Nurse!

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Crimes & Witch-Demeanors!  The paranormal podcast where we go beyond rehashing wikipedia pages and delve into archival and historic resources to uncover the truth behind our favorite spooky tales.  I’m your host and sardonic librarian, Joshua Spellman.

N

Today’s episode has been inspired by recent personal events dealing with hospitals and nurses and the title is of course inspired by Willam.  If you know, you know, if you don’t, you don’t.  And that’s fine, some of us have our own little club.

Today’s topic took me on quite the journey (as good research often tends to do): you begin one place and think you know where you’re going to land but you wind up in an entirely unintended location.  And in this case — that’s fine!  I mean, that’s how the scientific process works.  Never try and prove your own hypothesis, be your own worst enemy — like I am in my love life.

But today I went from researching phenomenon spanning continents to zeroing in on the homes and hospitals of the beautiful coastal capital of South Australia—Adelaide,.  Not a bad place to end up, if you ask me!

So settle in, buckle up, we’ve got a long flight ahead.

____

“Alright, you’ve got this” Cassie said to herself in the mirror, splashing water on her face. This was her first night on the job as an evening nurse in a new facility — and through a series of unfortunate events — she was the only one on staff.  Something like this wouldn’t happen back in the city, but things are different when you’re in a small town…as Cassie would soon find out.

Making her way back out to the nurses station, Cassie paused to look around.  The hubbub and bustling activity of the day had all but faded away.  By this time, most of the patients were already asleep in their beds, leaving Cassie feeling unnaturally alone.  The place felt almost abandoned.  Even the smallest of sounds: a patient’s distant cough, the water dripping from the leaky faucet, her footsteps on the ground, bounced and echoed through the tiled halls; rising and falling in a cacophony of silence.

BZZT!

Cassie nearly jumped out of her skin.  It was only the call button of a patient requiring assistance.  She made her way over to the patient’s room “Hi there, I’m Cassie, the new evening nurse, what seems to be the matter” she glanced at the patient’s chart “Miss Roebel?” 

“Oh please dear, call me Trish” the old woman replied “I have the bladder of a small old lady despite being a spry young thing of 79” she chuckled “if you could please help me on over to the lavatory”

“Oh, of course!” Cassie replied, rushing to Trish’s bedside to help her up.  She walked Trish over to the bathroom and onto the toilet.  BZZT!  Another patient needing assistance.  “Do you mind if I go and help them?  It can give you your privacy” Cassie asked.

“Oh, of course!” Trish replied.

“But don’t try any funny business and try and get back to bed on your own” Cassie warned, mockingly wagging her finger at Trish.

“Aye, aye captain!” Trish retorted as Cassie made her way to assist the other patient.

He was an older gentleman who, while trying to get comfortable in bed, had accidentally ripped out his IV.  Cassie was still a little nervous and being new, it took her minute to locate the sterile needles.  After successfully administering the IV, which took a little longer than expected since the man was afraid of needles, Cassie rushed back over to Trish’s room.

And that’s when she found Trish…tucked neatly into bed, ready for sleep.  “Trish…” Cassie started, “I told you to wait for me so I could help you into bed.  You could have fallen!”

“Oh…but I didn’t!” Trish exclaimed, “the other nurse came in and helped me”

Confused, Cassie asked with skepticism “The other nurse?”

“The one in the grey uniform, with the hat”

“Ah, yes.  Of course” Cassie replied, not wanting to alarm the old woman “Goodnight Trish” she said as she turned off her light.

As Cassie made her way back into the hall, the phone at the nurse’s station began to ring.  She rushed over to answer, “Hello, Valley County medical center, Cassie speaking”

“Oh, hi Cassie!  This is Frida, the day nurse, I just wanted to check in and make sure everything is going alright before I headed to sleep, my apologies that we’re so short staffed”

“Oh, hello Frida!  Yes, yes, everything is going alright…but did you happen to have someone else come in to help work my shift?  I just came back from a patient who-“

Frida cut her off, “Oh…so you’ve already seen her then?”

“Seen…who?”

