My Story in the Paranormal - Part 1

The Beginning

You’re probably wondering how a sweet, shy Midwestern girl ended up mixed up in the paranormal and traveling around the world. Welllll, like most perfectly normal life stories, mine starts with childhood trauma and a beagle puppy. I know—nothing says “fun beginning” quite like that. But here we are, so buckle up. We’re going all the way back to when I was five years old, which was roughly 100’s of hairstyles, millions of bad decisions, and one very tender little heart ago.

When I was five, I got a new beagle puppy named Sandy. She had soft beige fur, big brown eyes, and just enough stubbornness to make it clear she had read the beagle handbook and taken it very seriously. I loved her instantly. One day, I took her outside, and before I could stop her, Sandy broke away and ran into the street. A motorcycle came by and hit her. The man riding it did not stop. He did not even slow down. He just laughed and kept going. I was too little to understand how someone could be that cruel, but I was old enough to feel my heart break wide open.

Just a few months later, I was visiting my grandpa in Missouri. He used to walk with me through the cornfield and toss me up in the air so I could see over the stalks. To a five-year-old, that was basically flying first class, only with more corn and no tiny bag of pretzels. Then, suddenly, he grabbed his chest and fell to the ground. He was not moving. I tried to run for help, but got lost in the corn. Eventually, my mom heard my screams, and we made our way back to him, but there was nothing anyone could do. He had suffered a major heart attack.

Looking back, I suppose it makes sense that a child who met death so early might grow up wondering where people—and beloved little dogs—go when they leave us. People say things like that can make you a little more curious about ghosts, spirits, and the things that go bump in the night. I am not sure who “people” are, but they do seem to have a lot of opinions. All I knew was that I had questions. What happened to them after they died? Could the soul live on? Why hadn’t they come back to visit me? Those questions stayed with me quietly, tucked away in the back of my mind, waiting for the day I would finally start looking for answers.