Volume 9 , Issue 42

Ghostly Spirits of Alva's Old Hospital

With Halloween just a few weeks, days away, we thought we would throw in some mention of possible ghostly spirits that may, may not roam the halls of the Old Alva General Hospital.

One of Alva's most famous ghostly, haunts of ghostly spirits is the Old Alva General Hospital that sets at the top of Fourteenth & Maple Street, looking East down Maple Street. Actually, it is about three blocks up the hill from my house.

Is it haunted? The old hospital, that is? How did the red spot get on the old hospital's hall black & white tiled floor? How come it keeps coming back after they clean it? What is the story of how it got there?

I don't have those answers, BUT... I do know that the old Alva hospital was built in 1932, Alva, Oklahoma. It was used as a hospital until.... I'm not sure exactly what year they built the new hospital in the South part of town, South of the University Campus.

I've never experienced any ghosts up at the old hospital, but I hear others have felt the cold, leery stares of the ghosts from the past.

I remember when I was just a young girl, say about 5 or 6 years old, and had my tonsils out. At least I think it was around that age. That's been over 50 years ago. What I do remember those infamous backless gowns that loosely tie in the back at the neck and somewhere else down the back. Instead of rolling down the hall to the surgery room on a rolling bed cart, Dr. Travis gave me a piggy back ride on his back. Of course, you probably all expected that this five year-olds tiny bare backside was showing, mooning all those we passed in the hospital hall on the way to the surgery room! BUT... being only five years old, what did I know of being embarrassed! I was just thrilled with the piggy back ride. What a treat for a five-year-old!

I another memory I have about the old hospital was around February, 1954, when my Uncle Bob McGill was in the hospital and Dad took all of us up to visit Uncle Bob in this small, dark room. That was the last time I saw my Uncle Bob McGill alive. He died shortly afterwards of lung cancer. I never really got to know my Uncle Bob, but from reading some of his old letters to family members and his WWII memorabilia that Grandma Constance McGill saved, I got a special glimpse of this good looking gentleman, WWII Major and soldier.

Another old hospital memory I have takes us back to August, 1968, when my grandmother Constance Warwick McGill died.

All these memories of visiting the old hospital to visit dying relatives seems kind of morbid, doesn't it? Are they some of those spirits souls that haunt the old hospital? Do you have any memories or heard any ghostly talk about the "Old Alva Hospital?"
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