“Oh, never mind.” Said Frida, “Just something silly.  Anyways, have a good night, please call if anything urgent comes up”

“Of course, thanks for checking in.  Goodnight!” Cassie said, hanging up the phone.  What was she on about?  But Cassie didn’t have time to mull it over as she heard the echo of shuffling of feet.  Another patient out of bed? 

Cassie got up from the nurses station and peered around the corner.  There was someone at the end of the long hall.  Cassie squinted to see clearer in the dim light, was that Trish?  “Trish!” Cassie scolded, walking closer “I told you not to get out of bed on your own”

As she made her way closer to the figure she realized it was a nurse.  She was dressed in grey from head to toe, with a funny old-fashioned hat.  The nurse nodded to Cassie with a wry smile and winked as she tilted her cap.  Then, suddenly the woman turned on her heel, walked straight into the adjoining wall and vanished.

___

Stories like Cassie’s are not unfamiliar to nurses — regardless of culture or region.  Benign nurse figures are often seen roaming hospitals across the world and are referred to as Grey Nurses or Grey ladies because of the color of their uniforms. 

Are these apparitions the spirits of departed healthcare workers who loved their jobs so much in life that they carry on in death? Which I find hard to believe…while there are many great nurses out there on the front lines saving us from the pandemic I immediately think of all my high school bullies who can barely spell catheter let alone insert one who are now probably all angels of death…

Which is actually a great segway while throwing some subtle shade at former cheerleaders—maybe grey nurses are not ghosts at all but instead are inhuman spirits taking on a familiar form, who seek to comfort and care for our sick and dying.  I guess that’s literally the definition an angel?  Well, not the kind that are concentric spinning rings of fire with seventeen glowing eyes that are so horrifying that gazing upon them them will wreck your feeble human mind…you know like kind of angels in the Bible.  But you know, grey nurses are like the hallmark, Touched By an Angel type that Christians believe in despite their holy book describing them as horrific creatures.

But I digress. 

While we may not have all the answers to these questions, we can surely try and answer them.

Despite being a worldwide paranormal phenomenon, my research kept circling back to hospitals in one city: Adelaide.  Specifically, the former Adelaide Royal Hospital, now known as Lot Fourteen and Austin Hospital.

Unlike the Windsor Hotel from last week, Austin Hospital has an entire webpage devoted to stories from staff about their ghostly grey nurse.

This following story is from their former Divisional Director of Cancer and Neurosciences, Cherie Cheshire…which, by the way, is an amazingly alliterative name.  If you’re looking to name a character in a book you’re writing I suggest you snatch that name up before somebody else takes it!  Anyway, here is her story:

“We were supposed to be three nurses on night shift, but we were short staffed and only had two.

One patient named Carol had complete paralysis due to MS. She could not take a drink of water herself however suffered from terrible dry mouth. So, the nursing staff attended to her at least hourly to help her sip some water, even overnight.

On this shift we were flat out. At around 9.30pm I filled Carol’s one litre jug with iced water and gave her a drink. It then got very busy and I didn't manage to go back to her room until midnight.

When I did, she only had half a jug of water. She told me the other nurse had been in several times and helped her drink. I knew this wasn't right however checked with the other nurse who said she had not been in the room. When I asked Carol about who helped her with her water again, she said it was the older agency nurse in the old-fashioned grey dress…”

This next story from the former director of Nursing and former ICU Unit Manager, Jen Hancock, served as the inspiration to the narrative portion of today’s episode:

“While working nights on the old 6A in Heidelberg House, the buzzer rang and a lady needed a pan. I took it to her and asked her to buzz when finished.

Ten minutes later, there was no buzz, so l went to check. She was lying down in bed half asleep, curtains pulled back.

She told me that the other nurse in the grey uniform with a veil had taken it and made her comfortable. I was working with a male Enrolled Nurse. I asked the Registered Nurse who was between the three wards in Heidelberg House, if she knew anyone in a different uniform. She didn't.

I was later told it was a common occurrence in Heidelberg House and that patients had often described the grey nurse.”

Other nurses reported ghostly occurrences like floating utensils, a hallways that is always ice cold at night, and seeing the grey nurse turn a corner and disappear.

