Major funding for Long Story Sho is provided by the Haile Foundat Additional funding provided by The 5th/3rd Foundation and contributions to your PBS station by viewers like you.

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On this episode of Long Story Short a ragtag team from various walks of life gather together around one passion, investigating the paranormal, we get a glimpse inside the workings one of the nation's oldest black owned funeral homes.

Finally, the death of a high school friend pushes one man to exceed his own expectations Welcome to Long Story Short, where we bring you the stories that make the Cincinnati and Dayton region home.

on, this episode we’ll be looking at a difficult topic.

We often try to avoid: death.

What happens after death for the deceased and those left behind?

Everyone's response to death is different.

On this episode we’ll look at three different ways people are approaching the mystery and grief of death.

For our first story we all have hobbies and ways to escape our everyday lives.

But for the team at Miami Valley Paranormal, their hobby involves investigating those have gone beyond this life.

As misunderstood as this activity might be, this ragtag group of ghost hunters love what they do, and while they're looking for evidence of the beyond, it's obvious they've already found something tangible.

Community.

It seems like everybody does have a ghost story.

And to me it's sad that these energies have nobody to call their relative.

I had a lot of experiences.

Things were getting moved.

It felt like somebody was trying push you down the stairs and what we want to do is document Is this really happening or is it something that can be explained?

Just to see.

I think we're up in the attic.

Steve is this you up here?

This is that Dunker's house that we were talking about.

My name is Darrin Hough I am the lead investigator for Miami Valley Paranormal Services Miami Valley Paranormal Services is a group of people that's kind of like minded that is into the paranormal, May have had some ghostly encounters of their own and over the years, You know, we just all seem to be able to come together 'cause of these experiences.

One thing we like to do to show the interest is we do a lot of investigations We've done businesses we’ve done museums, we've done government offices People's private homes to look for paranormal activity and document that for the folks in these places.

Well, hey, listen, I thought Jim has got some really cool things he's put together.

You might have seen this sort of thing used on TV and stuff.

Now this right here that has anybody seen one of these before?

The spirit portal box?

OK, this is this is my favorite tool and what it does is everything is in reverse if there's a spirit what it does is it will take the reverse word and make words forward.

Network.

Girl.

Anyone here?

Is there anyone here?

Other than that?

But we have gotten a lot of very good EVP's with this and then let's see if I can get this thing goin There we go.

But as you see, you see it picks skeletal forms of people.

so, if there's a spirit.

If anybody wants to come and see this, they can.

Wouldn’t it be funny if there was a ghost in this room?

Possibilities range very high with this group like us.

No, I just see you sitting there, Tony.

Yep, I see you waving.

So, well moving on, so you know, let's set up some investigations and we got a lot of things that we can do We can always go back to the Dunker’s house.

You guys want to set up that Dunker’s house next?

So if we do that one on Halloween?

which is Saturday, right?

That's a week from today.

Let me get my calendar.

Sounds like we got things wrapped up.

If you guys want to take a donut with you or something I can’t eat anymore (laughs)...

So we have flashlights.

Camera?

Yep, do you have your recorder... microphone?

Microphone.

Your Phantom lights?

This is my favorite piece to take with us, is the camera.

I just like to point and shoot.

My theory is if somebody really wants to be seen, then you know they're going to say cheese for me.

I've never had a problem with them not... Keep it compact from just going to slide it in here.

I have loved good ghost stories since I was little but I found out right away It's not really the ghost like the spooky side of it.

It was the time and the era that it took place.

And you know, I was really fascinated with Victorian era ghost stories and so that really kind of went down a path for me that I Got really interested in that.

The paranormal aspect.

What really got me started into that honestly is my wife but I've always been interested in research.

I've always been interested in mystery things like that.

I absolutely believe in a spiritual side to life.

I'm Christian and I always grew up in church, but I would consider myself kind of the open minded skeptic.

Yeah, it really took off for us Believe it or not, once COVID-19 started he was working from home Kids are home, Just kind of started digging into a few more things and then we were like you know this should really be a thing you know and our oldest was like yeah.

The Grave Hunter’s Society.

That's a good name, you know.

So that's how it kind of Grave Hunters kind of started.

The Grave Hunter’s Society is just a small group of people who have a genuine interest in not just genealogy of individuals but the stories that they have.

An organization dedicated to preserving the memories of those gone before now to make sure that people aren’t forgotten.

That's a lot of what we do, but is our first time getting to go with Darin's group, so we're really excited, but we really like them.

I thought they were all a really great group of people.

Really nice, really excited.

Very enthusiastic!

I carry, I get my bag together I bring an extra shirt.

I bring little goodies, water I wear it like a mom does.

