Supernatural Signs of Love: A Valentine's Campfire

Is there a supernatural component to true love? Well, the stories we have coming up would say yes on this special edition of the Campfire. Sit back, relax, and warm yourself by Jim Harreld's Campfire. Oh, a fellow Ohioan on the line with a story of romance and mystery. I'm talking about Meredith from Ohio. And she listens and she was told about the show from her sister Corinne. So Corinne, thank you, everybody. Be like Corinne. Tell your friends. Tell your family so you get great stories like this one. Corinne, stay spooky. and Meredith, I understand you have a story that involves romance and some mystical goings-on. And Dar specifically, when she saw this story, she's like, that's a good one. So I can't wait to hear it. Tell us what happened. Well, I wanted to share something with you that I felt was kind of magical that happened to me. So a couple of years into my marriage, I had this memory of something that happened in my life that I had completely forgot about. So when I was in my mid-20s, a group of girls and I were going out for a bachelorette party. And their idea to make it special, we were going to go to a psychic and each have 15 minutes with this psychic just to see what she was able to share with us. So we go into this house. I had driven by it a thousand times. And we go into this house and I sit down with this lady and she's very nice. And she shares with me, she says, all I can remember from this because it was so long ago. All I can remember is she says that you're going to marry somebody whose name starts with a P. And I said, oh, you know, I'm sorry, but you're way off. I'm engaged to a man named Justin. We're going to be getting married. And, you know, that doesn't sound right. And come to think of it, I don't even know anybody whose name starts with the letter P. And I'm thinking, man, I'm in grad school. I have this big network of people, and I really don't even know anybody whose name starts with P. And that stuck with me for days. I'm like, wow, I got to make some more friends or something like that. Well, time went on, and it ended up that I did not marry Justin. That relationship ended. And in 2019, I married my husband, Philip. how did the psychic know maybe they were a little psychic yeah yeah no she was too good for sure yeah because i i truly i didn't know anybody with p i didn't see that coming at all but yeah it was wild well that's the thing is i mean what one in 26 chance i mean i know certain letters show up in others but i if p isn't even one of the more common i wouldn't think that he from where the common letters, like it's greater than one in 26. I would think, you know, J has got a lot of different names from it and a lot of different letters have a lot of different names. And the fact you didn't even know anybody with the name P that started with the letter P. That is so cool. So you, I'm guessing you think she really tapped into something or the psychic really tapped into something. She saw something coming that I had no idea. And like I said, at the time, I just blew off the whole interaction. I was like, yeah, whatever, you know, just, you know, 25 bucks out the door. And I had a good night with my friends. And it wasn't something that I believed at the time was psychic. But then a few years into my marriage, I remember that that happened. And I was like, oh, my gosh, she said the letter P. Yeah. So it didn't even click when you got with your current husband initially. It took years before you like, wait a minute. Do I remember that right? Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. It's a cool story. sometimes the best campfire stories are short and sweet. This one is very sweet indeed. And do you want to give a shout out by first name to your husband? That's up to you. Oh, I would love to. My wonderful husband. Oh, you just did. Philip. Yeah. What am I talking about? Anyway, Corinne, stay spooky. Philip, stay spooky. And Meredith, stay spooky too. Happy Valentine's Day to all. Thank you so much. Welcome to the Campfire. I am Jim Harreld and we have a special Valentine's Day edition. Love, paranormal and new. Yes, yes, well, it is paranormal. It is supernatural. We find out from our callers today. In fact, we put out the call and I thought we'd get three or four callers. No, we got a bunch more. In fact, we got a whole supersized show worth. So thanks to all of our storytellers sharing the story of their supernatural romance. And I think you're going to enjoy it. Plus, you're going to get my story with Dar, which we think has some supernatural aspects to it, some fate type aspects. So we hope you enjoy that. And a big thank you to everybody who came out to the Brook Park, if I could speak, Brook Park branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library on Monday night. We had a fantastic time, had a great turnout. It was really, really great. So thank you so much for that. And we have one more upcoming library appearance in this go around. And that is towards the end of this month. So make sure that you go over to jimherald.com slash events, jimherald.com slash events to register for that. If you're in the northeastern Ohio area, it is free, but registration is required. And that's going to be the last one we do for a while. hoping to do more in the fall. We'll see what comes. Hoping maybe to do some other events this year. But as far as things on the books right now, that's the only one. So if you want to see us and hear some campfire stories, maybe even share some campfire stories, make sure you go over to jimherald.com slash events. And if you want to continue to hear campfire stories on this show, we need your support. Ads are down. Ads are down. I told you that before, and it's true. So we need our Plus Club to take up the slack if we're to continue doing this show, period. So please do sign up at jimharreld.com slash plus, jimharreld.com slash plus. There'll be more details towards the end of the show, but it's pretty straightforward. You want to see us continue? If you can afford it, we ask you to support us because we need your support and you get a ton of content. So it is a win-win situation. And another win-win situation, this episode of Great Campfire Valentine's Day Stories. And here we go. Oh, these Valentine's Day stories. I love them. And we've got another one coming from the great state of Illinois. Jamie's been listening for several years. We're so glad to have her on the line tonight. This is a really good one. Jamie, tell us your Valentine's Campfire story and welcome to the show. Hi, Jim. Thanks for having me. In 2013, three really important things happened. The first was that I discovered streaming music services, which changed my life. The second was that I finished graduate school and had my first job and therefore had expendable income. And the third was that I had tried my hand at online dating. So in the summer of 2013, I discovered this artist through music streaming that I really, really enjoyed. And I discovered that he had a new album out and that he was going to be touring with it. And he was coming to Chicago where I lived. And so I bought two tickets intending to take my best friend. And the night before the show, she got sick and she couldn't go. And so I had this spare ticket and I thought to myself, well, what do I do with this? So I had been talking with this guy through this dating website and he seemed nice, but I wasn't sure. You never are sure with these kinds of things. Sure, of course. And so I just, on a whim, I was like, hey, this is last minute, but would you want to go to the show? And he was like, yeah, sure. That sounds great. And so the first time I met him would be at this concert. So we were going to meet there. So that night after asking him, I went to bed, I was excited, and I had a dream about the show. And in this dream, this musician, who's a contemporary musician, whom I had only just discovered and didn't know very much about, played with an acoustic band. And in my dream, he stopped in the middle of the show, and the whole band got into a horseshoe formation and played a really beautiful cover of a John Hartford song that I really, really love. Oh, yeah. John Hartford. Yeah. Gentle on my mind. Absolutely. I know. Yeah, absolutely. So they played in my dream. They played in tall buildings. And I woke up and I thought, oh, how funny. What a cool thing that would be to see. But I forgot about it as the day went on. And so I get to the night of the date, it's later that day, and I show up to this venue. It's the first time I've ever been to this venue. I meet this man, and we're having a nice time. We go for drinks beforehand, and we go to the show, and we're having a really good time. And halfway through the show, the set stops, and the band goes out on stage, and they stop, and they say, hey, we're going to do something special. We don't normally do this. And they get into horseshoe formation. They played in tall buildings. Oh, man. So my jaw drops because I'm so forward. And it's like beat for beat for from my dream. And I'm giddy. And I also stop and think, oh, my gosh, this is like this is meaningful. There's something to this. I need to pay attention to this. and so after the show we go out and we get tacos and here's a 24-hour place not far from where we both lived so we're talking about the show and I tell this man um about my dream and he was like oh that's really funny I was like yeah it's weird right and so after our date he leaves he goes to Europe for the rest of the summer. I was really bummed because I thought, oh, I'm not ever going to see him again. And I really liked him, but I couldn't let go of the thought that that was meaningful. Like there was something there and that the universe was saying, hey, you got to pay attention to this. Sure. So he gets to France where he's going and I hear from him. And then we keep talking and we keep talking the whole time he's gone. And he sends me letters and he calls me and I'm so glad that I paid attention to that little detail that would be easy to just say, oh, this is going to be too hard. Forget about it because we've been married now for nine years and it turned out so well. And I think about that all of the time and how like a little nudge can just keep you going in the right direction. Yeah. Wow. And that's amazing that you had the dream about the right song from the right song writer. They were in the formation. It's something they themselves said they rarely did. What moved them to do that? Was it fate? Was it Cupid? I guess we'll never know, but it worked out. That is awesome. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. We get those little signs. Who was telling me this? Oh, I know who it was. I interviewed a gentleman on the Paranormal Podcast. He's been on multiple times. And Mitch Horowitz is his name. And he's a great thinker and a great writer. And he was friends with David Lynch, the filmmaker. And I don't know if we recorded this or if Mitch just told me, I think we recorded it. And he kind of did his David Lynch impersonation. If I remember, I was like, you got to look for those green lights. You always got to look for those green lights. Those green lights, indeed. Now, we have to mention his name and give him a shout out. What's his name there, Jamie? Oh, his name is Mike. Hey, Mike. So glad that Jamie had that dream. So glad that you're both together. What a cool story. The ultimate feel-good Campfire Valentine story. Jamie, happy Valentine's Day and stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Thank you. Next up on the Campfire is Stella from Oklahoma, the home of, well, at least the college home of Baker Mayfield. We should have kept them in Cleveland. I don't know what that was all about. But anyway, but Stella's here. She's been listening a couple of years. And we've been talking a lot lately about prophetic dreams, dreams with premonitions. And I do believe we have this ability, or at least some of us do sometimes, to tap into information and things that are going to happen to the future and guidance and different things. And Stella has just such a story. And we're so glad to have her with us. Stella, welcome to the show. And tell us what happened. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. So if you think back to about 2015, there was a movie with Jennifer Lopez in it called The Backup Plan. And in this movie, her biological clock is ticking. She's sick of wasting time on men. So she makes an appointment with a fertility clinic. And while she is literally on the way to the clinic, she runs into Mr. Right. So that is a perfect snapshot of where I was in my life at the time I had this dream. And I met my Mr. Right, but I needed encouragement to give him a shot. And that encouragement came in the form of his grandmother appearing to me in a dream with an important message. So not to bore you with a long backstory, but it's important to know that I had just left a marriage. I was in, I was about 33, 34. I was determined to become a mother and I was not going to waste any more time on men. I had a plan and this was what I was going to do. I was on a path. Meanwhile, about that time at work, we hired a new person and I was in his interview. He was very smart, humble, funny, great skill set. I was like, this guy's going to be perfect at this job. We hired him, no ulterior motives whatsoever. But very quickly, it became evident that there was a lot of attraction between the two of us. And things kind of were progressing. And I was just like, this is a terrible idea. Not only do we work together, but I have a different plan for my life. And he was also quite a bit younger than me. And so I just assumed we're at two different life stages. And I filled him in on all of this, of course, I was like, this is my plan. This is what's happening. And he pitched me basically, give me three months, give me three months of your life. And if it doesn't work out, you can move on. But if it does, like, we'll have a baby together. And it sounds insane. Like looking back on it now, I can't believe that I even considered, you know, the thought of maybe I would have a baby with someone I'd only been dating for three months. But, you know, nothing in life was turning out like I thought it was going to. So I mean, I did entertain it. But, you know, this is something you got to sleep on, right? And so I slept on it and I had one of what I call my prophetic dreams. And I know that I've heard other people who've experienced this describe it in a similar way, where you have a dream that just has an acute clarity to it. Like there's no fuzziness. There's no haziness or mystery. It's just so clear. But it's not just a vivid dream. It's also accompanied by a feeling of deep importance. And so I had a dream that I was going to his grandmother's home. And at this point, I didn't know if his grandmother was alive or if she had passed away in my life. And so I'm going into her home and it was full of the home was full of like kind of grandmotherly knickknacks and tchotchkes and like ceramic items all over. And I felt very, you know, welcome. I had warm feelings from her and I knew that it was his grandmother. and she was wearing a flowy dress and had kind of a grandmotherly haircut with brown hair. And she, I wish I could remember, this is probably 15 years ago now. I can't remember the exact words she said, but the message was very clear. And it was, he is a really good man. He is worth your time and you need to give him a shot. And so I woke up and I was like, wow, that was one of those dreams. And it really struck me. And I just kind of carried it with me. And when I saw him at work that day, I somewhat flippantly said like, oh, I had a dream by someone claiming to be your grandmother last night. And he just stopped dead in his tracks. He went white. And he was just like, what did she say? And all of a sudden, I felt a little off, thrown off. And like, maybe I shouldn't have said something. His reaction was really strong. I was like, oh, you know, I'm sure it was nothing. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. What'd she say? Like, I need you to tell me. I need you to tell me what she said. And so I told him and he just got very quiet and was like, thank you for telling me and kind of went about his day. And we had very few interactions after that, that day, which was unusual for us. And I just felt kind of sick. I felt like, oh, you know, I've, I've screwed something up. Like I've said too much. Maybe that message was just for me and he wasn't ready to hear it. Um, but then when we, when we got together later that night, I was like, I noticed, you know, you had a really strong reaction. Like, what, what are you thinking? And it turns out he told me that his grandmother who had passed away, um, had visited at least two of his previous serious relationships had come to those women in their dreams with a very gentle like, sweetie, you're wonderful, but he's not right for you. Oh, wow. Let's move along, dear. And so then when I came to him and said, hey, your grandmother came to me with this very different message. He was just blown away. And I think it confirmed those earlier visits from his previous girlfriends and lent a whole element of truth to all of it. And then I think there was also kind of an element of why is it my grandmother coming to me? You know, they were very close and I don't know how these things work. I don't know if some people are more capable of receiving messages or if maybe the grief he felt kind of clouded it somehow. But I also found out that his grandmother was a prolific artist and loved to paint like little ceramic pieces. And so those were things that I definitely saw in that dream. She was surrounded by those. And we have some in our home now, these things that she painted in her life. How cool is that? Yeah. And I will say I did see a photo of his grandmother, but I'm terrible at recognizing faces. So I am an unreliable person. But she did have elements of the appearance I saw as far as the haircut and general size and build. Yeah, I mean, the thing that gets me about that story is the fact that, you know, she said, give him a chance. He's a good man. But she had come to the others and said, yeah, you're very nice, but I don't think it's going to work out. Uh, I think that's, that's really the, to me, that's the super validation of it all. And I trust from your call, all is going very well. Yes. So fast forward 12 years of marriage, two kids. It's been just amazing. And there's one more like short part to this story. So, um, and yeah, I couldn't have asked for more as far as family and marriage. I mean, it's just been wonderful. And lately, we've been spending a lot of time with my husband's uncle, and the grandmother was his mother. And he's a retired Presbyterian minister who's really interested in family history and family stories. He's traveled all over the world doing genealogy. And my husband was kind of encouraging me to tell his uncle this story. But I was very hesitant to do so because if you tell someone, oh, I've had prophetic dreams, you just don't know how that's going to change their opinion of you. Sure. And plus, given his religious background, I didn't know how that might align with his view of things. And I just didn't want to like step in anything. But late one night we were staying with him. The kids had gone to bed. We were up late drinking wine, looking at family photos that were spread all over the dining room table and telling family stories. And I just felt like, OK, this is this is the time to share the story with his uncle. So I did. And when I finished telling him, his uncle's eyes just kind of welled up with tears. And he just nodded his head and said, that was mom. That was absolutely mom. She had very strong opinions on who all of us ended up with romantically, especially the cousins. And my husband is the youngest of six cousins. And so especially with the older cousins in life, she had plenty of time to make her opinions known as to who she thought was a good match for them. But my husband being the youngest, she had passed on by the time he was of age to have serious relationships. So we just all thought it was amazing that even though she had passed on, And she still found a way to get her say about who her grandson ended up with. And I am forever grateful to her for that. That is such a neat story. I love that story. And I got to tell you something kind of cool. Something really, some things, weird things happen with the show sometimes. Some kind of serendipitous things. And that's a perfect example of this story. I have to admit, I came in this morning. I didn't know what your story was about. So this is being, folks, if you're watching, you're probably watching this in February. But this was recorded right in the middle of the Christmas season, December 9th. I had a green background. I had a little ceramic Christmas tree. And I said, you know, this isn't going to air till next year. So I'm going to switch out the color, move the Christmas tree. So it's seasonally appropriate. And I have lights back here. You notice that I can change the colors of the lights. and so I just quickly you know I was scrambling so I'm like oh that's kind of a pink that looks nice and then um Stella told her story and in the middle of it I'm writing down Valentine's Day I'm getting chills as I'm saying I love it and and I just grabbed on the first shirt that I have which is a red shirt so in the process of her call that's perfect I I turn the color. I decided to do a Valentine's Day show. Hopefully we'll have more stories. And I wore the right color shirt for it all. It just all lined up like magic. I literally have goosebumps. Stella, this is freaky. You're freaking me out, man. Well, happy Valentine's Day to you both. Thank you for this great story. And thank you for being a part of the campfire. Stay spooky. Thank you so much. fate it definitely plays a hand when it comes to campfire valentine stories and this story is under that rubric of fate and amy's going to tell us all about it amy thank you for joining us she said she found me by me by listening to the paranormal podcast so uh that sounds great to me so if you haven't checked out that show let's return the favor just did a great show i thought last month with hospice nurse Julie. That's one worth checking out if you haven't for the Paranormal Podcast. Well, Amy, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me. And please tell us your Valentine's campfire story. Sure. Well, thank you for having me and accepting my story. I do appreciate it. And it's really fun to be able to do this. So my story takes place back in the very, like, 1990, 1991. From 1981 to 1991, I lived in New York City, and I ended up working for Sports Illustrated Magazine on the editorial side. And it was cool, but it