An Unconventional Tea Party

A mother opens her front door and watches a “stranger” sprint through the snow with her arms wide, calling someone else “Ma” and “Nervie” like it’s the most natural thing in the world. That’s where we pick up the Watseka Wonder, the infamous Watseka, Illinois possession case that still messes with our sense of identity, grief, and what we think is possible.

We walk back into the Vennum home as Mary Roff’s voice seems to speak through Lurancy Vennum, and the reunion with the Roff women turns tender, awkward, and heartbreaking all at once. The details are too personal to shrug off, but the body is wrong, the timeline is impossible, and every loving gesture lands on a family already stretched thin. 

We also zoom out to talk about Dr. Stevens, spiritualism, and what it looks like to stay curious without turning the unknown into a cheap spectacle. Along the way, we connect this real American paranormal history to the research that helped shape The Exorcist, proving small towns can leave a mark on the biggest horror stories we tell.

Then we flip the porchlight on and switch gears to Porchlight Whispers. We sit down reunion-style and trade real unexplained experiences: Lanterns Lane ghost lights that pulse, vanish, and reappear behind you, a chilling “woman in white” sighting, and poltergeist-like activity that includes a TV turning on by itself, strange camera-flash sounds, and toys triggering for no clear reason. We end by asking what our role is in keeping stories like the Watseka Wonder alive, and why paying attention matters more than pretending we have all the answers.

If you love paranormal podcasts, small town folklore, and true haunting stories with history you can trace, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a rating and review. What’s your theory about what’s really happening here?

Transcript

Welcome And Friday The 13th

Speaker 6 0:11

Welcome to Small Town Whispers, where history, folklore, and the paranormal collide. I'm Bethany Yucuis Borden, and I lived in Watseka, Illinois from 1988 to 1999. For over a decade, I walked the same streets, saw the same houses, and even had friends connected to the story we're about to dive into. This isn't just history for me, it's personal. It's great to be back together. Thank you for taking the time to join us for this week's episode. Guess what? It's Friday the 13th. Again! Two months in a row? Is it like the double rainbow? But what does it mean? Double rainbow all the way across the sky!

Speaker 1:39

Oh my god.

Speaker 1 1:46

What does this mean?

Porchlight Whispers Preview And Email

Returning To The Watseka Wonder

Speaker 6 1:48

If you were a Tosh Point O fan back in the day, you've probably seen that clip. Three is the most times we can actually see this date in a year. The last time it happened was 2015. The next time it will happen is 2037. I'm seeing a pattern. It looks like it happens about every 11 years. And there's your useless trivia knowledge from this episode. Coming up in this week's Porchlight Whispers segment, you will hear the voices of this podcast in a different way. You've heard some of my stories, but this week I sat down with Emily, the voice of Mary, Sara, the voice of Lurancy, and Chris, the voice of the Porchlight Whispers intro, Willie Canning, and my husband. We swapped stories and memories. We're so glad you guys can join us. If you're inspired to tell a story of your own after this week, don't forget to send us an email, porchlightwhispers@gmail.com. Before we get to that, let's get back to the book. When we left off last week, we had just heard the perspectives of Asa and Anne Roff, along with Dr. Stevens, following the strange and unsettling events at the Vennum Home. For Asa and Ann, the situation carried a fragile kind of hope. If what they believed was true, their daughter Mary, gone these many years, had somehow found her way back to them, even if only for a short time. Dr. Stevens, on the other hand, found himself caught between curiosity and fear. As a man of science, he had long studied unusual cases, but this one forced him to confront something far more unsettling. The possibility that he was witnessing something he couldn't explain. We also learned that after Mary's sudden and mysterious death years earlier, the Roths spent a long time searching for answers. Eventually, they found comfort in the beliefs of spiritualism. Life around them had continued to move forward. Their older sons, Joseph and Fenton, had gone east, they got married, and started families of their own. By this time, the Roths had three grandchildren they had never even met. Their younger boys, Frank and Charlie, still lived at home. They accepted their parents' beliefs, though perhaps more out of loyalty than conviction. After the war, Lucy got married and moved to Canada, where she had three children of her own, the oldest named after Asa. Letters from her arrived every so often. The morning after the strange events at the Venom House, Tom Vennum went to see Asa at his office. Tom was a man torn between anger and grief. Lurancy had awakened that morning still insisting she was Mary Roff. Tom didn't know whether to strike Asa for somehow taking his daughter away or to thank him for helping her find peace. In that moment, the two men were forced to face a strange and painful possibility that somehow, in ways neither could fully understand, they might both claim to be the father of the same girl. Back at the Venom home, Mary's voice, speaking through Laurence's body, continued asking to be taken to her real home. When she awoke on the couch after a peaceful night's sleep, she didn't recognize her own mother. For Lurinda Vennum, the pain was almost unbearable. Her daughter's body was right there in front of her, but the spirit inside seemed to belong to someone else. Mary tried again and again to gently explain that Lurancy herself was safe on the other side, being helped. But the words were almost impossible for a mother to understand. When Tom returned home, he told Lorinda that there might actually be some truth to the impossible, that Mary Roff could somehow be speaking through Lurancy. Lurinda wept again, but beneath the sorrow was a fragile sense of relief. If this was real, maybe it meant Lurancy was not lost after all. Slowly, she began adjusting to this new version of her daughter. The two of them worked together in the kitchen that morning, side by side, preparing for the visitors who were sure to come. And that is where we returned to the book Watseka, America's Most Extraordinary Case of Possession and Exorcism on page 196!