The guys are so hightech they’re all going to worry about this and that.

The old holy water I bless everybody too.

I go around and sage Tony does it, too!

My name is Michelle Michelle Frasca I started with this group about six years ago.

Being a medium, I give a different resource to a group of people.

who are sensitive to begin with.

We all have different abilities The house we’re going to tonight is very, very active.

I feel like I'm an important res resource for them, but they’re important for me 'cause they guide me through so many processes of how this equipment works and what they can gather from it Some, I believe are a little skeptical in the beginning of the years we first met and each place we've been to I think we get a little bit more close with our bond about... Did you hear that?

This is my friend, Laura!

She is new to the group today I usually get my sage.

If you fellas wouldn’t mind I'd like to Sage you.

You’ll smell it.

I’ll do it with Laura.

I like to go from top to bottom I'm telling you energies in this home... and I don't do this for all ghost places, but this one is a doozy.

You get a massive headache really quickly.

Or you’ll a feel cold spot like on the back an an arm, back of a leg.

That's them entering into you.

They will possess you.

You'll feel like a cold energy you can feel your arm getting all cold so you've gotta get the smoke and then you just want to make sure you’re open to no one coming home with you no one affects your body 'cause they’re not human state anymore.

We are.

They’re jealous.

They want their energy They have no heat to produce.

We're off to the races.

We’re off to the ghost hunt!

Well, one thing that I'm going to bring in with me is a thermal camera.

You know, so we can see the heat signatures and evertything like that.

So yeah, where we're going to tonight is the Dunker house.

It was built in I believe 1864.

It's pretty run down.

The windows are broken out.

Some things are falling apart, but supposedly there's a lot of activity in there.

A lot of mean things.

Ah, let’s see...

I always bring a pair of these dowsing rods with me.

We can communicate to spirits with these, you know, ask them to cross the dowsing rod.

or spread them apart cross for no Spread apart for yes.

Gotta have snacks!

I don't know if I'm going to get all this in this box or not.

I think I got everything.

Alright babe, I'm outta here.

Be careful.

love you... love you... Gotta say bye to Clarisy!

Can you hold onto that for me?

Thanks.

He's gotta say bye to Clarise You don't have to wait up for me.

You can go straight to bed.

Love ya.

You know I've been on ghost hunt and maybe come home at three or four in the morning.

She's still on that window just waiting for me to come home Alright, we’ll see y'all later.

See ya later!

Like I said, people be careful walking in here.

These stairs seem so promising.

Every time we gotta go on a ghost hunt, you really gotta be ready for just about anything You never know what could happen You can see the names etched.

We’re not going to hurt you or harm you or ask you to leave.

Turn the light off please Thank you.

What's what's my name?

Michelle Michelle.

I just want to learn more about you and why you hang around this lovely abode.

I could just see you flipping out the window.

Freaking out.

We heard someone saying that they wanted their mummy.

Is that you?

If you’re a demon you have to tell us you’re a demon.

F*** that.

“F*** that,” he said?

He did, he said, “f*** that.” they do carry rabies.

What's his name?

Colby.

No way!

Well, hello!

Can’t escape that damn bat.

Through forming this group and getting to know everybody, we became friends and now we do things other than ghost hunting as well.

You know, if we can, we'll we'll do some go out to dinner.

We've become close friends and we’re always helping each other out in other ways.

I wouldn't be doing it Without the community, it's as simple as And we are fascinating.

We have so many different ages, people, different places we've come from.

That's why a lot of groups do it They, you know...

They said together we didn't really solve any problems, but I think it opened the door and hope that have a great time It’s important for people to feel like, I'm not alone in seeing this stuff.

Even if you know maybe it was just a raccoon or bat... or a bat...

So many things.

Running a Funeral Home Running a Funeral Home isn't eas isn’t easy.

There's a ton of logistics and counseling, all the while being an incredibly sensitive experience for everyone.

Gayle Harden Renfro gets this because she owns and runs one of the oldest black owned funeral homes in the country.

She takes pride in this work because it's all about helping people handle the unexplainable.

Renfo’s I'm Gayle Harden Renfro I’m funeral director and part owner and operator of Renfro Funeral Services.

My husband's grandmother and actually, it was his Grandfather, Saint Julian Renfro started Renfro Funeral Services in 1921 in the West End.

And then his wife Inez after she returned from leaving him because she was so freaked out about having dead bodies in her living room.

But she got over it and came bac and also became an embalmer and funeral director.

So we are now after being around for 98 years.

We are the oldest African American Funeral Home in the cit One of the oldest in the state and the nation.

People die at home.

They die at hospice.