wasn't like my dream job. I kind of fell into it and worked my way up kind of there, but knew that it wasn't where I wanted to be for the rest of my life. And that played into this story, so that's why I'm saying that. So in my 20s, I had what I'm going to call a spiritual awakening. And I realized, and nobody else has to agree with this. It's just my story, that there is a spiritual dimension that we have access to. And I had not really understood that before, even though I was born into a family that went to church for a while and stuff. So I had this very dramatic kind of spiritual awakening and realized that I could pray for things in my life and ask for God to guide me. And for me, you know, the spiritual ended up focusing on God. You know, I know different people have different names for the spiritual part of the world that they interact with. Anyway, yeah, so I just want to honor that. You know, like I said, nobody has to do it my way. Um, so I started in, in my, uh, mid to late twenties, after a lot of relationships that were quite complicated, I was, you know, working to have healthier relationships. And I started praying, like, I'm going to say in my late, late twenties, um, for the, uh romantic partner of my life to show up Right Right And two things so that the romantic partner of my life to show up and to be guided to the career that would really fulfill my life you know as opposed to just doing a job, you know? And nothing against Sports Illustrated. It was a fabulous place to work and lots of fun stuff there, but not really what I wanted to do forever. So I started praying about that. And then, and I just had to wait. Like I had to wait like two to three years. I just kept praying about it, praying about it. So finally, you know, I had a big group of women that I was good friends with. And we went to a party, I think it was in July of 1991, July of 1991. We went to this big dance party down in the lower, the lower East Village, I think it was, New York City. And I had a friend with me there who pointed out this guy and said, I would like to meet that guy, but I'm really shy. Can you help me? And I was like, well, I'd like to meet his friend. Sure, let's go over there. So I said, let's go dance near them. Now, keep in mind, this is way back before technology. You've got to just picture a different world, right? And so we go over there. I don't know why I said that. It's just everything was in person. Oh, yeah, different time. It was a different time. So we go over there, and they didn't notice us at all, and they walked away, which was hilarious. And I said, well, we tried, you know. So then midnight rolls around, and I turn around, and there is this man, the man that I was attracted to, who is now my husband. His name's Brian. And I go, and we looked at each other, and he kind of paused, and I go, you want to dance? and we started dancing and mid at midnight um in new york city very romantic you know and then that you know when the party ended he came and found me and he said do you want to go have um a cup of coffee or a drink or something and i said well i'm with all these women why don't we all go together somewhere and he was there visiting a friend so this is a really important part sorry i forgot about this he didn't live in new york he had just moved to providence rhode Island to study his graduate program at Brown University. And he was lonely and bored. So he came to New York his first weekend in the Northeast to see his friend. And so he didn't even live in New York. So here I am. I'm meeting this guy at midnight who doesn't even live in New York. Sounds like a movie. Sounds like a movie. Exactly. And I saw him. And then later we actually met right at midnight. So we decided to go to Cafe Reggio and meet there after the party was over. And they came separately because they had to go to the bank machine again, a whole different time. The bank machine to get money because they had no money on them. They were young and not so wealthy at the time. And what's funny is the bank machine ate their card. And so they had no money and they met up with us at Cafe Reggio. And we're like, you sure you don't want anything? Like, you don't want to get a snack? card. They're like, no, no, no, we're not hungry. But the truth was, they had no money. They had no money. And the bank machine ate their card. You know, that used to happen sometimes. So anyway, let me try to get, I don't know how long 10 minutes is, but let me get to the next section. So the next day, he called me and we talked on the phone for over an hour, really connected, but I had other plans that day and couldn't see him. So on the way back to Providence on the bus, he wrote me a letter. Again, no email, no cell phones. He wrote me a letter. And he mailed it when he got back to Providence. And I got it a few days later. And as I took the mail out of my mailbox in the apartment building I lived in and started reading it, this thought went through my head, which did not feel like it was from me. And the thought was, this is who you're going to marry. Wow. I was like, oh, I met him once. But I had this like gut feeling like it might be true. And that voice in it almost feel like it was from me. I know that sounds a little wacky, but it felt like it was not from me. So you could, again, you could say that was God. You could say that was my higher self, whatever word you want to give to it. But it was some kind of intuitive knowing. So basically what happened over the next few months is we decided that I should move to Providence. And so five months later, I did. But another tiny wrinkle in this that to me really fits in with the whole supernatural slash spiritual world piece is right as I was meeting him, I found out that Sports Illustrated magazine was moving to desktop publishing, big change in technology at that time in history. And they were looking for people to volunteer to leave. with a severance package. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is my chance. I can go take that money, go back to school, blah, blah, blah. But I wasn't sure if I was eligible because I was in management and I found out I was eligible. So I decided to, actually Brian came to New York to see me and we went to Central Park and we're sitting in the park and I go, you know, I have this crazy offer that I could take up. You know, I really just want to go back to school. I don't want to stay at Sports Illustrated forever. And he said, do it and move to Providence. Wow. So I did. And so five months later, five months after I met him, I moved to Providence, Rhode Island. I went back to school. A couple of years after that, we got married and we will be celebrating our, I think it's 32nd anniversary this coming July. Oh, congratulations. Congratulations. And everything. And the thing about that in so many of these stories is that everything had to line up perfectly. You had to go out with your friends and go to that place. He had to say, you know, I'm bored. I'm going to go to the Big Apple. He could have very well said, I'm bored. I'm going to take a nap. I'm going to go see a movie. But he said that night, I'm going to go to the Big Apple and I'm going to go to this place. it's one thing when somebody you work with or somebody who you're in a situation where you're put together over a consistent period of time but these like chance meetings lead me to believe that it's not chance and that very vibrant thought this is the person I'm going to marry and everything seemed to be engineered to put you together the Sports Illustrated business with desktop publishing and I remember when all that came And I remember I was at the school newspaper and they had the Macs and they were laying out the pages. They still it was weird. They laid it on the computer, but then they would print it out and paste it up. They would still paste it up and take the photo of the whole thing. But the thing was, is that all that had to come together. Yeah. For it to happen. If one of those pieces is not there, it doesn't happen. But I agree. Because it was meant to be. It was meant to be. well Amy congratulations to you and is it Brian was it Brian right right congratulations to you and Brian for these many years uh you got us beat we're only we'll be 30 years this year but uh again um congratulations on a uh a lifetime love and a great uh campfire valentine story thanks so much for joining us today so much and let me just say I am always impressed with how kind and supportive you are of your guests. And just want to give you credit for that because you're dealing with so many different personalities and people as you do this, and yet you always retain your kindness and compassion. So, kudos to you. Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much. And I guess I should say it, because I always do, stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jim. Well, for this Campfire's Valentine's story, we have a very special guest. I'm very familiar with her. It's my wife, Dar. Hey, Dar. How are you doing? Good. How are you? Good. We were talking about it, and, you know, I thought that we had kind of, and you thought we had kind of a campfire Valentine story, because it did not follow the usual progression, and it almost seemed like the stars aligned in some way. So, yeah. Definite fate or destiny or whatever you'd like to call it, But I feel like I feel like that was always the case. Yeah, I actually you know, I was just telling somebody about this the other day. Maybe I'm a campfire. I'm not sure. But I think the story actually goes back even further than maybe you realize goes back to 1987 or 1988. It was my first or second quarter in school. I was taking this geology class. And I was at midterm. I was getting a B. Now, most horrible. Now, most people who were not going into geology and not going into science would say, that's fine. B, that's fine. Nothing wrong with a B. I was upset that I wasn't getting an A, so I withdrew from the class at MedTro. Now, you say, well, what does that have to do? Gee, I wonder where Cassandra gets that from. Yeah. What does that have to do with this story? Well, Dar and I met at a science class towards the end of my tenure in college. I think it was my last year of college, I think 90 going into 91 because I graduated in 91. And I was short a science class. So I took a science class called science and religion. Had I fulfilled that geology class, I would have never taken science and religion. And we wouldn't have met. Shows you how little decisions make a difference. Also, I don't know if it was the same for you. I thought this was. I thought we both had discussed this, too. Very popular science class in the physics department called the Flying Circus of Physics. Yes. Everybody wanted to get in with Dr. Gerald Walker. Walker. J-E-A-R-L. He was so popular he had been on the Johnny Carson show. This class was so cool. You could never get in. It was constantly closed. He would do stunts. He would like walk across hot coals and explain how the, yeah, explain how the insulation of the sweat would stop your feet from burning and all these different things. He'd do all these stunts in class. People loved it. Fantastic. I tried, I don't know how many quarters to sign up for this class, and it was always closed by the time I was allowed to register. So I said, you know what, I've got to get moving on my gen ed requirements. and so I saw science and religion. And I'm like, I