Room 126

I started working in an assisted living facility in June of 2014. I work the 2nd shift, 2-10pm. There are two units in the 40 bed facility. Unit one is for patients who needed assistance with their everyday needs. Unit two is the unit that I work all the time, the Alzheimer's/Dementia unit. Some people crudely call it the "crazy side".

When I began, most nights I would be assigned to the unit alone. At that time, there were only ten rooms filled out of the twenty rooms total. A year had passed and more patients moved into the facility. Staffing grew, and on most days, there were two staff members assigned to both units. During a three-month period, we were short staffed, and I was working the unit alone. This never bothered me.

The building at the time was only a few years old, but many deaths had occurred since the opening of the facility. Working alone, you would always catch a glimpse of something moving out of the corner of your eye. Lights would be on in rooms that were unoccupied. The call light system, which sounded an alarm in the nurse's station when a patient needed help, would go off in rooms that were unoccupied. These were normal occurrences, that didn't bother me. I just went on about my job and didn't think much about it at first.

On one particular night, I was assigned to the unit alone. This was nothing new to me, and I just accepted it, and went about my duties. In one room in general, the lights came on several times over the night. I would always go in, and shut them off. After multiple times of this, I just ignored them.

After a couple of hours passed without me shutting the lights off, the call lights went off in the room. I went in and shut them all off. After that, they all went off again, this time, I was getting a little bit scared. I walked over to the other unit and told them about what was happening. Two other staff members and myself walked down to the room and shut everything off. The shift leader announced that "whoever was doing this, stop immediately" or else they would be reported and disciplined. My co-workers went about their duties on the other unit.

An hour before my shift was up, I was standing in the nurse's station drawing up insulin for a 9 pm dose for a patient. The call light went off, and assuming it was someone who needed help, I finished drawing up the insulin and turned around to see which room had pulled the cord. To my surprise, it was room number 126, the same room that had been pulling it all night long.

I called over to the other unit, and the same two staff members came over, and together, we walked down to the room to turn the lights off for what we hoped to be the last time that night.

When we entered the room, it felt at least 20 degrees colder. We walked into the living area, shut the call light off, followed by the bedroom, and the bathroom. When we turned around, we noticed that all of the cupboard doors in the kitchen area were being swung open. This caused my co-workers to scream, and we all ran from the room. The administrator of the building was called, and she in return, called the owner of the building, and he said that it was all a part of our imagination.

A couple of nights had passed, and still, lights went on and off spontaneously in the room. One night in particular, a patient was walking up and down the hallway, acting very agitated. I noticed her walking to the end of the hallway, and peering into the window of the room that had all of the oddities happening. When asked why she was staring into the room, she turned to me, and in a cold voice, stated "the loud noises in that room are too loud, make them stop it!" This woman had Alzheimer's Disease, so she could not have known what was happening whatsoever. Several times that night this patient would come walking down the hall and stop at the same room. She'd look inside and shout "HUSH! SHUT UP! STOP IT!" She even began to cry and told us that the noises were really upsetting her.

That same night, during shift change, we had a total of six staff members doing rounds, checking on every patient to make sure they were okay. While in the hallway of 126, we started feeling a strange vibration coming from the floor. The building was fairly new, and the flooring underneath the carpeting was cement. We found it odd to feel such a vibration. As we continued to get closer to room 126, we noticed the vibration was turning more into a shaking type of feeling.

The pictures on the walls were rattling, and the signs next to the door containing patient's names were also rattling. It felt as if there was a minor earthquake, which is practically unheard of in Tennessee. As soon as the door to 129 was opened, (which is the room number of the woman who was bothered by the unheard noises) the rumbling stopped. She came outside and yelled "STOP IT! I SAID STOP IT!" and like I said, everything stopped and got eerily silent. All six of us saw a dark shadow move across the floor, almost like it was dancing. It went right back into room 126.

This event was enough to make the six of us want to quit. One of the nurses did in fact quit, she didn't even come back to get her last paycheck. We ended up having to move the lady in room 129. Once she was moved into a different room she settled down and never has spoken again about noises bothering her.

Our administrator took it upon herself to call a local church who came in and blessed the room. A bible was placed in the room, and even though this all took place, strange occurrences have still been happening. Televisions will turn on, radios will turn on, and the bible will now even close on its own.

We don't even put patients in room 126 unless it's an absolute emergency. The door stays locked and the curtains stay closed. The maintenance workers even removed the light bulbs and took the television out of the room. Whatever is happening it's all centered around that one specific room.

There is no explanation as to why these things are happening, but we do know that the spirits in room 126 are very much alive.