Did you know that you can die from the flu?
That’s a frightening thought.
What’s even more frightening is this statistic: somewhere in the neighborhood of five hundred thousand (half a million) people a year die from complications of the flu.
Photo credit left: flickr/Robert Patterson right: deviantart/jenarose
Updated 2/10/2020 – Some of which are surely buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Riverside California.
That’s a staggering thought, until you realize that it’s much, much better than it has been in the past.
During the influenza pandemic of the early twentieth century, what was known as the Spanish Flu may have killed between fifty and a hundred million people.
To put that into perspective, you have to consider that World War One – which was going on at the time – killed over seventeen million people.
If that’s not scary enough for you, why not take a trip to Evergreen Cemetery where, if some local witnesses are to be believed, you can see the ghosts of the victims of the influenza outbreak.
Evergreen Cemetery Is Haunted
A number of people who ghost-hunt recreationally report that they have caught ghostly images of the victims laid to rest in this cemetery on camera.
This includes people visiting the cemetery to simply find a grave of a loved one.
EVP – a ghost-hunting acronym meaning Electronic Voice Phenomena – often accompany such sightings, and can be just as terrifying.
“This one chap was all the time complaining about how he had the chills and the runs,” says a burly ghost-hunting Englishman from Leeds, who has spent the better part of two years roaming up and down the state of California, researching a book on the paranormal he says he is tentatively titling Ghosts Of A More Civilized Era.
“I saw him two nights into our exploration of the cemetery after hours.
“We had already got photos the night before where we could see shapes off in the distance, plus a quite bizarre green mist that hadn’t been visible to us.
“And then, of course, there were the EVPs, which were frankly numerous…
The Dead Rise In Evergreen Cemetery
Photo credit: deviantart/jenarose
“Most of them were far enough away from the digital recorder or just faint enough that we couldn’t make out what was said, but there was sure a lot of it.
“Anyhow, this fellow comes rising up out of his grave – no kidding, just floated right up out of her – and he was plenty visible to us.
And he’s griping about how he’s so sick, right?
“Well, we all just stood there, stunned for a long time, just listening to this ghost pace around in front of us and talk about how much pain he’s in.
“Finally Barclay – that’s one of my mates who does camera work – he says to the guy, “Well, ain’t there a doctor in the afterlife?”
The Englishman’s voice drops precipitously, as if he couldn’t imagine I’d have trouble believing any part of his story except for this one.
“As soon as Barclay said that, the chap turned toward us as if he was just seeing us for the first time…maybe he even was.
“And his eyes turned instantly to a glowing red, and his jaw dropped further than any living human’s could, and he let out a high-pitched scream that had us running for the cars.
“I ain’t never been back to that Riverside cemetery, and I ain’t goin’ back.
I like ghosts, but that place is haunted beyond belief.”
He shakes his head, visibly calming down.
“There’s just something ain’t right about that place.”