like that. I could deal with that. Well, that was another one. I used to be the drop meister. I would drop classes at the drop of a hat. And I got great grades through school, but it was stupid. But I would do that initially. I got out of that. But my first couple of years, I was dropping left and right. I just go to class now like this. I drop it and take some of those. I got into Flying Circus of Physics. Oh, I know you got in. Oh, I know why. Yeah, I got Mr. Boring. I'm not going to give the name. You know, I don't even know if he's still with us, but it wasn't Professor Walker. It was this other guy who did none of the stunts, but you had all the hard physics work. And I'm like, I'm a communications major. Why the hell am I doing this? That class was always open, that section. Yeah. You had plenty of slots in that one, but nobody wanted that one. Exactly. But yeah, so you couldn't take your science class and I didn't get the one I wanted. So we met in 1990. Yeah, and the thing about that, and I think for both of us, I think we both had a dose of religion and believed in the spiritual side of things. But we also, you know, had an intellectual side and were very interested in science as well. And I think it was a perfect fit for both of us. And really, it's ironic. It kind of fits a lot of the themes of the shows that we still do to this day. Yes. And then we really, I mean, we sat near each other in class. And so we would talk on occasion because we sat close to the front. We were both nerds. And but then we also got put into the same group to write the group paper. Yeah. Because of our last names being so close to each other, H and I. So we were able to be in the same group. And then we started talking more. And I remember the paranormal aspect. aspect. I got this great program for my computer. It read Biorhythms and I printed yours out for you. Right. Because I really liked you. But boy, you didn't know this, apparently. I actually had like an inferiority complex when I was in college. So I assume nobody liked me. Well, I knew no one liked me, but I thought. No, I liked you. I had interest. I had interest, but I didn't express it because I didn't think anything would come. But that was my whole thing through my whole college years. I didn't really pursue many ladies just because I thought, ah, they wouldn't like me. Well, that was a mistake. But anyway, so we had a great friendship in that class, and then when that class ended, so did that. Yeah, yeah, because just circumstances. Well, you were about to graduate. I still had many years to go. Yeah, a couple years to go, yeah. I had three years to graduate. Yeah, because I was just a second year at that point. So that was 1990. Then fast forward to, what, February of 1994? Almost four years. Valentine's Day. That's why the story is so interesting. Valentine's Day of 94. So do you want to go into how? Well, here's what's ironic. At the time, you know, I was living on my own, didn't have a lot of money, hardly any at all. and I had an old computer that I had gotten right around the time we were going to school. It was pretty much obsolete, but I'm like, you know what? I'm going to fire that guy up. For some reason that night, I'm like, I'm going to fire up and go on something called Cleveland Freenet, which was a very kind of precursor to what we know is the Internet. It was just text, and you could go on, and there were different groups where you could post, and you could chat people, and there was this one command, who is? and it would show you everybody on the net. And usually it was maybe, what, 100, 200 people tops. But it was really, Cleveland Free Net was kind of like a precursor. It was through Case Western Reserve University. It was free. It was a precursor to what the Internet would become. And, I mean, we're talking about, I had no hard drive in that computer. It was run off of like a three-and-a-half disk, and it had like a phone line like the old. But I had modem. Yeah. But go ahead. You were going to say something. Well, I was just going to say on Freenet, you had to do a who is because everybody was given a like two or three letter numeric ID. That's how you knew everybody was just by the ID. Like AB123. Yeah, it was like AB123 would be an example. Right. So if you did, if you put in the command, this was very DOS, very DOS base. If you before Windows. Very text. Very text. Very text. Yeah. so you had to put in who is and then it would tell you the the numeric and then it would give the person's name and then I saw your name there and your name was unique and I'm like there can't be two of them in Cleveland and I said you know I always liked her why don't I it's Valentine's why don't I just chatter and see if we can have a little uh discussion so I did and we started chatting on there's like oh my god it's you it's you and i mean literally we're talking what uh well over three years like three years and three or four months oh yeah it's a long time yeah yeah so we're we're texting and it's not like normal not what you think of texting now you have to send a message and then it's almost like emails yeah and then it would send and then you'd have to wait for the response. It was like a check. We were going back and forth. Yeah. But it took a while to get messages. You're like, this is silly. Can I call you? Yeah. And you did. And that was it. And then two weeks later, we had a date. We had a lunch date. That seemed to go quite well. Yes. And the subsequent dates seemed to go quite well. And then, yeah, there you go. Bob's your uncle. We were engaged by, when, September? September of that year. Yeah. I work quickly. I work quickly. Well, but no, when you know, you know, like when it's meant to be, I feel that way. Like, and we were on the same page with so many things and it was just so easy to talk and we just, we didn't play games. I think a lot of times nowadays it's very difficult. I think people play games when they get into relationships and stuff. We didn't play any games. We were like, hey, This is who I am. This is what I believe in. This is what you believe in. You know, like we were very open and honest and had really great conversations about things. And so, yeah, it seemed fast, but. Right. But but it was meant to be. And I want to get to the other calls and give other people time to talk about their stories. But the important thing here, I thought, for this show was look at how many things had to come into place for us to get together. I had to drop those classes. You needed to need those classes. Go ahead. Well, also, we forgot my side of it, how I even got involved in Cleveland Freenet because I knew nothing about it. I had a computer and had a modem and didn't know what that was. Like, what do you connect to? I don't know. There's nothing to connect to. Why would I use a modem? Well, the person I was kind of seeing at that point went to Case Western and was in computer science. And he's like, well, this is what you do. Why don't you connect to Freenet? and he showed me on how to connect to Freenet and what all that was and have it set up my modem. So if it weren't for him, thank you, we wouldn't have been reunited at all. So even all of that had to fall into place. And even on Valentine's, why was I not with him? He was busy working in the computer lab and he was doing schoolwork. So you were chatting up guys online. I was bad. That was kind of bad. But I was just on there just to, you know, to talk and be social, I guess. And there you go. And you were social. Oh, thanks. What does that mean? Don't listen to him. That's not nice. No, you were very well behaved. Very well behaved. So basically, love you. You know, we're like everybody else. We have our arguments now and then, but we have them and then we're forgotten and we move on. morning no i was trying to be slick yeah i wasn't yeah there you go i'm just open and honest well dar i want to thank you i want to thank you for sharing your story and thank you we'll send you a link when this is up and stay safe and stay spooky no actually one link no that's right actually you have a quick announcement you want to make and then we'll get to the next call yes I'm sorry. I don't want to take up too much time. But if you have signed up to tell your story on Jim's campfire, if you filled out a submission form, thank you, first of all, so much. We really appreciate it. Keep those coming in. But I will send you an email after I receive the submission form, usually one to two days. If it's over a weekend, sometimes, you know, until maybe Monday, depending on what's going on. but you will get an email from me telling you how to go ahead and sign up for a time slot. If you do not get an email from me, you need to check your spam because maybe it went in there. Or if you still didn't get one, please contact me because what we have lately is a lot of people signing up and we really, really appreciate it. And we really, really want to hear these stories because they're really good, but we can't because you're not signing up for a time slot. So we have a lot of submissions, but no, like a ton of people have not signed up for a time slot to schedule this. And Jim does have evening slots. He has daytime slots available. This month, he even has a different evening slot available than he usually does. So I'm just encouraging you, if you haven't heard from me, please reach out because, and I usually do send a reminder email too after a week or two. You know, just like a one last ditch effort. I'm trying not to spam you guys or bother you. But we just really want to hear your story because you did take the time to sign up and gave us a great synopsis. And we just want to get you on the show. So that is correct. That's it. My little PSA. Sorry. Happy Valentine's, everyone. Have a great time with the people that you love. Exactly. And stay spooky. Stay spooky. Well, thanks for tuning into the show. We're going to get right back to it, but I got to talk to you about two things are very important. First one is absolutely free. VirtualCampfireGroup.com, VirtualCampfireGroup.com. That is our personalized Spooky Studios social network. It's its own platform. It's not Facebook. It's not X. It's not Twitter. It's not Blue Sky. It is just for us. and people are loving it. We've got thousands of people over there sharing their campfire stories, maybe sharing their opinions on a paranormal podcast interview that we did, sharing their own stories, sharing their own images, sharing so much. And you're missing out if you're not a part of it. And the best part of all, it's free. It doesn't cost you a penny. It cost me, cost me to pay for the platform for the community. But we kind of got tired of the social media sites. We're probably not as active as we used to be. You might notice that. And we wanted a place where you could say, hey, if you're interested in our content, what we do, our story, the story of our listeners, go to virtualcampfiregroup.com. You don't have to deal with all the AI nonsense. You don't have to deal with a bunch of spammy ads. You just get the content. People are loving it. There is no catch. The only catch is you got to sign up. VirtualCampfireGroup.com. VirtualCampfireGroup.com. I hope to see you there. Now, for the other part. Now, this one, the cost, but it's pretty inexpensive. Somebody told me that it is less than a fast food meal these days for a month of our plus club. And it's so important because you might