The former Royal Adelaide Hospital, which I believe has been converted or demolished in favor of residential and commercial space, also had tales of the Grey nurse. 

I tried to do some digging, but there isn’t much to go on with these stories: no name, no cause of death, no era, no nothing.

However, I did manage to dig up an old newspaper article about a ghost story that has been circulating for at least a century and a half: the Grey Lady of Adelaide.  This specter is known as the first ghost of Adelaide…which is a little Eurocentric considering there were probably many Aboriginal ghosts prior to the colonization of the area but I digress… the color association here is interesting. Could this Grey Lady and the grey nurses be one in the same?

The ghost of the Grey Lady was said to haunt Younghusband Mansion.  I was curious where this mansion was located — was it in the vicinity of one of these hospitals?  Or perhaps it was demolished and one of the aforementioned hospitals built over top.

I found my answer in the October 17, 1929 issue of The Register News-Pictorial. It reads thusly:

GREY LADY OF NORTH ADELAIDE - CITY’S BEST GHOST STORY

And There Was Another In A Castle WhoLeft Illicit Still Behind

ROMANTIC GHOST WHO SAT IN CELLAR

SHE haunted the Younghusband mansion, this Grey Lady of North Adelaide, and in the basement each night could be seen, 60 years and less ago, sitting in her chair in her own particular cellar. Memory recalls only that much of this spirit with the romantic title, but when the Nursing Sisters of Calvary Hospital became owners of the Younghusband mansion, they closed the Grey Lady's cellar. And the Grey Lady went out of memory.

The Archbishop of Adelaide (Dr. Spence), when he laid the foundation stone of a convent home for the Nursing Sisters of the Calvary Hospital, North Adelaide, revived, perhaps, Adelaide's two sole ghost stories.

He recalled that the sisters never saw the Grey Lady but the story, no doubt, added

to their discomfort. The acre on which Calvary Hospital stands was first owned by Robert Gouger, the State's first Colonial Secretary. He, too, owned land near the present Gouger street, where he built his home, and there were buried his wife and child. This is the foundation of the story of the Grey Lady, it is thought. However illogical might be the idea of the North Adelaide property being haunted, the story grew, and

was known up to 29 years ago, when the Nursing Sisters took over the property from

the Baker family. When the old house was pulled down to give place to the present modern structure at Calvary Hospital, the story gained another lease of life.

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this mansion and it led me down…quite the path.  If you follow the podcast on instagram @crimesandwitchdemeanors then you already know where this is going. 

The article wasn’t very clear on whether Calvary Hospital was the mansion, replaced the mansion, or if the mansion was just used as a convent for the Nuns of Calvary Hospital.

In trying to answer these questions, I stumbled across the blog of a man named Allen Tiller.  Who, if you’ve seen the original Teen Titans cartoon, is a dead-ringer for the villain Control Freak.  He is quote “a historian, genealogist, author, paranormal investigator, and the 2017 emerging South Australian Historian of the Year.”

Quite the decorated man! Now, although his website looks like it was plucked straight from Xanga, awful div transparencies and all, it was useful because it led me to his book, The Haunts of Adelaide: History, Mystery, and the Paranormal REVISED EDITION.  The revised part is in all caps so you know it’s important. 

However, I’m grateful for his book because it includes a chapter on the Younghusband Mansion - for which there is virtually no digital resources on.  I’m just glad I have Kindle unlimited so I didn’t have to pay for it.  The entire introduction read like a thread of rage-tweets lambasting the prior publisher.  Maybe not the best look, Allen.  Save it for twitter.  Not the book.  It kind of diminishes what credibility you earned.  But I’m not the 2017 Emerging South Australian Historian of the Year so you know, I should probably keep my big mouth shut.

Here’s what I’ve gleaned for his book:

The parcel of land Younghusband mansion was built on was originally purchased tin 1837 by Robert Cock during the first land sale held in Adelaide.  Later, Cock sold the land to the first colonial secretary of South Australia: Robert Gouger.

Gouger bought the land because he was under the impression that its high elevation would help ease the pain of his ailing wife, Harriet, who was suffering from tuberculosis.  They erected  a modest wooden cabin on the land but sadly the high elevation proved to offer no health benefits and Harriet, along with her infant child, died.  Gouger buried both his wife and child on the land, though they were later moved and interred at West Terrace cemetery.