Speaker 4 6:22

Ma'am, come quickly!

Speaker 6 6:23

Look who's coming up the walkway! L urancy called from the living room. At the girl's excited cry, Lurinda hurried into the living room and peered out of the curtains. There were two women bundled against the cold in fine clothes.

Speaker 4 6:37

It's my ma and my sister Nervie. Oh look at them. They've come to take me home.

Speaker 6 6:43

She ran toward the door and pulled it open, dashing across a porch and into the snow covered walk. Ann caught Minerva's arm and held her back. The sight of this tall gangling girl rushing toward them, coatless in the freezing weather, was unexpected. The girl had her arms outstretched, shoved out as far as she could, as if to embrace them both, even before they were in range.

Speaker 4 7:07

Ma Ma Nervy Oh Ma Oh my dear sweet ma.

Speaker 6 7:14

Don't move, Ann said quickly to Minerva. Let her come to us. She came quickly, laughing and crying and slipping in the snow to grab both of them, hugging them, pulling them to her and trying to make her words understood. Even as her tears choked back the sounds. Anne and Minerva tried to pull away at first, but the grip was too strong. They let this unknown child hold them, let her stand there in the cold, and let her cry. Finally, Minerva said, I think we'd better go into the house. You'll catch your death out here. My death? I can't die. Then she hugged them again.

Speaker 4 7:54

Mama, we have so very much to talk about. I have so much to tell you. Both of you.

Speaker 6 8:01

Rancy, you get in here this minute, Lurinda shouted from the open front door. And Mrs. Roth and Mrs. Alter, please come in. Then Rancy Vennum, let the ladies be. Let them get inside where it's warm.

Speaker 4 8:14

That woman still calls me Rancy. I've tried to tell her.

Speaker 6 8:19

Well, Mary, Ann said softly, humoring the girl, and yet not finding it too difficult to pronounce the name Mary. We had better get inside, don't you think?

Speaker 4 8:29

Oh yes, Ma. Let's go in. Have some tea, and there must be some bread and butter in that kitchen somewhere.

Speaker 6 8:35

She stepped between the two women, and, taking their arms, walked with them up the walk, onto the porch, and into the house. Lurinda Vennum closed the door after them. I want to welcome you both to my home, Lurinda said. If I had known you were coming, I could have fixed it up a little bit. But you know things have been so hectic here lately that I really haven't had time to do anything at all. Don't apologize, please, Ann said quickly. Our visit was also decided upon at the last minute. We should have warned you we were coming, Minerva added. But we had to see your daughter, especially after what my father told us about her.

