✅Hospital Row

Have you ever heard of the Mandela Effect or alternate realities?

According to a search on google: The Mandela Effect refers to a phenomenon where a large group of people remembers an event or detail differently than how it occurred.

This is my story of how I encountered the Mandela Effect or a alternate reality as a child in an area known for murder, heart ache and mystery. This area of the town was known by the residents as Hospital Row.

This story was featured in the book I wrote Ghost Stories for the Chicken At Heart Extended Edition which is on Amazon. That version of the story was toned down to keep its older child teen friendly. I vividly remember these events and had bruises on me from the incident after it happened. I was scared to leave my room for weeks after thinking the doctor was going to kill me. However, after I grew up and became an adult, I decided to research the location for a historical reference point, but was unable to find the location on a map. The location of this story should have been a few blocks from Henry Hudson Highschool in Highlands, New Jersey. Where this story happens was in the more elite rea of highlands during the beginning of the 1900s. But as an adult, I cannot find any research or documentation of what used to be Old Hospital Row. Although I remember what happened vividly, I cannot provide any location evidence, So I would like to tell you my story into my possible alternate reality jump.

Chapter 1

When I lived in New Jersey, my mom had two rules as I was growing up. These rules were enforced and if I did not follow them I would be punished. The first rule was that I left her alone, and the second I was to return home when it got dark. When we lived in Highlands there were three levels of our town. The lower or sea level of town had the main part of town and housed the working class of town. Then the second level was people better off and then the third level housed the larger homes and more wealthy people in town. Since we lived on the first level of town I would explore the upper levels when I was told to stay away from Mom and home. I wasn't to mad with that as I admit the upper levels had better parks. There's one park I loved to go to with trees that were planted in a grid pattern and had pathways and stairs throughout the park. As a child I thought it was the coolest thing. When I was older I found out that this park used to be part of the estate that bordered the park and later on part of a hospital compound. There were hedges that surrounded the park that separated the park from the remaining hospital compound buildings. This day I was feeling rather adventurous and I decided I was brave enough to sneak through the hedge and check out the estate buildings.

Normally, I would have rode my bike anywhere I would be going. However this day I decided to leave my bike at home and walked for thirty minutes to the upper level of town. When I got to the park I noticed how busy it was and walked through the park to a section of hedges that had a opening like a hedge maze. Being a brave ten year old I turned to the park to make sure no one saw me enter the opening and stepped in. The first thing I noticed was that it was quiet. So quiet that I stepped out of the path and heard the noises of the park. Going back into the opening the quiet resumed.

The quiet while going through the path was noticeable. I came out of the maze and the first thing I saw was the most spectacular abandoned greenhouse. Being brave I looked through the windows and I could see overgrown containers, planters and pots. Even as a child I have always had an affinity for abandoned homes, and this greenhouse broke my heart. As I looked through the greenhouse, the noises you would hear outdoors got quieter and quieter. It was as if there was something stopping the sound from entering the property. I found it odd that the maze and property was so quiet, especially since it was around ten in the morning. When I appeared back in the park, I heard the sounds of other kids having fun and grown-ups talking with each other. As I went back into the hedge and headed back to the abandoned building the sounds faded even faster.

Going back to the greenhouse I came face to face with a girl who looked like she was around my age looking at me through the window. She was trying to tell me something and when I finally realized she was yelling for me to run. She slapped her hand on the window and pointed behind me. There standing at the entrance to the tunnel I had just came through was a man standing in the entrance blocking my way to escape. The hair on my arms started to raise as I realized that the man was wearing a old and bloody lab coat. My eyes darted around and I saw a path that ran to the front of the building. I took off running to the front of the property as I saw a hole in the fence I could fit through.

As I ran to the fence I saw the girl following me in various windows and I heard her yell, "Run faster he is behind you."

She appeared on the front porch and she yelled, "He is right behind you hurry."

As I ran I screamed to her, "Follow me we can both get out of here, we can get you help."

As I got to the whole in the fence she yelled, "Its to late for me hurry up, he will get you. If he catches you, you will be trapped here like he trapped me."

I ran through the gate with the man right at my heels, and I felt his hand try to grab my shirt as I passed through the hole in the gate. I heard her cheer from the porch once I was off the property, I turned to see the girl leaning on the upstairs railing. When she caught saw my gaze, she waved to me and vanished. I looked at the man and asked, "What did you do to her?"

He gave me a look of anger as he faded to nothing. I took this as my cue to leave. As I headed back home I looked at the street sign at the end of the road that said Doctors Way. As there was no Doctors offices in the area I found it odd as my Mother complained all the time that she had to take the bus to take us to a neighboring town when we got sick.

Weeks later, I was at the town library getting more books to read and saw a picture of the abandoned sitting on the shelf behind the librarian's desk. Margaret was a friend of my Grandma and asked me, "Angie have you been getting into trouble? Please tell me you have not been there? Don't lie to me."

I wanted to say no. Instead I asked, "Your not going to tell on me are you?"

She chuckled and pulled out a chair next to her and sighed, "I should but knowing your Mom I won't. You do not need to get into anymore trouble."

I fessed up and said. "I was curious I went through the hedges."

"Did you see something?" She asked.

I nodded and said, "There was a little girl who wore weird clothes and a scary man. The girl warned me and I was able to escape but he tried to catch me."

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She told me I was never to go there again and was lucky to make it out as many people disappeared in her younger days, and under her breath, she added a few recently as well. She explained that that road used to have the town physician, dentist, the hospital, and the psychiatric home. The Psych Mansion was part of a psychiatric enclosure that used to be the park, and the park had different buildings on the property, and depending on your level of sickness would decide which building you went to. I said that was why there were so many staircases in the park, and she said it was.

 

She told me things went well until a new Doctor moved into the area. There was a rumor that the new Doctor experimented on people who came to this psychiatric ward. Soon patients started to go missing, and later their bodies were found on the property. The hospital started losing money because of the bodies found, so the town started buying the land and building a park on the property. The city continued to buy the land until just the Hospital, dental office and Psych Mansion and its small yard with the massive hedges were left. People saw the Doctor walking the park grounds, and that's when it started to happen children started going missing. The last child to go missing was named Amy. A doctor and nurse from the hospital were having a small break on the balcony of the hospital and saw her jump out of the top floor window of the Psych Mansion. 

 

By the time they got to the Mansion, Amy's body was nowhere to be seen, and the gates were locked up tight. After authorities could enter the Mansion, they found the Doctor's body in his office and Amy's body lying on a bed upstairs. In a hidden area of the Mansion, they discovered over 30 bodies of men, women, and children. None of these bodies were related to any missing people, and how or why these people were here is still being investigated until this day. Amy saved me that day, and I believe she is still helping people get away from the Doctor.