several different treatments in an attempt to cure the disease. Patients were exposed to ultraviolet lights to try to prevent the spread of bacteria. They were put in sunrooms with artificial lights and on the roof to soak in the natural sunlight. This was also used as a treatment for patients to inhale fresh air. After these two main treatments failed, doctors initiated a surgery treatment that included the removal of muscles and ribs to allow patients' lungs to expand further and let in more oxygen. Remnants of these surgical tools were found after the hospital shut down. 

Today, the building stands after suffering from vandalism and trespassers. Every window is broken out and spray paint lines the walls. The current owners are trying hard to preserve it, but they claim to have trespassers every single night. The trespassing has gotten so bad over the years that the owners decided to move on-site in an attempt to scare away potential trespassers. One of their more recent trespassing incidents consisted of three teenage boys who busted the doors out and broke their way into the fourth floor. The owners said they would've never known, had they not heard shrieks of horror coming from inside. They found the boys in hysterics, begging to let them out. The door was unlocked, but the boys said "They won't let us leave." The owners replied with "Who won't let you leave?" Then all of a sudden the three broke through the door, slamming it so hard it broke into the concrete walls. You can still see deep marks in the wall where they pushed the door open. The owners truly believe these boys were being held captive by some of the spirits on the fourth floor. They said most trespassers run when they're about to be caught, but these boys stayed in that room and swore they couldn't get out.

We continued on our tour of walking through the entire sanatorium and hitting all five floors. We saw what used to be the kitchen, dining room, nurse's wing, and all the patient's rooms. When we got to the third floor, I knew right away what it used to be. The short doors and small door handles suggested that this was the children's wing. Both sick children and children whose parents were sick and couldn't care for them would stay in those rooms. Each room had four beds in it, in comparison to the two beds the adult patient's had in their rooms. We had an eight year old boy on our tour who seemed a little skeptical on this floor. 

After the third floor, we skipped the fourth floor and went right to the fifth floor. We stood at room 502, where a nurse named Mary Hillenburg allegedly hung herself from the ceiling in 1928 after becoming pregnant out of wedlock. However, the current owners of the building and many paranormal investigators have said otherwise. Mary was pregnant with the child of one of the doctors who was already married. After finding out, he attempted to give her an abortion. Our tour guide described it as "an abortion gone horribly wrong." The botched abortion caused her to bleed uncontrollably. While still bleeding, the doctor, with the help of four other men, took her outside of room 502 and hung her. When she was found she was covered in blood from the waist down. Mary may have bled to death right away based on the amount of blood she lost, but the doctor who had an affair with her didn't want word getting out of a botched abortion. The baby's corpse was later found outside the hospital. 

Now, pregnant women who tour this room claim to have weird sensations when entering it. This is nothing I can attest to, but it would be interesting to find out. According to out tour guide, on one of his previous tours a pregnant woman collapsed the second she stepped foot into the room and had to be carried out and escorted to the hospital. 

The tour guide told us he saved the best part of the tour for last. We walked down the stairs to the fourth floor where we stood in front of a long, dark, empty hallway. He asked for a female volunteer, and before I could step forward someone already anxiously said they would. He told her to walk straight down the middle of the hallway. As she got halfway down the hallway you could see small shadows joining her as she walked past the open windows where the moonlight shined through. Nearly everyone in our group saw the figures, which appeared to be small children. Our guide told us they're said to be some of the children who died in the hospital from tuberculosis. As the volunteer neared the end of the hallway our guide told her to lift her arms out and parallel to the ground. She did so, and right after she did I saw the shadow of a man come out in front of the last window on the left. He was rocking back and forth with his arm swinging in and out of the moonlight. Everyone in our group gasped. My stomach dropped and I instantly felt sick. Along the way, our guide had showed us pictures people had taken on previous tours where figures showed up. I saw the pictures, but I didn't believe it was real until I saw it with my own eyes. I was filled with fear. My adrenaline was high. The volunteer walked back, claiming she felt too weird standing in that spot. There was an eerie sense in the room I couldn't shake. At this point, I was in a bit of a panic, doubting my own eyes. Believe me or not, I know what I saw was real and I encourage anyone who reads this to travel to Louisville, Kentucky and see it for themselves. But until then, I'll just continue to share my paranormal experience from the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. 

Day 5: Recreational Day

Our day has been full of excitement. We took a two hour tour through Mammoth Cave in the National Park, walking over a mile through the caves and traveling 250 feet deep. It's the world's longest known cave system, with over 400 miles explored. We toured the domes and dripstones, which included the entire Frozen Niagara. It baffled me how long and deep the caves went. There's so much more I wanted to explore that just couldn't be done in two hours. After the tour we went back to the community center for a couple hours then headed off to dinner at Golden Corral with some of the Habitat construction workers and their families. We enjoyed our meals and conversations, said our heartfelt goodbyes, and were on our ways. The last day you see everyone is always the worst. We've grown really close to some of them this past week and the goodbye hugs were hard to give. I'm so thankful so have gotten to know such great people though, this is definitely an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life.  