Speaker 4 9:11

Oh, she's not here. Ma, the Vennum girl is on the other side. They're taking care of her over there. She's real sick, don't you know?

Speaker 6 9:20

Ann looked at Minerva, and both of them looked at Lurinda, who shrugged her shoulders and twisted the hem of her apron.

Speaker 4 9:27

Here, Ma, let me help you with your coat. You too, Nervie. I'll take them and hang them up for you.

Speaker 6 9:32

Lurancy quickly undid the buttons on the front of Ann's dark seal skin coat, as Minerva unbuttoned her own.

Speaker 4 9:39

This is a new coat, isn't it, Ma? I never saw this one before.

Speaker 6 9:43

Oh mercy, no, Ann said. I've had this coat going on five years now. Then she stopped. I'm sorry. Yes. For you, I suppose it is new. We didn't have it when you were still here. Mary?

Speaker 4 9:58

And you look so good. I mean, I didn't know what to expect. It's been so long.

Speaker 6 10:03

Oh my, it's been so long She came back and embraced Ann, crying again, and not caring how her body shook with the sobs. Ann reached up and stroked the girl's hair. They're there. It's alright now, child. Don't take on so it's alright. Everything will be alright. You'll see. As she held the body close, she knew it wasn't the same body she had hugged so many times in the past, but the voice was the same. The same tones, the same inflections, the same tenderness that she had forced herself to forget. It had been better to forget. It's all right, Mary It's alright. Ma's here. Your Ma's here. Lurinda stood watching, unable to say anything, not knowing what was happening, and not even trying to figure out where it all might be leading. I could put on some water for tea, she finally said. I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of sweets to go with it, unexpected and all as it were. We brought a sponge cake, Minerva said. Mary always liked sponge cake. Oh I did, didn't I? I almost forgot. It's been so long since I've eaten. Well, I'll get the water boiling, Lurinda said, going into the kitchen. Lurancy watched her go, and then motioned Ann and Minerva to sit on the sofa. She sat between them, holding their hands and smiling from one face to another. Have you come to take me home?

Speaker 4 11:37

Oh ma, I'm so homesick for you and the boys, and for Lucy. Oh ma, I think I'm gonna start crying all over again.

Speaker 6 11:47

Now now we don't need any more tears, Ann said, pulling a handkerchief out of her purse just in case. If you spend all our time crying your eyes out, we won't get any chance to visit now, will we? Lurancy shook her head. I'll try to be good.

Speaker 4 12:04

But it isn't so wonderful to see both of you again. She kissed Anne on the cheek and then she kissed Minerva on the cheek. Nervie, you smell so good. That old lady in the kitchen smells of onions and laundry soap. But don't tell her. She gets very upset and cries real easy.

Speaker 6 12:26

I hope you haven't done anything to upset her, Ann said. You know she is going through a difficult time right now.

Speaker 4 12:33

Oh, I try to keep her calm, but she don't listen very well. I told her that her daughter wasn't here, that they have taken her away, but she won't believe me. She thinks I'm her daughter.

Speaker 6 12:44

Ain't that crazy? She probably loves her daughter, Minerva said. And now that she's gone, she misses her. She'll be back. She'll be back when she's all better again. When will that be? Ann asked hesitantly. Soon? She really didn't want to know the answer.

Speaker 4 13:02

I can't tell. They told me that she would be gone as long as it took to cure her. She has some awful troubles in the mind and in the nerves. Something is wrong in her spinal cord and in one of the sections that pumps blood up to her brain. Somehow her brain doesn't get enough blood. Anyway, that's what they told me. And that's why I'm here. Ain't that lucky? For all of us? She quickly kissed Anne again.

Speaker 6 13:24

I mean, if that girl had been in good health, I wouldn't be here now. Why are you here? Minerva asked. I don't quite understand how you can help her.