They die at hospitals and at nursing home We go wherever the person is that needs to be picked up.

He brings the body to the rear of the building and uses a ramp of course to bring them in on a cot.

And then we come through the front door And on the elevator and downstairs, but that's that's step number one.

And that's retrieving the remain When I was growing up, I never thought that I would end my career as a funeral director.

Up until about 20 years ago I had an outside career as a news reporter for the Cincinnati Post and I stopped by one day and we were extremely busy, so I stayed to help out and I’m still here!

So after about maybe five years, I decided to go in and get my license as well.

So I'm a funeral director, not a embalmer, but I am a licensed funeral director.

I’ll get this... Our next step is to meet with the family to decide what they want to do, what kind of service they want to have when they want to have it in the details and the details of the service.

When there is something to plan.

Where do you go?

You sit down at the dining room and the first thing we do is start off talking about their loved one and what his or her preference would have been if they were here.

And wanted a funeral.

My husband does things as we've done them for the last 98 years, but the person is fully dressed, so we ask for underpants and whatever attire they're going to wear.

But we dress them fully.

For many years this was his job and I had an outside career and so I was familiar with the funeral industry basically up close but not real personal, and I think it took the death of my mother to really realize the importance of what we do.

Father was upset and it was very difficult.

I thought I can do this, so that's when I really said.

You know, it's time.

So once the body is embalmed and bathed and dress they are casketed downstairs below the elevator and once they’re put in the casket they are placed on the elevator and then they come up just like they went down.

This podium here is where the minister’s sit.

This chair is probably 80 or 90 years old.

But we call it the Minister’s Chair.

because the minister sits here and does the service.

Just like everybody else I had never been that up close to death, so when we first married, it was a little weird for me and my husband had me come up to the casket and just explain, you know, the spirit is gone.

This body is not getting up and there's no need to be nervous or jumpy.

And I said, OK, so.

The more you around anything, the more familiar you get.

So over the years I've truly calmed down and come a very long way.

Following a funeral, there's either two types of dispositions One is burial at a Cemetery or to be cremated at a Crematory and we take care of both of those with as much dignity as as we can.

When it comes to my funeral, I really don't think about it Most funeral directors dont want a whole lot of pomp and circumst We've seen it all.

We’ve seen it all you know, and it comes to mind I just hope that they will remember me during the remarks.

No funny stories.

You know, I got to have a great two great careers.

One as a journalist and one as funeral director, married the man I liked and loved and had great kids.

It's a wrap.

It's a wrap from there.

There are a lot of motivations to run a marathon.

For many, it's simply the thrill of accomplishing a difficult feat.

For Alex Stone, his reasons were heavier because because his purpose was clear.

This story was filmed live at a storytelling event in Over the Rhine.

In 2011 I ran, the Flying Pig Marathon and that always feels gross to say out loud because there's no way to tell people that you ran marathon without it sounding like you're bragging about running a marathon, right?

Like there's even if you do it casually just sounds worse.

if you're like I ran a marathon whatever, you know it's no big deal, everyone just left there to be like really, is it?

No big deal, is that why you accidentaly put that bumper sticker on your car?

is that what happened there the other thing people ask you when you tell them that you're running a marathon as they ask why they know why you are running.

And two weeks before I decided to run the flying pig, there was a small U.S. Army convoy moving through the mountains of Afghanistan, and according to the official report, they were out on patrol.

This was sometime in the evening and about an hour into their drive, one of the armored vehicles was struck by an IED that's an improvised explosive device.

They were then attacked by a small group of insurgents, and there was a fight, and when it ended, one of the soldiers in the armored vehicle that was struck by the IED was airlifted to a nearby military hospital in Kandahar Afghanistan and the next day on Sept. 27th, 2010, that soldier died from the injuries that he sustained.

That soldiers name was Donald Scott Morrison.

He was 23 years old.

He was from Cincinnati, OH He was one of my best friends.

If you've never had someone close to you die while serving in the military, I'll try and give you a quick run through of what it's like as it happened to me.

First thing is going to happen is you're going to call at 2:30 in the morning from Brandon.

And he tells you in his exact words are that Scott is not going to be coming home from Afghanistan.

Now after that 5 minutes or 2 1/2 hours will go by.

No idea never has a sentence so simple been so difficult for you to understand the next day, you're feel everything right.

You're going to feel confused.

You're going to feel angry.

You're going to be angry at him at the military, you're going the government for sending children to die fighting the war of a few old men, right?

You're going to get yourself for not doing more.

To talk him out of going and enlisting in the military right?

But most of all, you're going to feel very, very sad the next day You and your friends are going to drive out to a small airport in Fairfield, behind jungle Jims that you didn't even know and you're going to stand behind a small fence You're going to watch as a very large cargo plane lands, and then subsequently takes a flag draped casket out of the back of it.

