The Elevator

In the year 2000, my son who is an adult, had back surgery at Lockport Memorial Hospital, Lockport, NY. I was a smoker at the time, so at the time of his surgery I waited in the main lobby so that I could step outside for a smoke when needed. After having been in the lobby for about an hour, I had my cigarette and when I returned, I decided to go to the surgical floor to check on my son's progress.

I headed to the elevators, an elderly hospital volunteer (these are retirees that help with administration and patient services and wear, at the time, was I believe a gray sport coat with the hospital insignia) walking about 20yds ahead of me also going to the elevators.

As we approached the elevators, the volunteer stepped onto the open elevator on the right, turned and pushed her floor button and as I attempted to hurry to catch the elevator, (remember, I was about 20yds behind) the door slid shut. I pushed the elevator call button expecting to wait for the next available elevator, and the door that had just shut not 15 seconds earlier opened. I began to apologize to the volunteer for delaying the elevator when I realized that the elevator was empty. It was impossible for the volunteer to have gone anywhere as between the time of the door sliding shut and my pushing the call button was only about 15 seconds.

Needless to say, I was stunned. I stepped back out of the elevator to collect my thoughts and try to make sense of what just happened. The women volunteer appeared to be about 70 years of age, was about 5'2" tall, had white hair that was short and a well done hair-do and she wore gold-rimmed glasses that had one of those long strap holders attached that would allow you to take your glasses off and they would hang around your neck. The holder was made out of a string of pearls. I should also mention that the volunteer appeared to be solid.

After checking on my son, I went to the Volunteers office. I explained to the gentleman there what happened and gave him the description of the woman. The man became quite pale. He told me that the woman's name was Mary-Ann and that he knew it was her from not only the general description but the pearl glass holder that she wore. He told me that I am the second person to have told him that she had bee seen since she passed away. He stated that the first person to mention seeing her knew her personally. He said that he thought the first person was mistaken but not any more.

Apparently, Mary-Ann loved her volunteer work and is still at it.