Speaker 4 13:35

Oh, it's simple, really. That girl, Lurancy Vennum, was dying, and it wasn't her time to go. So they asked me if I would come down and watch over her body until they could fix it all better. Wasn't her time to go? Anne asked in surprise. No. For some reason she is supposed to have a long life, but things weren't going that way, and her physical self wasn't working right. Neither was her mental self. I mean, look at the way those others were able to use her. That ain't right, Ma. It ain't right that those others were able to do those things to her. Others? Those other people that came in and took her over. They just moved right into her and started working with her body and using her and making her do all sorts of terrible things. She even tried to kill her ma once when one of them took her over. The girl shook her head. That sort of thing shouldn't be allowed over there. But there don't seem to be any way to stop it.

Speaker 6 14:31

Do you remember when you tried to kill yourself? Anne asked. Trying to test this new personality. Lorancy just stared. Me? Ma, I would never try to kill anybody. When you had one of your spells, Mary, Minerva said. You took a knife and hid in the woods and tried to kill yourself. Don't you remember? Lurancy looked from one to the other. A frown of doubt crossed her features. I took a knife. She shook her head, then closed her eyes. Are you sure? She asked Minerva. Are you sure it was me? Very sure. I took a knife and She was puzzled. Then her frown went to a look of recognition. Yes.

Speaker 4 15:15

Yes. Now I recall it. But it wasn't me that tried to do it. It was one of them people that bothers the Venom girl all the time. Now I remember. She jumped up and started to roll up her sleeve. The scar is right here on this arm. I took that knife and she stopped, puzzled. But the scar isn't here. Ma, the scar isn't here anymore. What happened to it?

Speaker 6 15:39

Minerva glanced at Ann. Because that's not your arm, she said. She stared at her skin, rubbing the exact spot where Mary Roff had stabbed her own arm almost thirteen years previously.

Speaker 4 15:53

Of course. I forgot. That arm ain't here anymore. That arm's in the ground. They buried it when they buried the rest of me.

Speaker 6 16:02

Lurinda came out of the kitchen with a brown glazed teapot on a wooden serving tray. The creamer and pitcher didn't match the pot, and the plate the sponge cake was on was of a third pattern. I don't have a lot of nice tea things like you must have, misses Roff, she apologized. But we seldom get visitors, and when they do come, they just have to take what's available. Don't you worry, Ann assured her. It doesn't matter what's on the outside of the pot. It's what's inside that counts. Lorinda smiled and set the tray on the dining table. She poured four cups, and after asking the two women if they took milk or sugar, added it and served them. Then she cut the sponge cake and gave each of them a big slice. When it came time to hand Lurancy her cup, the girl declined. No, thank you, ma'am. I'm not eating. Oh, just a little sponge cake, Rancy, Lurinda coaxed. Mrs. Roff brought it over here for you special. The girl shook her head. No, thank you. I won't eat anything at all.

Speaker 4 17:01

This body needs a rest. Nothing at all, child? Anne asked. Not even tea? Nope. Nothing. Maybe when the body gets uneven keel I can have something, but not until then. I'll know when. How will you know? Minerva asked. They will tell me. They? Lorinda looked at her daughter. They who? They, ma'am. She smiled. That's all I can tell you. They don't really have names. None that you would know, anyhow. But I do thank you, Ma, for bringing me that cake. Maybe later I can have some. It was real sweet of you to remember.

