Joanna

Here’s another one of my darker funny stories.

Kalee and I were planning a picnic at a cemetery. We been planning this for about a couple of months. We thought we would opt for a more haunted vibe for our fall picnic.

And hey, maybe we might even encounter something in the cemetery.

We also invited our friend Danica, who isn’t really into the creepy and paranormal as Kalee and I are. I’d say she’s more of a skeptic than anything. Still, she decided to tag along. Knowing her, I thought that was pretty brave of her!

Our destination was Mount Pleasant Cemetery, one of Toronto’s largest cemeteries. I have taken strolls around there before, and the first time I visited when I was still getting use to my budding psychic abilities.

Back then, I wasn’t nearly as grounded or energetically balanced as I am today. At the time, as I made my way deeper into the cemetery, there were moments when I became so dizzy that I had to take a moment to ground myself. I would describe it as feeling overwhelmed by the energy surrounding me, something that tends to happen when I’m not grounded in places with what I call high energetic traffic.

So…as I was walking through the cemetery, I suddenly heard a sound behind me….on my left. It sounded like bones cracking, or if someone cracking their neck repeatedly and intensely.

I turned around quickly.

Nothing was there and no sound.

Not gonna lie, it sounds pretty creepy. But somehow, I wasn’t scared at the time.

I think part of the reason I don’t feel scared around these things is because I feel so energetically protected. Whenever something strange happens, I feel like I need to take authority over my own energy and make sure my boundaries are set.

Now, whenever I know I’m entering a space with high energetic traffic, I visualize a blue light surrounding my aura to protect me. And, of course, I always cleanse with sage before and after my visit. This is a must.

But anyway… let’s get back to our actual cemetery picnic adventure in the present day!

As we drove into the entrance, I noticed something on my right side…a set of doors that seemed to lead absolutely nowhere. Just random doors in the middle of the cemetery, giving off a very eerie vibe.

We later found out that they were an art display created by local artists, depicting an entrance into another dimension…representing what lies beyond death. Okay…a very fitting aesthetic…we get it.

But here’s where things started getting interesting.

As soon as I got that eerie feeling from the doors, the screen in Kalee’s car started glitching like CRAZY. The screen was flashing so fast, and all three of us immediately locked eyes. Kalee mentioned that her car had never done that before.

Chills everywhere.

Seconds later, we drove past a casket being lowered into the ground. When we finished passing the casket, the screen stopped glitching.

I mean, come on. Could the timing have been any more perfect?

At that point, we all knew this was going to be an interesting endeavour. Danica, being the skeptic of the group was shit scared. Even though she couldn’t explain what was happening, I could feel her fear, so I reassured her that we are safe.

As we drove around looking for the perfect spot to have our picnic, but my small bladder decided it was time for a washroom break.

Of course. We stopped at a funeral home because it was the only place with washrooms in the cemetery. Now, I was dressed in all black, which felt very appropriate for the occasion.

Except for one small detail.

I was wearing bright-ass, highlighter-level YELLOW sandals.

As we parked, I noticed people walking into the funeral home carrying tissues. They were clearly there to attend a funeral. I glanced down at my shoes again and thought to myself, This is so fucking disrespectful. I cannot walk in there looking like this.

So I waited until everyone had settled inside and when the coast was clear before making my way into the building.

I thought I had timed my entrance perfectly, but nope.

There was an elderly lady with her walker sitting along the side of the hallway, and she was hardcore side eyeing me and my yellow ass shoes. I swear, I felt so embarrassed. So, I walked faster toward the bathroom, trying not to draw any more attention.

After the bathroom break, we continued our search for the perfect picnic spot. Somewhere along the way, I got this intuitive feeling that we were going to connect with a deceased woman and wanted to join our picnic.

This was just a fun assumption…I wasn’t taking it too seriously. But an intuitive feeling nonetheless.

Once we found a spot, we started unloading everything from the car. We had bags, trays of food, drinks, and decorations. We were fully committed to this haunted picnic.

Kalee was carrying a bucket filled with some of halloween decorations, including a purple glass pumpkin and some drinks. I was walking ahead of her when suddenly I hear…BANG!

The sound of glass smashing echoed throughout the cemetery.

All three of us froze and looked at each other like…

Oh. Shit.