This history is what led to the story of the Grey Lady as outlined in the news article.  However, its legacy doesn’t end there.  In 1842 the land was sold to Edward Stephens and then again in 1846 to William Younghusband.

William Younghusband was an Englishman who made a killing investing in the Burra Mines and his house reflected his wealth.  Younghusband Mansion at one point was once known as the finest home in Adelaide…though that may be because it was the only one of its kind in the area.  The mansion was opulent and grand: it had a ballroom, ornate gardens, secret rooms, underground tunnels, a unique iron fence, and it was outfitted head to toe in cedar.

After Younghusband’s death in 1865, the house changed hands quite a few times before the the lease came to rest in the hands of Miss Isabella Baker in 1883.  Miss Baker had plans to convert the home into a private hospital but she could not do so until the owned the property herself.  It took some time, but after six years she finally convinced the remaining trustee to relinquish the property.

The mansion became the living quarters of the nuns.  The two rooms facing the streets were used as bedrooms, behind them was a box room, below a large basement, and there was another room that had been sealed up.

Behind the seal was a room that had not been finished during the Younghusband’s occupation of the home.  It was full of construction materials, dust, and rocks.  During the time the Younghusband’s stayed in the house, many people noticed the sealed up room, and because many people knew about Gouger’s wife and her baby that died on the property, the legend of the Grey Lady began.  The story really took off in 1869 when a newspaper published a story about a ghost spotted sitting in a chair in the basement. 

Younghusband mansion was eventually torn down and Calvary Hospital was built on the grounds.  Could the Grey Lady have become one of the grey nurses?  Or is her entity altogether separate?

The former Royal Adelaide Hospital was one of the biggest hotspots of grey nurse encounters.  Allegedly, a whole floor of the building was closed due to paranormal activity in the 1980’s, though no evidence of this exists.  It seems a little farfetched.

As with most grey nurses, her identity was unknown but her story follows the usual pattern: she was the wife of a doctor who died on the operating table, she died in a car accident on her way to work, she was pushed down the stairs by a mental health patient, or she accidentally delivered a fatal overdose and committed suicide.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital has moved to a new building and the old one was partially demolished and partially renovated and converted into shops, apartments, and the new location for the Australian Space Agency.

Construction workers on the site witnessed paranormal activity.  Allegedly, a number of workers sent messages to our good friend Allen Tiller describing their encounters.  Frequently, a “person in blue” was spotted on the upper floors watching the construction staff work.  When they called security to find the person, since it’s dangerous to be on an active construction site, no one was found.  This happened on numerous occasions.

Now again.  My brain always goes to speedy squatters, and no I’m not talking about me the day after I have chipotle.  An abandoned building is the perfect place for someone to seek shelter with little risk of running into anyone.

Regardless, the construction workers believe it to be a ghost and the blue outfit could possibly be scrubs.  I will say that oftentimes grey can appear blue in certain circumstances. 

White ladies, men in black hats, and grey nurses…are they distinct spirits who choose to appear in these forms?  Or are they archetypes that have been burned into our collective subconscious?  It’s safe to say we may never learn the identities of these homogenous haunts, if they are ghosts at all.  But they do make for fun stories to tell in the dark.

Next week’s episode is going to be my personal ghost stories and will follow a different format than usual.  Next week is my birthday week, and I’m also getting the second dose of my vaccine so I’m planning on feeling icky for a few days and would rather not have to write a few thousand words with a fever!  So if that interests you, you have something to look forward to!

If you know anyone who would enjoy the show — please share it with them!  Word of mouth, and a pyramid scheme, is the best way to grow our family of bibli-ahh-graphers.  Follow the podcast’s instagram for goodies, and of course, if you’re listening on overcast hit that little star icon, if you’re an Apple fiend, please leave a kind review!

And remember, if you find yourself in a hospital…keep your eyes peeled for a grey nurse, never badmouth previous publishers in your revised edition..its’ quite unbecoming…and as always, stay spooky.  Bye~