Open Minds And The Exorcist Link

Speaker 6 17:38

And she gave Mrs. Roff one more kiss. It's hard to imagine this situation from anyone's perspective. Tom and Lurinda Vennum? Asa, Ann, and Nervie Roff? Dr. Stevens? Mary herself? And what about Lurancy? How could anyone know how to handle it? I doubt a college education prepared Dr. Stevens for an ongoing possession of a body, even with a friendly spirit. Thank goodness Lurancy wasn't just shipped off to Springfield anyway. So much was learned in the events that unfolded in the Watseka Wonder because people kept their minds open and did not allow fear to dictate their decisions. Today we're used to seeing possession stories in movies and television. The Exorcist alone scared generations of viewers and became the standard for how we imagine these events. But the author of the novel The Exorcist didn't invent anything from scratch. While researching, he looked into real historical cases, including the strange events that took place in Watseka, Illinois, and Dr. Stevens' case study of the Watseka Wonder. So, in a way, the story we've been following may have helped shape one of the most famous horror stories ever told. Not bad for a small town in 1870s, Illinois. I hope this podcast can help keep honest, open-minded discussions alive on topics we don't fully understand and may never understand.

Speaker 2 19:21

Tonight we listen not to the pages from a book, but to the people who have felt the unexplained and found the courage to share it. Welcome to Porchlight Whispers.

Speaker 5 19:35

Well, I mean, this is about as close of a high school reunion as I've been to in a long time, so yeah.

Speaker 6 19:42

Good to see everybody. Let's get a concept. I say it in every intro. I lived in Watsika from 1988 to 1999. When did you guys each live there?

Speaker 1 19:53

I never lived there.

Speaker 6 19:54

Okay.

Speaker 3 19:56

You wish you did. Oh, I bet. I bet.

Speaker 1 20:01

I lived in a town like Watseka. I mean, I grew up in the Midwest, fifth grade to twelfth grade. We lived up in Luddington, Michigan, or just outside of it. It was a small school in Scottville, Michigan. We had tractor days at high school where everybody drove their tractors in from their farms. Completely packed the parking lot with these ginormous tractors. It was awesome.

Speaker 3 20:22

I think I was there '93.

Speaker 4 20:24

We moved there Christmas of 88. So I started school right after Christmas break, uh, first grade of 89.

Speaker 5 20:32

So you guys haven't been to Watseka.

Lanterns Lane Ghost Light Stories

Speaker 4 20:35

Well, Emily, I mean your family still lives there, so yeah, I was there not this past December, but the one prior. I went for my parents' 50th anniversary. It blows my mind now, like all the development out past Walmart. Specifically, that they have like a taco bell and a steak and shape now. And I'm like, no way. We couldn't have driven to Kankakee Yeah.

Speaker 5 20:57

Did any of you have unexplained experiences or your families?

Speaker 3 21:01

Yes. In Watsika, I only had one time going out to Lanterns Lane where we got to see the lantern, which to this day I still think about it because we never really got any answers on it. There were four of us. And we went out, and it was like a Friday or Saturday night. We went and sat and parked. We had driven it before many times, but we went and sat and parked at one end of the road. And we were just kind of sitting there talking, and we noticed that there was like a ball of light at the end of the road, and it was kind of like glowing, but it would get a little softer and a little brighter. And we kind of sat there for a minute. We were like, there's probably a car coming because there's a little bit of a curve where you turn down there and it kept going for a little bit. So we started driving toward it and it just disappeared. So we followed and went all the way down and checked to see where the signs were, and we didn't see anything. So we turned around and then we were facing the other way, like the way we had just driven from, and we parked and faced the other end of the road, and it showed up at the other end of the road. And at that point, we all Freaked out and turned around and laughed because everyone was like, Oh my god. That's my Lanterns Lane story. It's not too exciting, but at the same time, I definitely still think about it.

Speaker 5 22:09

I feel like it is exciting because I've heard that said that you'd see it in front of you and then it'd be behind you. To turn around and see it is really crazy.

Speaker 4 22:18

I also have a similar Lanterns Lane experience. So one time, even though we went out there multiple times, I was never driving, so I couldn't find my way back there today. But the one time that I think I saw something, it was same thing. We parked and it was cold outside. And then of course, you know, you're inside. So like the windows started getting kind of foggy, but then we saw something and we thought it was a a car coming, kind of waited for it to get bigger or get closer, and it wasn't getting bigger or closer. It kind of seemed like it was pulsing and going away and coming back, but it wasn't ever really, you know, moving. And then all of a sudden, what I remembered was that it started getting like really fast and close, like abnormally so. And we got so freaked out, wiping the windows, trying to see better, and then just like getting scared, and we basically peeled out and left and chickened out.