Final Build Day

The weather was not very permitting of completing the rest of the siding. It was a rainy and dreary day spent indoors where we finished the ceilings and began screwing the drywall into the walls. Once the ceilings were done it was lunchtime. I'm pretty sure everyone's eyes lit up when we heard the word "pizza." It hit the spot just right and was definitely what I needed. We got everything done that we could the rest of the day until we ran out of supplies. The construction supervisors decided to end the day an hour early. We said our goodbyes and they thanked us with a prayer for coming out and helping build this home with them. It's been a really successful build; so far they've only spent a month building the house. Normally for them it takes four months, but they've had so much help that they've been able to speed up the process. Before we left, we wrote notes on the walls for the family who would be living in that house. Their names are Stephanie and Monty Butler, and they actually built with us yesterday. It's such a great experience when you're able to meet the families and see who you're building the house for. I've been fortunate enough to meet the families on every build trip I've gone on. Before we left the build site for the last time, we decided to leave a little something for the construction guys. We scattered and hid Easter eggs all around the house for them to find, and inside spelled out a thank-you message. Hopefully we hear back that they found them all! We did the daily routine afterwards; showering at the church then going out to explore. Today we went to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Hodgenville. We watched a short documentary about the history of the loghouse then got to view it. It's very well preserved and in great condition; it's crazy to me how a building two centuries old can be in such pristine condition. We walked down a little ways and also saw the Sinking Spring where Abe would go for his source of fresh water. After we toured the place we left for dinner at our Habitat supervisor's sister's house. She made some tasty chicken pot pies and mac and cheese. I hardly had room for dessert after all the food we've been eating, but I saved room for one lemon cookie. We stayed and chatted for a while then headed back to the community center. The rest of my night will consist of storytelling and NCAA basketball. It feels great to sit back and relax again but I'm ready for our free day tomorrow. More to come about that tomorrow night!

Day 3 Build

Today the weather wasn't as beautiful as it has been. It was a little chilly this morning, but we were working inside with a space heater. Our job was to install the ceilings in each room then caulk and nail styrofoam along the walls underneath the house for insulation. The workday was successful at this point; everything was nearly complete and we had a delicious lunch. Today it was turkey and ham sandwiches with potato soup. My taste buds were craving seconds, but unfortunately there wasn't enough. Dessert was delicious too; we had a mix of cake, pudding, and chocolate chips. Once we were finished eating we got back to work. A few of the other girls and I went into the crawlspace and began working on that. We nearly finished until we ran out of styrofoam. I was hoping we'd get to finish the siding today as well but we also ran out of that yesterday and our new shipping hasn't arrived yet. Instead we've been working on house #14, which has almost the same amount of progress as the other house, just no ceilings or siding. After today though, we've got about the same amount done on both of them, excluding the siding. The final touches will just have to be added tomorrow. We worked a little overtime today, but only by a half hour. Then we headed back to the church for showers and dinner. On the menu tonight was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, and apple or peach pie for dessert. I've been filling up to the max with every meal. They sure do treat us well here! There are also several other families eating here. They open it up for families of the church before the children's religion classes and a couple hundred people come to eat. It's a really nice church with a youth center and everything. They have a stage for concerts, ping pong, a basketball court, and a lot of other activities for the kids to do here. It's a non-denominational church so a lot of families come here for mass and religion classes for their kids. In this community religion is a huge part in their everyday lives. I've not only seen numerous churches in the area, but I've also witnessed some of the citizens here praying before every meal and thanking God for what they've been blessed with throughout the day. I think it's really great; this community seems very close-knit and there's such an amazing family aspect to the small town. So tonight we're going to do a little group bonding. We just finished up with dinner and plan on going back to the community center just to hangout since we ended up not playing card games last night. I'm looking forward to it because it's still early and I'm ready to have time to relax since I'm already exhausted. Our last build day is tomorrow and we want to get as much done as we can, so resting up tonight is vital!

Day 2 Build

Today's tasks were much like yesterday's. We got 2 entire sides of the house sided! We should finish up the rest of the house by the end of the week. After we're done with the 13th house we'll begin working on the 14th house right next door. Lunch was served by the Bobby Thompson Sunday School class from Severns Valley Church. We ate chicken dumpling soup and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Of course we also had delicious desserts; lemon cake and chocolate cake! Once the workday was over we went to the same church to shower, then ate dinner at Warm Blessings soup kitchen. It broke my heart to see all the people who can't afford to buy themselves or their families a meal. There were several homeless people and some looked very sick. The soup kitchen has busses that they bring in for meals everyday and those who ride along are able to eat their meals there. It truly makes you more grateful for the life you've been blessed with. Doing these builds and helping others is my way of being thankful for what I have and giving back to others who don't have as much. That experience at the soup kitchen has been really eye opening for me and made me love being part of this organization even more. The night after dinner was pretty tame. We toured the city for a bit and attempted to go into Fort Knox, but it was closed. We decided to get ice cream instead. Now we're all sitting around in our room at the community center about to play card games. It should be a relaxing night, but I'm ready to get back to work tomorrow!