A daughter reports talking with her deceased grandmother
A caller who says he is in Phoenix tells Art Bell that his daughter, then 11, reported seeing and talking with her deceased grandmother, who had died about a year and a half earlier. The caller relays the child’s statements and a chill his ex-wife reportedly felt. He says the matter-of-fact communication is still going on now that his daughter is 15.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 2000-1.mp3”, starting at 1:01:50). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller greets Art Bell and says he is calling from Phoenix. His own name is not clearly captured in the transcript. After reacting to the preceding “foot” story, he says he is calling about his daughter, who talked to her grandmother, a woman he says [quote withheld] He recalls that the first time it happened he was at work. When he got home, his roommate told him to call his daughter because she was “real upset.” He says she was 11 at the time, and that her grandmother had died about a year and a half earlier, which he works out as making her about nine and a half. He says he went over and talked with her, and that she told him, “Daddy, Grandma's here.” He says she told him she saw grandma in the house and that they sat around the table talking to her. He reports that his daughter said grandma was behind her mother (his ex-wife) at that moment. He says his ex-wife felt a chill. His daughter said grandma was putting her hand on her mother’s shoulder and saying everything was going to be okay. Asked how long it continued, he says it is still going on. His daughter is now 15 and will occasionally tell him, matter-of-factly, that she talked to grandma that day. He says the family is open about it, that he asks her what grandma says, and that he does not tell her she is imagining things. He adds that his daughter had been very close to her grandmother, who lived with his ex-wife and was very sick for the last two years of her life. His daughter helped take care of her. The host thanks him and asks him to have his daughter call.
Reported events, in order
- 0:05
The caller greets Art Bell and says he is in Phoenix. His name is not clearly captured.
- 0:34
The caller says his daughter talked to her grandmother, who has been dead five years.
- 0:58
He says he was at work when it first happened and his roommate told him to call his upset daughter.
- 1:05
He says his daughter was 11 at the time.
- 1:19
He says the grandmother had died about a year and a half earlier.
- 1:40
He says he went over and his daughter told him, “Daddy, Grandma's here.”
- 1:49
He relays that she said she saw grandma in the house and they sat around the table talking to her.
- 2:03
He relays that his daughter said grandma was behind her mother, and that his ex-wife felt a chill.
- 2:07
He relays that his daughter said grandma put her hand on her mother’s shoulder and said everything would be okay.
- 2:17
He says it is still going on. His daughter is now 15 and occasionally says she talked to grandma.
- 2:48
He says the family is open about it and he does not tell her she is imagining things.
- 3:12
He says his daughter was very close to her grandmother, who lived with his ex-wife and was very sick, and that she helped care for her.
- 3:34
The host thanks him and asks him to tell his daughter to call.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- hearsay· 1:40
The caller’s daughter said her deceased grandmother was present in the house.
- hearsay· 1:49
The daughter said she saw her grandmother in the house and talked with her at the table.
- hearsay· 1:49
The daughter said her grandmother was standing behind her mother at that moment.
- hearsay· 2:04
The caller’s ex-wife reported feeling a chill when the daughter described the grandmother’s presence.
- hearsay· 2:07
The daughter said her grandmother placed a hand on her mother’s shoulder and told her everything would be okay.
- hearsay· 2:28
The communications are continuing years later, reported matter-of-factly by the daughter.
- interpretation· 2:48
The caller treats the reported contact as communication with his daughter’s actual deceased grandmother.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
A coherent, specific story, but it is relayed secondhand from the caller’s daughter rather than experienced by the caller. An explanation based on grief or a child’s imagination is not addressed.
Evidence for and against
- A source named with the relationship stated: “my daughter” who was [quote withheld]
- Concrete details: ages ([quote withheld]), the grandmother died [quote withheld] and the city ([quote withheld]).
- A coherent sequence from the first report to the ongoing present: [quote withheld]
- The caller did not witness the reported presence himself. All claims are relayed from his daughter.