Speaker 1 23:11

So I never lived Watseka So I went with my mother and I took care, you know, tried to help take care of her even when I was just a kid. We lived in a pretty nasty neighborhood. And uh, we had a couple experiences there growing up that really just shook me and shook my mom a lot. There was a story that she told me about checking on me in the middle of the night and seeing a woman dressed in white walking out of my room as she went to walk in. That person wasn't supposed to be there. My mom was kind of just like taken aback as she passed this woman in the hall. Then one time I guess she went to walk in my bedroom door and she saw this woman sitting on the bed on the foot of my bed watching me sleep. It really just kind of gave her an unnerving feeling. And as she walked in the room, the woman kind of just disappeared. The one experience that I experienced was uh when I was in fifth grade taking a bath one night, and all of a sudden I heard something and I didn't know what it was. And then all of a sudden, my mom opened the bathroom door and comes walking in to check on me. And when she did, she was like, Chris, what are you doing? Please have my toys, and I'm like, What? And she's like, Why'd you do this? And every single bottle in the entire bathroom, nail polish, shampoo, conditioner, every single bottle in the entire bathroom on every shelf in the medicine cabinet was turned upside down. Everything, even things that really shouldn't be sitting upside down were sitting upside down. And my mom was like, What is going on? And she went to grab something on the shelf and it fell over. And I was like, What is going on? And she reached in the bathtub and she snatched me out of the bathtub, wraps me in a towel, throws me in the car, and we stayed the night in a hotel. It scared her bad. We ended up living there for another like six to eight months. You get these like unnerving feelings, especially, you know, as a child, I was a lotkey kid. I went home alone after school every day. I was walking into an empty home, and I had to sit there alone until about nine o'clock at night. It was a very uncomfortable feeling having to sit there every day going, is there something in here with me? Is something bad gonna happen? Yeah, it was pretty weird for a while until we ended up moving, and that was kind of like the end of it.

A Watseka Rental House Turns Strange

Speaker 3 25:11

I did have another experience in Watseka that really kind of kicked off some other weird stuff, and that didn't happen until that would have been in 2007. So I moved away, went to college, and moved back to Watseka in the summer of 06. I ended up moving into this rental house that's a little white bungalow by Glenn Raymond. It was myself and my daughter at the time. My husband had just gotten back from deployment, and we had just had my middle daughter. So she was probably three weeks old at the time. I was sitting up in the middle of the night at like 2 a.m. feeding her, and my TV turned on, which freaked me out. It turned on to static or whatever. And I'm sorry, the ring had not been out that long, so it freaked me out. And I looked over because I thought maybe I the remote was in the bed and I'd leaned on it or something. And I looked over and it was down my nightstand. That was weird. I shut it off and was just like feeding a little newborn, and I was just like, that didn't happen. I'm gonna pretend like nothing, nothing happened. I didn't see anything. We don't talk about it, it's fine. And not two minutes later, it turned on again. I woke up my husband who was asleep, and he sat up, I left it on, and he sat up and I told him what happened. And while we were talking, we heard the sound of like an old camera, like the pop of a flashbulb. And we both just froze for a second and looked at each other because it sounded like it was coming from where our bedroom door, like someone was standing in our bedroom door with a camera. And so he got up and went and walked through the door and it stopped. And he was like walking through the other rooms in the house, looking to see what it was. It started happening and again, but in the bedroom where I was, I yelled for him to come back in there and he did, and it just stopped. That was all that happened that night, but we had a couple other times where like weird kids' toys would go off, and so we check all the toys, but no toys would make that sound or like weird, weird stuff in that house. I ended up moving out of it when it flooded because that was the year that the big flood happened.