We immediately looked down, and I kid you not, the glass pumpkin had landed right on top of a flat gravestone. The deceased person’s name was now covered in broken pieces of purple glass.

We couldn’t believe it, with mouths wide open.

The three of us knelt down and carefully picked up all the broken pieces, making sure we didn’t cut ourselves or left any glass behind.

Of all the places it could have landed, it landed directly on someone’s grave.

We felt so guilty. Bright yellow shoes and now this. It was the last thing we wanted to do, especially when we were literally there to enjoy a semi-peaceful picnic. I couldn’t help thinking about the family members who might visit that grave. We were so sorry.

And then I remembered something.

Remember how I said I had a feeling that a woman might want to join our picnic?

Well…the name on the grave was Ida Flint.

She had passed away in 1959, at around 70 years old. And at the bottom of her grave marker were the words:

“You are always remembered.”

Well, Ida, babes…you certainly caught our attention.

I didn’t get the feeling that anything was being done out of malice. Maybe she wanted to be part of the picnic after all?

All three of us were still embarrassed about what had happened. Thankfully, nobody seemed to have witnessed our little incident, but I couldn’t help feeling like the spirits were silently judging us.

My friends suggested that we set up somewhere off to the side rather than directly in front of someone’s grave. That was a very good point, so we made sure to be more mindful of where we settled. We were there to enjoy ourselves, but we still wanted to be respectful. However, so far, I don’t think we are doing a good job of it.

Once we finally got everything set up, we settled down with our snacks, laughed together, and did some tarot card readings for each other.

It was actually pretty fun. We also made a toast to our lovely Ida Flint.

But while we were sitting there, I started sensing something else.

If you don’t already know by now, I can sometimes sense spirits/energies. During the picnic, I became aware of a man watching us from a distance, near a cluster of trees where there were several graves.

I couldn’t see anyone physically standing there, but I had this strong impression of a presence watching us. The way I sensed him, he seemed like a tall, middle-aged man with dark brown hair, wearing blue jeans.

I also kept getting a name beginning with the letter A. Names like Allan or Arnold came to mind. I had a feeling the presence was associated with one of the gravestones near the cluster of trees.

As we continued eating and chatting, I sensed that he was becoming more curious about us and gradually drawing closer to our picnic area.

It was as if he was wondering what the hell we were doing there.

Honestly, I don’t blame him. Imagine being at rest and suddenly having a bunch of weird ass girls show up with food, decorations, tarot cards and smashing glass pumpkins. I would be curious too.

After we finished our picnic and packed everything, we decided to walk over to the gravestones near the trees. I wanted to see if I could find the grave I felt drawn to.

And that’s when we found it. The name on the gravestone was Archibald.

Okay, that was pretty close to the names I had been picking up!

Then something happened that gave me actual chills.

As I read Archibald’s name out loud, Danica, who was standing about a couple of meters away, suddenly said she could smell a strong male cologne.

A strong, masculine scent.

We walked around her, and neither of us could smell anything. She described it as a quick whiff of cologne, almost as if a man had walked right past her.

I got body chills when she told us. I’m even getting fully body chills just writing about this.

Was it connected to Archibald? Was there another explanation for the scent? Maybe it was the smell from the trees? But the timing was certainly interesting.

After that experience, we all felt like it was time to go. I had this feeling that Archibald might have been a man who wasn’t really excited about our visit.

Maybe he had been curious about us at first, but once we wandered over to his grave, he’d had enough.

Of course, that’s just how I interpreted the experience, but the whole thing left us feeling like our little cemetery adventure had reached its natural ending.

We grabbed our things, said our goodbyes, and headed out. Before going home, I did what I always do after visiting places where I feel I’ve picked up a lot of energy. Cleanse.

Because, as much as I enjoy these kinds of experiences, I still want to feel grounded and clear when I return home.

Between the mysterious doors, the glitching car screen, my bright-ass yellow sandals at the funeral home, the glass pumpkin incident on Ida’s grave, and the mysterious scent of men’s cologne near Archibald’s gravestone…

It was quite the sensory experience.

Was it all paranormal? I mean, I can’t fully prove that. Some things could have a reasoning, while others were just weird coincidences. But honestly, with the timing of everything that happened that day, I couldn’t help but continue to wonder if there was something more going on.