Then they put that in the car, that car drives away Then a woman from the military representative she's go get up and she's going to say a few words about your friend and she's going to tell you.

He was a very good, courageous and brave soldier and you're going to sit there and you think that's fine, but he was so much more than that and I know You're just saying that he was I know that kid as a kid that grew up in Blue Ash.

You went to Sycamore High School I know that he was in a band called Trying For Tomorrow and they were terrible.

But we tried really hard.

I know that he loves sports he got too competitive for them to be any fun when you would play with him.

I know that he loved Applebee's I have no idea why he did that.

I know that he was a son and a brother, an uncle, and I know that he was only 23 years old and that's the hardest pill to swallow.

He's just a kid who's 23 and that really hits you at the cemetary 'cause that's when it ends.

That's when it's over The whole week There's something else to do but after that you leave and he stays put.

You're not going to see him agai and you are faced with what's happened to him and you gotta look inside what's going on with you, and you realize that his time is No more time, 23 years old.

At the time I was 24.

I had already been given more time than he got to have and I had done nothing with it.

I had done nothing with the time I had been given, I had quit everything I had ever I dropped outta high school when I was 18 years old I got my GED.

I didn't go to college.

I quit every job I ever had.

Every relationship I had ever been in, right?

Nothing had been accomplished.

It may sound stupid.

You sitting sitting there, you're listening to this and you know this already, but when I was 24 years old, I had lived a very sheltered and no other way to put privileged life.

And I had a crisis because I hadn't done anything.

And I knew that that all needed to change very quickly, right?

Not because of some, you know, selfish reasons.

But I felt very guilty.

It felt disrespectful to me that I had wasted time when my friend had no more left.

And so I need something that I could do, something that could start and more, importantly, I could finish And I needed that to happen very quickly I found out about mile seven in the Flying Pig, there's a giant hill that you come to, but I was running this race for purpose, right?

For a reason I knew what I needed to do, so I ran all the way up that hill.

You guys, I ran all the way up and I got to the top.

And when I did I felt so good about myself.

I immediately stopped running.

I stopped so quickly stop it.

I figured I believed in my heart that my friend Scott, would understand that I was very tired.

I was very tired person until eventually the deal I made with myself is that I would run when I saw my parents because my parents got up very early and they drove me to the race.

They followed me around the city rushing from point to point and it felt very rude to just stroll by them like whew, This is tough.

You know what I mean?

The other deal I made with myself happened at Mile 17 because I was walking 'cause my parents weren't around and.

All the sudden as I'm walking th old women pass me on each side.

They weren't 90 but they were old enough that I was like that's embarrassing.

I was like that I can't lose to old women, so I started running.

I ran for what felt like 2 days I got far enough that I started walking again until a few minutes later they passed me again on other side and I was like what the *** And so I started running again.

And I kept doing that.

It became a race within a race it was a very like Like a tortoise and the hare situation so That kept up for the entirety of the race until I got to the final mile because I knew that I couldn't walk the final mile.

That just seemed ridiculous.

'cause when you get to the last mile you can hear the crowd cheering for the runners and it's very powerful.

It does.

It pushes you to keep going and so I'm running and I see my parents and they see me running so that was good and I just felt the whole time I was r I was like I'm going to cry when I cross the finish line.

I was running for a very emotional reason.

and I cross the finish line and hear nothing but these people chanting and just screaming at me that you You did it, you did it, and I remember being overcome with the that I am never going to do that I was like I would love to cry, I'm trying to breathe right now That's taking up all of my time.

But after I caught my breath, they hand you a metal get to the end of the race.

I remember looking at that and I did have a real momen I was like, you know I I didn't it well, but I did do it.

I did something.

I finished.

I started it and I finished I don't want to marginalize a death by making it all about me.

Scott was a very a truly incredible person and they just recently dedicated a stretch of hwy to him on 71 between Ronald Reagan and 275.

It's the Donald Scott Morrison Memorial Hwy.

It maybe you've seen it.

You'll Next time you drive up there, sure you can clap for that.

I felt very lucky that I would get to go home and see a medal that I had that wasn’t mine.This is not my medal This is Scott's medal because it's a medal that I can look at it doesn't speak to who he was.

It speaks to nothing but who he continues to be and that's the person that's very important to me and everyon who knew him and someone that pushes me and everyone who knew him to keep moving forward.

So thank you very much everybody enjoy your night.

Thank you for joining us for more stories and episodes Check us out at cetconnect.org/longstoryshort and tune in next time for more stories from your neighbors.

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