Rebekah Carmichael: The Ghost Guide of Wilmington
I stumbled into one of the most haunted houses of my life on Chestnut Street. It started as a rental, it ended with an intuitive awakening and a new career online. I nicknamed the century old modest abode “The Bus Stop.” That’s the only way I could think of it. There were so many ghosts moving in and out of the space. There were primary spiritual residents too. Add that it was at a trifecta between the unmarked burial ground “Gallows Hill” near 5th and Market, Oakdale and Pine Forest Cemeteries, and an allegedly unmarked burial ground near 7th and Market. The house felt more like a bus stop of paranormal experiences.
There was a child in the front office that gave off a feeling of curious dread. A man in the kitchen whose cold breath prickled down necks that stood toiling over heated pans. Mysteriously, he would fog up the nearby window. It was as if a cold cloud in the shape of a man were standing near the glass. There was a man in a top hat at the end of the hall who had been seen by nearly all the house guests. No haunted house would be complete without a trickster in the guest bathroom who tinkered with shampoo bottles and messed with the shower curtain. Another man stood at the end of the guest bedroom and woke up two different visiting friends in the middle of the night. Then there was the man who triggered the nightlight in the middle of the day in the main bathroom…usually when I was undressing. Last and most consistent of them all was the overseeing matriarch. This spirit I nicknamed, “Gerty” (not her actual name).
Gerty is the perfect example of a ghost that could very easily come off as scary, but was really just doing what she could to upkeep the spiritual status and building integrity of the house. She was the only spirit who moved freely around the house and kept the peace between spirits. Her presence was so palpable that - despite my natural disbelief in my intuitive abilities at the time - I couldn’t help but to notice her around whenever she had a strong opinion. Clutter, furniture arrangement, my lack of church attendance, and my dog primarily living indoors were all judgments that came with a thickness in the air. It made cohabitation very tricky at times.
When Hurricane Florence came to Wilmington it wasn’t God I prayed to. It was Gerty! If there was anyone who cared most about that house, it was certainly her. My faith was in the right spirit. Two significant trees fell in opposite directions. Both of them missed the house by mere inches! The house seemed to sizzle with protective force. All spirits lined up in a procession of protection with Gery at the helm. Some weeks later, it was Gerty who alerted me to the mold that was growing up from standing water that was trapped under the house. She would stand in front of the exact walls that posed the issues and create the most uncomfortable tense feeling. As the walls began to bubble, it proved she wasn’t just putting off anxiety.
The house needed extensive work with almost every wall needing to be replaced. The house was put on the market for a little while. I had to move out as a result. Now the little home is under new ownership. While walking, the current owner recognized me from my content. She told me who she was and shared some of her own ghostly experiences in the house. She had seen the child in the front room and the man in the hat down the hall. Most prominently, she was doing what she could to find peace with Gerty as they were butting heads on the landscaping. The world turns, Gerty stays on, another life begins in the bus stop house, and so, a ghost story is created.
To many of you living down from 5th Street (for some of you down from 23rd) such occurrences are no surprise. Even in newer homes, we see the spirits of the homes and businesses that used to stand. To those of us who choose curiosity over fear, we may name our ghosts and give them personalities. We may get used to the creaking steps at night or the cold spots that come and go. Some of us take this opportunity to dive into history to try and find our mysterious roommates. Few of us may ever speak about these occurrences until someone else brings up that they are experiencing something beyond the physical. Consider me your excuse to make the paranormal, well, normal.
I’m Rebekah The Ghost Guide. I used to be a ghost tour guide downtown. I turned into a viral short form video maker by sharing curious photos that happened on my tours. My channel developed into sharing history and personal paranormal experiences. The point was never to convince anyone. My storytelling was open-ended and still is. To date, I’m closing in on 1 million followers across social media platforms. I have 2 pilot episodes titled From Skeptic to Psychic on YouTube filmed by local production company Wallaby Film. I have spoken for multiple in-person conferences and staged a solo storytelling show. I’ve been brought into paranormal investigations all over the southeast, met over 2,000 clients in one-on-one psychic mediumship consultations for spiritual practitionership, hosted over 100 courses and workshops on psychic development on Patreon. I have been on more podcast episodes than I can count with followings in the tens of thousands. I was featured on WWAY and Star News twice respectively. Most recently, I now have a book and audiobook with Simon & Schuster, The Not-So-Scary Guide to Ghosts: How To Make The Paranormal Normal.
Without Wilmington, there would be no Rebekah The Ghost Guide. Without Rebekah The Ghost Guide, few outside of our mysterious and historic city would come to learn of the most underrated haunted hotspot in the American South. I really feel like I’ve checked off all the major boxes and have come back again to my roots. I spent the better part of the last 6 years trying to figure out who I was and what psychic chops I had in front of millions of attentive viewers.
Despite all these international features, I always feel like I’m not so different from my fellow Wilmingtonians. Whenever I receive attention for all that I do, I always give a nod back to where I primarily reside. Many of you have your own stories and by result have become storytellers. That is the magic of ghost stories. No one has to believe you and yet leaning into the dash of the “what if” of the unknown has captivated societies for as long as language existed. Sharing ghost stories is one of the few true ways people can still connect with the past. To know that not only are there buildings and monuments but there are people - some of which you still may be able to ask questions of - who lived real lives, experienced similar feelings, and are oftentimes more than happy to tell you just how they saw things.
For this column, I will be featuring local stories. In the coming months, I will be visiting both prominent local historic spots as well as some of the humble locations that need our attention to remain standing. Paranormal tourism has done plenty to save historic spots as well as to encourage the connection between the stories that made up the people who lived and worked in these places. Ghosts and their stories act as a bridge of connection between the now and then. It sparks the curiosity of possibility to really talk with those who lived in another time. Ghosts are not restricted to race, gender, age, literacy, or income. They enlighten us to think differently and to continue to pursue truth.
Moving forward, I will be interviewing local historians both corporeal and incorporeal. I want to know the ghost’s point of view. This is not with the intention of uprooting history, rather it is to get opinions on said history from those who may have been there. I’m not beyond sharing a little ghostly gossip from the working class either. This area has come a long way off the whispered conversations in the most unexpected areas. If you know even a smidgen of our history and how things have come to be, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Ghost goss may not hold up in every historic account, but it sure can make for a fascinating story. I’ll be sure to specify what information is coming from where for utmost clarity out of respect for the physically documented history.
If you like history, storytelling, a few scary stories with uplifting endings, ghost tea, and all that it takes to pull this web of intel together, I look forward to writing for you in the coming months.