notice I got rid of those host red ads used to here before. We're just allowing those automated ads for those big national brands you hear, and we appreciate that opportunity. But the nice thing now, we have it set up. New episodes of Campfire and the Paranormal Podcast for Plus members. No ads on those new episodes. That's an extra benefit. Plus, we release eight extra pieces of content exclusively for Plus Club members each and every month, and we've been doing that since the Plus Club began. Well, gosh, what's it been? 14, 15 years ago, something like that. So there's a plethora of interviews, the back catalog of Campfire going all the way back to 09, the Paranormal Podcast going back all the way to 05, and plus your support. It's how we keep this thing rolling. And we want to keep it rolling, but we can only do it with your help. So please join today at jimherald.com slash plus. That is jimharreld.com slash plus. And we thank you for your consideration. Back to the show and stay spooky. This is a great story for our Valentine's special. Elizabeth from Minnesota is on the line. And Elizabeth's a great supporter. She's a Plus Club member. She's in our virtual campfire group. She's been listening for years. She's been on the show before. So she is a model citizen. And we really appreciate it very, very much. And she's going to tell us a story about a very special Cupid. Elizabeth, welcome to the program and tell us what happened. Sure. Actually, I would say maybe two special Cupid's. Maybe the better title for this would be Mom Knows Best because mothers know best. because I would say both our mothers were kind of involved in my husband and our getting together. So basically, years ago, when I was 18, I was training to be a professional ballet dancer. And my husband was in a we were both in a company here in Minneapolis. He was also a dancer. And so I was an apprentice. He was in the company. he's quite a bit older than me he's 11 years older than I am we were not in any way romantically involved I didn't you know he was much older than I was I I was 18 so 29 but whatever so I we were both trained to be dancers and that's how I first met him and kind of over the course of the years I ultimately got into the company he became my friend he was really kind of a fun guy to hang out with, but I never looked at him romantically because he just was older than I was. And I was starting to date guys my own age and all of that. But just sort of oddly enough, he just ended up becoming close to the family. He was roommates with someone who knew the director of the McPhail Institute here, and my brother was performing a lot as a pianist. So Eric, my husband, would go to these concerts and lo and behold, run into me and then there'd be like an after party. And then he got to know my parents and he'd get to know my brothers. And over time, he just also became kind of a friend of the family. And as I was dating other men and breaking up with other men and all of that, my mother, you know, she really liked Eric and she was also an art consultant and Eric collected art and they also became friends just kind of on the side. You know, she would bring them around to galleries and he'd look at the art and all of that. And sometimes he would buy art from her. She said to me once, she said, hey, do you ever think of Eric as a boyfriend or anything? And I said, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, it just never occurred to me. And she said, huh, well, and I swear this was her quote, like water on stone, give it time. That was her quote. So I thought, whatever. Anyway, I went off to New York and I joined another ballet company there and I danced for them. And in that process, I ended up meeting a man that I ultimately married. and it was during that time that I lost contact with Eric He and I just had nothing We didn do much together at all And this relationship I was in ended up lasting about 20 years And during the time that I was dancing with this other company, we toured. And at one point, we were performing in Hawaii. And I remember after the performance, this sweet woman came up to me, little lady, not old, but I I mean, you know, in my mind old, but probably she was probably like my age now. But anyway, came up to me and she had a little she had a program in her hand. And she said, excuse me, but Elizabeth. I said, yeah, do you do you know my I think, you know, my son. And I she she showed me the program. And in the program, it listed the fact that I had danced with this company in Minnesota. Right. And I said, oh, of course. Yes. She said, yes, this is my son, Eric. And I said, oh, how lovely. you're his mother and you know we gave each other a hug and we had a little you know you know recollection about Eric and all of our connections and all of that and that was sweet and that was that um okay around 2007 my life kind of fell apart I lost my job I had back surgery my marriage was falling apart at this point I was living on the East Coast. I'd been out there for 20 years at this point. And I just decided, I'm done. I'm just going to move back to my home. And I moved home, back to Minneapolis. And I was depressed. I was home for about a month. And, you know, I occasionally, I thought about my friends that I knew back here. I didn't even know if Eric was still living here. I really didn't even know. My mom knew I was depressed. She said, you know, I've been studying Reiki, and I think I want you to get a Reiki lesson. I want you to get, I'm going to treat you to a Reiki session. And I mentioned this because, you know, Reiki is a little bit in the ooga booga land. And so since you're talking about the paranormal, I wanted to mention this. So I said, okay, sure. So I don't, so what happened, what happened, I don't think would happened had I not had this Reiki session that my mother treated me to. So I went to the Reiki session. She laid her hands on me or sort of hovered above me. Afterwards, it was bizarre, but I felt like I could inhale more air into my lungs. I felt this energy just surging through my body afterwards, I felt like something had just come into my body, this new light and this new energy. And I was so happy and excited. And I was walking around the lake and the colors looked so brighter, so much brighter. And I remember thinking about my future and it was like my pass was behind me and I thought, I wonder what Eric's up to. I wonder if he's even living here. And I just, I had my cell phone. I did 411. I called up information and I dialed it and they connected me. And lo and behold, ring, ring, ring. Hello? And I said, is this Eric last name? Yeah. Hi. It's Elizabeth's last name. Oh, Elizabeth. What are you doing here? And I said, I'm just in town and da-da-da-da-da. Anyway, we decided to get together a couple nights later. And he came over to my house. I was still living at my parents' house up on the third floor, feeling kind of like a loser at 43. But anyway, as soon as we got together, within, you know, like an hour, we had a very – I mean, I put my arm around him because he started – he broke down in tears. I said, well, how are things been going? And he said, well, it's actually my mom passed away. I said, oh, really? When? And he said, actually, a year ago tonight, actually, a year ago today. I said, oh, man, I'm so sorry. And, you know, we talked a little bit about that. And then we went out to dinner, had a lovely dinner, and hung out a little bit after that. And I, that night, ended in a couple smooches. The rest is history. There you go. We got married a few years later, and I've been, you know, married ever since. And happily, the relationship, I've never, I finally got it. I was like, wow, this is what it's supposed to feel like. And I want to add really the most profound detail of it all, and that is that after we got, you know, as we were getting to know each other, I learned more about the nature of his mother's passing. She unfortunately had had kind of a bad, a horrible injury in her house, which involved a head injury, and they had to, you know, there was brain swelling, and so she was put on life support, and they had to make the unfortunate decision to let her go and pull the plug. And he was telling me about the details of that, and he said, so then, you know, 6 o'clock, and they were in California when this happened. That's where she was living. So at 6 o'clock, California, I remember my brother and I went outside and the sun was just setting and we were like, well, that's that. And I said, wow, 6 o'clock, really? And he said, yeah. And I said, because, you know, you came, when you came to meet me that night, a year from her death, you rang the doorbell at 8 o'clock that night. And 8 o'clock is exactly two hours later in Minnesota. Wow. Yeah. That's what makes me think that her mother, I mean, his mother was kind of behind this. She brought him into my life and my mother kind of foresaw it. And I think that Reiki session, I do not think I would have called him had I not had that. I really don't. I think I would have just kind of stayed in my muck for a while. And he said he was planning to move back to California that year because he was so depressed being here. Wow. You know, I think a couple of things. First of all, it does sound like there was some divine intervention. And I also think sometimes things happen at different times. It's not a no, but it's not now. I can even think of my my wife and I's situation. We met in college, totally lost contact for, gosh, what was it? Was it almost four years, three and a half years? And then we reestablished contact. And maybe if we had gotten together that first run, you know, we were younger. A lot of things were different, particularly on my side. Maybe it would have been, you know, a date or two and out the window. And then, you know, instead it's, you know, this will be our 30th wedding anniversary this year. So a lot of times I think things happen, but they happen in the time they're supposed to happen. And at the time, I know, you know, I think a lot of people go, oh, why can't I have that relationship right now? Why can't I have it now? And maybe it's the thing is that it's supposed to happen, but it can't happen for whatever reason right now. But it can happen down the road. Sure, I agree. And I can't, I mean, I couldn't, I can't imagine having been 18 or 19 and getting into a relationship that was the one and then being, I needed to have these other experiences in my life, I think. Had I married him at that young age, I probably would have had that wondering about the other stuff. And I think I needed, you know, I think it was the right timing was everything for both of us. He had other relationships he needed to have too. And but we found each other finally. That's together. And that's the important thing. Elizabeth, thanks for all your support for sharing your story. Congratulations to you and Eric. And happy Valentine's Day. Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day. And stay spooky. Stay spooky. Valentine's Day or any other. Next up on the campfire is Kate. And we're so glad to have her on the show from New Jersey. And she's got another one of those Valentine's stories. And I love these kind of stories. Perfect for Valentine's. Kate, welcome to the show and tell us your Valentine's story. Thank you for having me. So this is my crazy what are the chances of happening kind of story. So basically, I grew up in a tiny little town in central New Jersey called Jamesburg. And growing up, I had a boyfriend throughout college. And I'm changing some names. So I'll name him Bobby. So I was dating Bobby all through college. I went to Rutgers University. I don't know if you're familiar with Rutgers. Sure, of course. So I was going to Rutgers University. And I live about 30 minutes south. So I was commuting. And we were dating. And then I had one year of grad school because I did a five-year program. and on Christmas night during my grad year, he broke up with me. And I was in a really tough place. My brother was struggling with some health issues and it was just like awful. And I said, you know what, whatever is meant to happen, clearly this isn't right. And I got to be open to the universe and whatever's supposed to happen is going to happen. Right. So then about a month or two later, my friend was like, oh, you should go out with this guy I went to college with. And I was like, okay. So we went out on a few dates. We'll call him Aaron. And Aaron lived in Piscataway, New Jersey. So Rutgers is split between two towns, New Brunswick and Piscataway. And he lived with his parents in one of those towns where New Brunswick was in central New Jersey. And we went on a few dates. And I was just like, you know what, I don't really know if this is going anywhere. I don't think we're on the same page and my friend texted me that day while I'm on the date with Aaron and she was like let's go out tonight and I'm like okay like clearly it's not working out with this guy go out meet somebody new see what's up so she's like I want to go to Porta which is in Asbury Park New Jersey familiar with Asbury Park yes oh good perfect it's a very Jersey centric story so I want to make sure I'm clear with that with the listeners. So Piscataway is right in the middle of the figure eight that's New Jersey. And Asbury Park is about an hour east to the Jersey Shore. So I went on this date with Eric. Aaron wasn't really going anywhere. And then I was like, let's go out to Porta. So we go an hour drive to Porta and Asbury Park. And I'm there dancing, having some fun. and I'm just like no one's really interesting me and then I look across the room and a guy walks in I'm like oh he's really cute I'm gonna go up to him so I go up to him and it was just like everything stopped right and um so then we're dancing we're having fun and then he's like I want to take you out to dinner and I'm like okay so a few days later we go out to dinner New Brunswick which is where Rutgers is because he knew I went to Rutgers so I figured that's why he chose that restaurant and we sit down and there's postcards that you could fill out and so I'm filling it out and I'm like write a cute little message and I I handed to him I'm like put your address down he writes his address down he lives in piscataway new jersey on the same exact street that aaron lived on the guy i just went on to the date with what a weird coincidence quote too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence yeah millions of people and i met a guy an hour away that lived on the same exact street in the same exact town you know it's one of those things where i don't know i a couple things come to mind and none of this is original i mean it's kind of cliche, but sometimes cliches are cliches for a reason. They're true. And one of the cliches are, is that, you know, you had that, that breakup at a terrible time and probably at the time you're this is the end of the world and everything. And then you're hopeful for the next relationship and it's not what you had hoped for. And then this kind of comes out of the blue. And I do think there's something to be said that there's a time and place for everything. And sometimes the answer isn't no, the answer is not now. What do you think about that? I think that's absolutely true. And I think when the first relationship I was in, I was just trying to make it work. Or even with Aaron, I was trying to make it work and it wasn't working. And I was like, I need to open myself up to the universe because clearly there's something I'm supposed to have that I don't have. And once I opened myself right up, that's when I met Matt. And now we're actually married. We've been married for almost five years. and then quick other spooky side story so we were dating and about three years into dating um my now husband matt was like let's go to new orleans and because he knows i like the spooky stuff so we went to new orleans for christmas eve and his whole plan was to propose to me on christmas to have better associations with the christmas time because he knew i had some crappy Christmases with my brother not being well and everything. And when we were in New Orleans, we're walking down the streets. There's nobody out because it's Christmas Eve. And as we're walking down the streets, one of the street psychics yells out, congratulations, guys, before he actually proposed to me. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. That is so cool. That is a very cool story. I love it. And congratulations. I mean, those are the happy endings. Those are the stories we love to hear on a Campfire Valentine special. Kate, all the best to you in that and stay spooky. Stay spooky, Jeff. And tonight's international caller, Kirstina from Denmark. We are so glad to have her on the show. I love hearing from folks from Europe and Denmark. We We don't get that many, but we occasionally do, and I'm so glad that Kerstina is here today. And she's going to share her Valentine story. Kerstina, welcome to the program and tell us what happened. Well, here goes my little Valentine story of how I met my husband. Even though my story isn't that spectacular, it still has several incidents that in hindsight seem crazy to have happened just by pure luck. So, as you said, I'm from Denmark, which is not a very big country. We are six million people, and you can drive from one end of the country to the other in less than five hours. And I grew up in Odense. That's where Hans Christian Andersen was born, the famous fairy tale writer. And most of my family live on this island. But for some reason, I just always felt drawn to a bigger city called Aarhus, which is about 200 kilometers away. And I know you Americans, you don't think that's very far. But for us, it's actually halfway across the country. So it's quite far. Well, anyway, back in the beginning of the 2000s, I had finished my teaching exam. and I was ready to settle down, find a job, get a husband and maybe some kids. So I figured out now was the time to move to Aarhus. So I had to travel quite far for this interview and on my way I would like to make a little stop before the appointment to get a little bit to eat and calm down and focus. And I wasn't so familiar with the area and there were lots of small side roads. So I finally made my decision and went down one and found a bench to relax and get ready for this interview. And sometimes later it happened that I had to look for some housing and it was on the same road. I ended up not taking that one, but I got a room in sort of a shared community where we did a lot of things together. And one day we were working on the garden and we needed some sand for a terrace or something. And a former resident of the house could help us. So me and a friend went to his place and it was just nearby this school. I had gotten a job on and when we saw each other, we just fell in love at first sight. And guess what? The road I went down back when I had the interview was on the exact spot that he grew up and where my now in-laws live. And I could have met him already there. And if not there, then the time I looked for the housing. I applied for that one job and I got it. And he lived so close by. So now, 23 years later, we're still together, married with three kids. and actually the middle one is born on the exact date three years after we met at first time. Oh, that's so nice. And I think I just do believe when it comes to these Valentine's love stories that some things are just meant to be. You're put in the right place at the right time. Maybe if you didn't get that job, it would have never happened. I can think I decided to take a class in college, science and religion, ironically, because we cover a lot of that kind of thing on these shows, particularly the Paranormal Podcast. I took that and Dar decided to take it. And what was funny about that is that when I first started college, I took a geology class and I was getting a grade of B in it at the midterm, in the middle of the term. and I was upset with that grade. I wanted to get an A, so I dropped, I withdrew from the class, which was a lot of people would say, well, that was stupid. But if I hadn't have done that, I wouldn't have needed the extra science classes and I would have never taken the science and religion. So this little meaningless, relatively meaningless decision in my first year of college led to me having to take a science class a few years later and meeting the person who would become my wife for 30 years. So these things, they just seem to happen and they seem to work out. That's my experience. Yeah, I was suddenly drawn to this place, and I'm sure it was meant that I should meet him. Well, Kerstina, thank you so much for joining us. I certainly appreciate it, and thank you for being a part of the campfire tonight. I enjoyed it. Thank you so much. Good night. Next up on the campfire is a very loyal listener, Helena from California Plus Club member, longtime listener. We appreciate it very much. And on this Valentine special, she has a multifaceted story that definitely has a love story component. And we're so glad to have her with us. Helena, welcome to the program. Thanks for all your support and tell us what happened. Well, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. I do love the podcast. I'm a Plus Club member, and I really hope that people listening will press that button to subscribe because it's really an amazing community. Yeah. Thank you. So like you said, my story does jump around quite a bit. And it is sort of a love story wrapped in a story about intuition, which is also wrapped in a story about a UAP. So this is for all those people out there who don't think they have a story. Sometimes our stories are a lot of little things that we can kind of piece together that have a bigger meaning. Yes. So, yeah, my husband and my love story. It began in the spring of 2001, and like a lot of great love stories, it began in New York City. We lived in New York at the time. We're in Southern California now. So I lived on 215th Street and Broadway, and he lived on the Lower East Side. And so we really had to love each other to make it work. That's like opposite ends of the island. You need your passport to go between those two train stops. So one of the things that brought us together was we had really similar views and ideas about the world and spirituality. And so we started dating spring of that year. By the fall, we had our first big fight. And it was a doozy about something really stupid, like, you know, a yoga class or something like that. So I worked at the time downtown, very close to where he lived. So I it was a big enough fight that I got on the train, took the train down to his place so we could talk it out. And we obviously talked it out. We've been together ever since. But, you know, it was it was a big deal. And so the next morning I was heading out to work and he