- An ordinary explanation (a recently bereaved child who helped nurse her grandmother) is not raised or ruled out by the caller.
- Who is speaking is muddled in several lines, so some statements cannot be firmly assigned to the caller or the host.
- The caller’s own name is not clearly captured.
- 1:19
- 2:17
- 3:12
What the model inferred (not said on air): Component scoring: closeness to the source (secondhand from a close, named source) is mid-range. Specificity and internal consistency are moderate to high. Alternative explanations and calibration of claims are scored low because the story is a relay and the caller does not separate what the child perceived from what she concluded. The sum falls under the secondhand cap of 60.
Only the caller’s relayed testimony is present. There are details that could be checked (a daughter, Phoenix, stated ages), but nothing was checked, and a second witness is only claimed, not heard on air.
Evidence for and against
- Details that could be checked are given: [quote withheld] [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- A second person, the ex-wife, is claimed to have felt a chill: “felt this chill.”
- No documentation, recording, photograph, or physical trace is claimed.
- Neither the daughter nor the ex-wife speaks on air. The alleged second witness is only reported by the caller.
- Whether the ex-wife independently experienced anything cannot be assessed, since she is not on the recording.
- 1:00
- 2:04
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placed in the 11 to 25 band: checkable details exist but were not checked, and other witnesses are claimed rather than heard. No outside check was performed, so the hard cap of 50 does not apply here.
The story is largely gentle and consoling, a child talking with a beloved grandmother, with only mild eeriness from the reported chill and the child’s calm, matter-of-fact manner.
Evidence for and against
- A calm, ordinary framing of an apparently supernatural contact: [quote withheld]
- A reported chill and an unseen hand on the shoulder: [quote withheld]
- The content is protective and reassuring rather than threatening: [quote withheld]
- No harm, growing menace, or frightening imagery is reported.
- No time of day is given, which would affect the atmosphere of the setting.
- 2:07
What the model inferred (not said on air): Assessed between the “comforting visitation” (10) and “mildly eerie” (30) anchors, nearer the mildly eerie end because of the chill and the child’s involvement.
A familiar [quote withheld] setup with one distinctive feature: the claim that the contact continued matter-of-factly for years and was not discouraged by the family.
Evidence for and against
- A distinctive detail: it has lasted for years with an ordinary tone: “she's 15 now” and [quote withheld]
- An unusual framing: the caller compares it to a film he had seen: [quote withheld]
- The core elements, a deceased relative seen or spoken with, a chill, and a child as the witness, are common ghost-story motifs.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be meaningfully computed from a single pilot story.
- 2:28
- 2:17
What the model inferred (not said on air): The model’s originality score is set at 40, a familiar setup with a distinctive detail. Comparison with the rest of the archive carries little weight at pilot scale.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s secondhand testimony relaying his daughter’s reported experiences; A claimed but unverified second witness (the ex-wife) who does not speak on air; No physical evidence, recording, photograph, or documentation claimed. The originality score blends the model's score (40) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- A grieving child who had recently lost a grandmother she helped care for may have built a comforting, ongoing “conversation” with her. The family’s open, uncorrecting responses allowed it to continue. · The caller says the grandmother died about a year and a half before the first report, that the daughter [quote withheld] and that [quote withheld] while the grandmother was “very sick.” He also says the family is open about it and he does not tell her she is imagining things.
- The “chill” the ex-wife reported could reflect an ordinary sensation from the surroundings (a draft, room temperature) read in light of what the daughter had just said. · The only sensory detail given for the mother is “felt this chill” at the moment the daughter described the grandmother behind her.
What stands out
The story is told entirely by the father about his daughter’s claimed contact. The contact is described not as a single scare but as an ordinary, years-long, matter-of-fact pattern that the family does not discourage. The caller himself links the story to the film “The Sixth Sense,” which he says he had seen and found similar.
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