True Ghost Story: Streeterville Neighborhood, Chicago, Illinois

A trip to the movies ends with a ghostly message

Ryan and a buddy, Tom, decided to kill some time at the movies on a very cold day in January 2010. He didn’t know a visitor – with an urgent message – would soon change his world.

“We went to see a big budget, sci-fi flop before it left the theaters,” he recalls. “I think we were the only people seated in the entire place.”

That place just happened to be the cavernous Theater 1 at AMC’s RiverEast location in Streeterville.

“I remember sitting down, getting comfortable and updating Facebook. There was about 10 minutes before the trailers started, so I gave Tom money to get some food. I was the only person in the theater at this point.”

About 5 minutes later, Ryan heard a creaking sound behind him.

He thought this was strange because anyone coming into the balcony would have to walk by him.

“I was about to turn around when I felt a hand press down on my shoulder. I couldn’t turn around,” he remembers.

He could see an elderly woman’s hand with red nail polish and a pearl bracelet on her wrist. The hand pressed down strongly on his shoulder and he heard the creak again.

“This voice..it was familiar somehow..this voice told me to listen.”

Ryan recalls, “She called me Rocky, my childhood nickname. I hadn’t heard it in a long, long time. She told me to pick up the phone when my mother called and to do what she asks me to do.”

Then, he felt the pressure lift off his shoulder. In a whisper, he heard her say he was always a good boy, so responsible. Ryan felt something like a hand slide down the back of his neck and then nothing.

Tom returned as the experience was ending. He asked what was on Ryan’s shoulder. He could see something shadowy behind Ryan, but the lights started to dim. Tom didn’t get a good look at it. Ryan told Tom he must’ve imagined it.

After this quick conversation, Ryan’s phone vibrated for an incoming call. It was his mother.

“I picked up the phone and my mother was crying. She told me my grandmother had just died and that I needed to come home to help with the arrangements. My mother told me I was the only one who could keep it together and take care of things. I was the most responsible.”

At the wake, Ryan approached his grandmother’s coffin. She wore red nail polish and a pearl bracelet.