said, wow, I'm really glad we worked it out because I was so worried last night. I pulled, you know, I did a tarot reading and I pulled the tower card and I thought for sure we were going to break up because the tower card kind of represents. Now, I don't want to speak for people who are experts in tarot, but my understanding is the tower card can represent sort of a cataclysmic end to something or a big shift. So he interpreted us breaking up. So I thought, well, that's great. I'm glad we didn't. And I headed down to work. So I get to work and I was the nanny for a family that lived on the top floor of a beautiful apartment building with a beautiful view of downtown. And I got there at about 830 and went in. My boss said, well, what are you doing here? You're not supposed to work today. You're not scheduled. And I thought, oh, that's weird. I guess I messed it up. She said, well, stay signed for a package and I'll pay you for an hour. so um i did and about 10 minutes later we both heard planes flying overhead and we ran to the window and um they had this beautiful view of downtown and we were both eyewitnesses that day on september 11th 2001 to um planes hitting the towers everything that happened after that and um yeah it was needs us to say a really big spiritual shift for me um it was very you know i had ptsd for years, but it was an important spiritual journey for me to kind of come to understand my place and all of that, my place in the world and my ideas of spirituality really evolved that day. But what it also did was show me just how intuitive my husband was and is. So that tower card, every time I look at it, I get chills because it looks exactly like what I saw that day. Right. And I know you've had other stories on the show that are similar to this and, you know, and people picking up on intuitively on that. Right. So I don't know why I saw what I saw that day, why I had to be there. But it was important enough that it brought us close together, because when I saw him later that night, I'm like, OK, I'm home now. He's my home. So a couple of years later, cut to August 2014. And I'm at work on the 19th floor in Midtown. And I go into the kitchen with one of my co-workers and get in coffee. And I say, what do you think the name? OK, this is random. Stay with me. What do you think the name Zuzu is short for? And she looks at me like crazy. And I'm like, yeah, Zuzu, that's kind of an odd name, you know, thinking of It's a Wonderful Life. Yeah, it's the first thing I thought of. Exactly. And I'm like, Zuzu, that's so weird. And then I'm like, what about the name Zsa Zsa? What's that? Where does that come from? And she's like, Helena, what are you talking about? So I'm like, oh, never mind. I don't know. Zsa Zsa Gabor is what I think of. Exactly. But I don't know why that name came out of nowhere. You know, so I go downstairs, I'm getting lunch and then there is a blackout. This was the great blackout of 2014 that hit all of the Northeast. Yeah. Believe it or not, it's still it hit us in Ohio to where we were at. Yeah, I remember that very well. I remember. Yeah. And it was like 30 hours. And, you know, it was a very, very odd time, a very odd day. And a little PTSD triggering because nobody knew what was going on. You know, there was no way to find out what was going on and why there was an outage. But my husband and I at the time lived in Brooklyn. So I'm like, I guess I'm walking home to Brooklyn from the town Manhattan. And, of course, I was wearing heels like every property worker. So I start walking. I get to about the area of the New York Public Library. And I think, well, let me stop and try and catch a bus. Well, bus after bus goes by filled, packed with, you know, sardine cans. There's no way I'm getting on a bus. Right. And I'm standing there with this young girl who's about 16. And I say, you know, she lives in Brooklyn, too. She can't get a hold of her parents to tell her, tell them that she's OK. So I say, well, why don't we walk together? I'll get you as far as my place. You can use my landline. Remember those? Yeah. To call your parents and and let them know you're OK. So we walk together, we get all the way downtown, we're walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, and I say, oh my gosh, we've walked all this way, and I never asked you your name. And she says her name is Zuzsa Zsa. Ha ha! You know, the hairs on my arms stand up. I don't say a word because it's too weird. So I just feel like there this weird intuitive hit that happened that I cannot explain I don know You know it just so random and weird Right But again, it's like apparently this is where I'm supposed to be in this moment. That's the only way I can interpret it. So now I'm going to cut to 2016 in Southern California. My husband and I live here now. We have a three-year-old. We're driving in the car. I love sky watching. There's a big sky in front of us. We're on the freeway and I'm looking at the night sky. There's planes. I love watching the plane traffic. There's a few stars. It's bright enough. It's dark enough that I can see a few stars and I'm just watching the plane traffic and I see this light shoot across the sky. And it was so odd looking and so different from anything I've ever seen. And I don't say a word. I'm just, I'm just quiet. And I hear my daughter's voice in the backseat say, Oh, daddy, mommy needs a minute because she and I just saw a shooting star. And I just think, Oh, that's weird. How does she know I saw it? You know, that's kind of odd, but it's very much her because I have already witnessed her be very intuitive in a lot of ways. And I'm like, OK, well, that was an interesting thing that just happened. So, OK, now we're going to get current. This is November 23rd, 2025. I promise this is all coming together. My husband and I are in the car again with our daughter, who is now 12. We have two daughters. She's now 12. She's in the backseat. We're driving back from a sporting event. I'm sky watching, as I love to do. There's so much going on in the night sky, so much plane traffic, you know, beautiful stars. You know, we live close enough to LAX that we can see, you know, takeoffs and landings. We live near SpaceX, so we get to see all of those kinds of launches. And for some reason, I start talking about intuition. And I talk about my husband's type of intuition. and I've dragged him on a few ghost hunting things with me and he's like an antenna. He's always having experiences. I'm like a rock. I never have experiences. I love having him with me for that reason. And then I'm telling her, explaining to her, listen, you are also very intuitive and intuition comes in a lot of different forms. And I'm telling her these stories. I talk about Shizu Zsa Zsa Zsa. I talk about the tarot card. I talk about the time. I start talking about the time we saw the shooting star as i'm telling her that story i'm recounting that story um my husband and i are looking at the sky right above us uh there's the street light and then not far above the street light there is a streak of light that goes across the sky horizontally it is so weird he screams out what the expletive was that right i'm gobsmacked. I have no idea what we just saw. If I were to describe it, it was like an invisible hand drew chalk across the sky and then followed it with an eraser. And it was, I don't know what it was, Jim. And I have seen comets, shooting stars, satellites, planes. There's no way to describe what we saw. It reminds me of the old you know, the beginning of the old movie reels where like you'll in the beginning, they do that countdown. And on one slide, you'll see a line. And on the next slide, it's gone. Right. It was just the strangest thing. And the fact that it happened right as I was telling my daughter about the previous experience we had talking about all these different types of intuition. You know, it felt almost like I had summoned it from beyond the veil or something. But it was just another one of those moments where it just felt like, okay, you're exactly where you're supposed to be to have this very weird, unexplainable experience. And so, yeah, I mean, these are all just very random little stories. But I think that at the crux of them is really intuition. And I think that we are all sensitive in different and unique ways. And I think we can cultivate and activate that intuition. You know, we can use tools, meditation, rituals, prayer, tarot. But I think by cultivating that intuition, we're honing our connection to a higher power, spirit, universe, God, our humanity, our connection to each other. and I think we're drawn to stories of the supernatural and paranormal because we're seeking to develop and understand that connection and that's why I love the community you've built because I think we're all kind of here for the same reason and it feels like community and so yeah I just wanted to share just you know those little little stories that are kind of all wrapped up in the story of my husband and my love story. Yeah, that's kind of cool that you've had co experiences as well. That's kind of a neat. That's a neat aspect that does tie in the Valentine's aspect for sure. And yeah, I think it is a community. And I think that the spine of the community is the storytelling and people sharing their stories. I think that's so important. We have people who share all types of stories, you know, terrifying stories, heartwarming stories, everything in between head scratchers, you know, and I think that, you know, if somebody's going through a loss, we just record a story with someone who had a tremendous loss, but then a tremendous sign from beyond. And I think it helps other people to know that they're not alone. If they're dealing with a tough time, that there are, you know, positives that can come out. If they feel like they're alone and nobody else has had this experience, no, there's other people have had the experience. And when it comes to Valentine's, that fate really seems to be a thing and things do seem to work out the way they're supposed to. Helena, thank you for being a part of that community and stay spooky. Thank you, Jim. You too. Next up on the Campfire is Michael from Oklahoma representing the guys here on the Valentine's special. And he's going to tell us his Valentine's story. Michael, welcome to the show. Thank you for representing the guys, because if people have been watching tonight, they know that most of our storytellers are women. But hey, one for the guys. Michael, tell us this great love story. Tell us what happened. In about 2000, my mother decided that she wanted to have my brother and I join them on a bowling league to kind of get the family back together as we had all grown up and moved out of the house. And her sisters had always been in a bowling league, so it was something she was familiar with and I had started doing with work and other social circles. So we were joining a bowling league in fall of 2000. And we went down to meet the organizer at the bowling alley that we planned to to join the league at. And the league night that we had planned to join, they told us that that league is very competitive. We're more social. We're not necessarily good bowlers. So anybody that we got put on a team with would probably not appreciated us being there. But the following night, a completely different group of people that were more social, more fun, not out to just demolish everybody and be super competitive. So we