Speaker 5 27:08

To me, both of those incidences feel like poltergeist activity. I mean, to refer to the static of the TV poltergeist, but when you think of poltergeist, it's kind of playful, the kids' toys, you know, hiding things. Taking the pictures, like the old-time picture camera thing is very interesting. And I wonder, did you do any history on who had lived there before or how old the his house was?

Speaker 3 27:30

I never did actually. That's a good idea because we only lived in that house not even a full year because we I moved in while he was deployed and we knew we were moving to South Carolina come that February or whatever it was. After all that happened, I was like, hi. I'm out to this day. I've kind of wondered what set it off. So that's a good idea. I need to look into it.

Why Keeping The Story Matters

Speaker 1 27:52

Okay. Yeah, I think I think the most interesting things we'll ever see in our lifetimes are right at the edge of our understanding, right? They're they're gonna be right there at the very edge of what we understand as a human. It's always so interesting when we always brush up against those limits, whether it be in these kinds of situations, what we're talking about here, spirits or ghosts or energies or whatever it is that some people are experiencing from the other side, or whether we're talking about pushing the limits of speed and sound and light. It's all really interesting stuff.

Speaker 5 28:21

My last question tonight for us all is what do you think our role and significance is in keeping this story and the history alive?

Speaker 4 28:30

Well, props to you, Bethany, because without this, I wouldn't have ever probably even revisited this story at all. And I never even read the book. I mean, like I told you, I got put on the reading or the waiting list at the library in the early 90s and never got that call. I truthfully never would have known it. So you've really given it a life. And I'm hoping still over time that people are gonna latch onto it and get more interested because you've made it very accessible.

Speaker 3 28:55

And it's really for people that don't know or understand that there's only so many in print. I love the way that you're doing it, Bethany, too, because uh we do live in a day and age, right, where everyone gets super distracted really quick and everybody wants it in short form. But that's kind of the beauty of it right now, what you're doing, because you can have little chunks at a time and be invested, but it is such a cool way to get to experience it. You're not just reading it, it's kind of being acted out in this way that makes it kind of like a picture in your head, too.

Speaker 5 29:24

It truly is my favorite topic. Everybody always has at least one story, don't you think? If they didn't experience at least one from somebody credible they know.

Speaker 3 29:34

I think that the people that don't have stories, they're either not paying attention or they don't want to experience that. So they just block it and just kind of and that's fine if that's not where they're at. Just look around, like pay attention. Yeah.

Speaker 6 29:48

Thank you so much, Emily and Sarah, for taking the time to jump on Zoom from two different time zones on the week of a time change. We all met up at 10 p.m. Wednesday, my time on the East Coast, but Sarah was joining us from central Illinois, and Emily was joining us on the West Coast from Seattle. Technology is such an amazing way to stay connected. Our conversation gave me a lot to think about, and I hope it opens a door for other people to talk and think about things as well. These kind of conversations are great because there's no right or wrong answer as long as we keep our egos in check and our minds open. From here, I am going to encourage everybody to pay attention.

Listener Stories And Closing Support

Speaker 2 30:32

That was this week's edition of Porchlight Whispers. Do you have an experience of your own to tell? We want to hear your stories. Share your experiences and let your small town whispers become part of ours.

Speaker 6 30:49

And with that, the porchlight dims, but the whispers stay with us. Join us again next time when another voice steps into the light. If this show resonates with you, hit follow, share it with a friend who loves true history and the paranormal, and leave a rating and review. It really helps us get discovered. If you'd like to support the show, feel free to send a little something the following ways: Venmo, Bethany-Borden dash 1, PayPal, Bethany Borden 865, Cash App, Money Sign Small Town Whispers, or you can go to buzzsprout.com slash 253 9508 slash support. These are all listed at the end of each episode description. This podcast does take a lot of time and energy, and any little bit would help. Please share your stories with us at Porchlight Whispers at gmail.com or send a message on the Small Town Whispers Facebook page. Did you know we're on YouTube? I dare you to put it on at bedtime. Don't forget to tell a friend or family member about the show. And mostly, thank you for simply listening.