decided to go to that night, but we weren't able to go to the organizing meeting for that one. So no idea who's going to be there, what team we would end up with. We show up and my mom sees one of her ex-boyfriends there. She thought it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal. So we went ahead and joined. And in between the first week and the second week, they went back and they talked to their husband at the time. He did not like the idea of her being on a bowling league with Phinex. So she had to drop out. Her idea for us to be there in the first place, but my brother and I decided to continue. Right. And we would just enjoy it. But that meant we needed two people for our team. And there were these two people who had not been there for the first week. And so they didn't really know where they were going to be. And while we were working out, letting the organizers know that we were two people short for our team instead of just one, they decided to pair this other couple with us, and that was a woman and her daughter. We went through bowling for a few weeks, and I enjoy Dr. Demento albums, Dr. Demento music. Oh, me too. That makes two of us. I was singing, I don't know if it was Dead Puppies or Fishheads. Both classics. Yes. And my wife said that she, well, my future wife at the time told her mom, that's the boy I'm going to marry. Because she heard me singing one of those songs. But the, sorry, the coincidences there with, you know, joining the right league on the right night. and my mom not being able to be on there because of her ex being there and then leaving us with the right number of people for them to join our team. But there were also a number of coincidences on her side of the story with the bowling alley that they usually went to was closing down. For some reason, they weren't having a league during that particular fall. So they had to find a new bowling alley to go to on a night that would work with their schedules. But that's not probably the most interesting of the coincidences that brought us together. After we had been bowling together for a while, it's like, she really looks familiar. Like I've seen her somewhere before. We started talking about events that we had been to in the past. like there was one where we had gone to the screening of a pilot for a potential tv show and this particular show didn't ever get picked up but we were both at the same event for like five different events and we just had never actually met until the time was right for us to meet you know you you bring up a good point there and i do believe this. This happened with me and Dar. We met each other in college. We had a class together and we lost touch for, gosh, was it three or four years? Probably, well, over, I think it was over three years, we lost touch and reconnected. And I'm convinced that if we had connected the first time around and gone out and things, that it wouldn't have worked out. I'm convinced. But it waited until the time was right. Fate had it planned. God, Cupid, whoever you think that is. Fate had it planned that we were going to get together, but not at that time. And that's what I say. And sometimes if you're in a relationship and it's going well, it's kind of easy to say. But I do believe this for people who are not in relationships. Sometimes the answer isn't no, but it's not now. Things happen at certain times for reasons. I certainly believe that. Sometimes those are good things. Sometimes maybe they're not so good things. But I think certain things, certain milestones are meant to be and they're meant to be in a certain time. And that was, like I said, fall of 2000. So September, early September when the league started, we went on our first date on Friday the 13th in October. And then I knew. You know. So Black Friday I proposed. And they were concerned that their family was going to want to blow things way out of proportions. I think she had 19 cousins from one uncle. And they would all want to be involved. So I'm like, well, we can just get married. We don't even have to tell anybody we're doing it. We could have what do you call the party afterwards and maybe show a video of the wedding if they wanted to see it and just let everybody come to that to celebrate and they don't have to be at the wedding. So we got married on December 1st at midnight. Midnight leading into December 1st of that morning. And her grandmother was the only person we really invited because she was older and It was really important for Joey that her grandma be there. And we had two people film it for us. And we took the video cassette to the reception party that we had and let people watch it there. And that was 25 years ago, still together, still happy. When you know, you know. But I think I kind of mentioned there's some other stories around the potential for me to be psychic. A lot of people seem to be convinced of this, but when I was in junior high, I had a very strange dream that I kissed some girl that I had never seen before. No idea who it was. They didn't look like anybody I had known. So the idea that my subconscious like pieced different people together or something didn't really make sense to me. And it was a really like a strange kiss. This dream was so weird. It stuck with me. You know, you have those dreams, you wake up and you don't even remember them. Sure. And then you have those other ones that will stick with you the rest of your life. Yes. Which is one of those dreams. And when we went on our first date and we kissed for the first time, it was her. How cool. How cool is that? Michael, thank you again. Congratulations on 25 years, many more to come. And stay spooky. And thanks for sharing your story tonight. Thank you, sir. And we have a return caller. This is Renata from Nevada. And we're so glad to speak with her once again. And again, we've got this Valentine's show today. And a lot of times fate keeps popping up. And that certainly sounds like it in this case. Renata is going to tell us all about it. Renata, please, please tell us your Valentine's story. Thank you, Jim. So this goes all the way back to 2002. I was 17 at this time. I tested out of high school early and college wasn't quite working out for me because I didn't have the discipline or the focus at that time. So my parents told me I needed to have a job, which, of course, makes sense. You've got to be doing something. And my friend was a secretary at a recording studio in Hollywood. I lived in Santa Clarita, California at the time. And so we would commute there together. That was the plan. And I interviewed and I got the job. And I was working there for about a month. My job was client services, which is the person who fills all the snacks and gets people water. And it was really cool because it was like a big studio that had big name people in there like Brad Pitt and Samuel L. Jackson came through and just a bunch of people. It was really neat. So I stumbled into this job that I had no business having. I just had it because my friend knew I had customer service experience and needed a job. So it was really neat. And my now husband, Amir, started working there about a month later as an audio engineer or training to be an audio engineer. He went to school for it and like worked really hard to get the job. been. So it's kind of funny because I didn't try at all. And I got into the industry and he was one of those people who like it was his whole life goal, you know. And so we ended up meeting at the studio at the time. He's three years older than me. And we were just friends. And he was respectful of the fact that I was, you know, 17. But he taught me a lot about music during the time that we worked together and he got me into a bunch of music I probably would not have listened to otherwise. And it's become like an important part of my life. And so that was really neat. And I worked there for about a year and then I turned 18 during that time. And at a Christmas party, we did kind of have a little fling, but nothing serious. And we stayed friendly, but I ended up leaving the studio because the industry wasn't for me. And so we kind of drifted apart a little bit. And I ended up getting into cars and going to trade school. So I was down in a different part of Southern California. I was more in the Inland Empire, which for people who aren't familiar, is quite a trek because of distance and traffic between those two points. So we didn't see each other for several years. And he ended up getting into a serious relationship. And I ended up moving across the country. I wound up in Colorado. And that was with an ex who ended up being abusive, unfortunately. And I got out of that, thankfully. And I ended up in a very good relationship after that. But I did, unfortunately, get my first chronic illness. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2014. um, after becoming chronically ill in 2011. So I basically within a month went from being healthy and fit. I was working at Whole Foods, uh, to, um, basically completely bedridden and no one could tell me why, because my labs kept coming up normal because there is no one test for fibromyalgia. It's, um, a test by rolling everything else out. So, uh, it can take several years to get a diagnosis, unfortunately. So that was really hard. And I became very depressed during that time. And I stopped using social media. And I changed my phone number. And I cut a lot of people out of my life because I was very in so much pain that I couldn't deal with other people's happiness, which sounds like, you know, kind of absurd when I say it out loud. But if you've been in that much pain, you can kind of understand, you know, it was a very heavy grieving time. And Amir was one of the few people who actually took the time to track me down. He reached out to my sisters on Facebook, and they gave him my new phone number, and he reached out to me. And it was great to reconnect. And he had no ulterior motives. You know, he was in this relationship, and I was in my own relationship. So again, it was just strictly friend, friend based. And he helped me kind of like, get through that dark time. And he sent me some software. So I'm also a writer, and I was having trouble using my arms. So I he sent me the software to do voice to text on my computer. You know, things like that. That's the kind of person that Amir is. He's just always helping the people in his life without thinking about what's in it for him, you know? And so my then boyfriend and I at the time moved back to his home, which was in Vermont, because living off one income was really hard. And yeah, and thankfully his family was like, you know, you can come stay out here. We've got this big house in the country. And it was like the perfect place for me to heal. My ex got a job at like a local organic farm, which ended up being like one of the best things that ever happened to him, even though he never would have like chosen it for himself. And it ended up being great for me too, because the nature, the nature, nature has always been very healing for me. And so being out in Southern Vermont was really great for me at the time. However, I am a city girl. And after a couple of years of that, I was starting to feel pretty isolated and I was starting to turn around a little bit in my healing journey. And so I moved, I ended up moving back to Southern California after visiting in 2016. And during that trip, Amir and I reconnected and there was, he had annulled his marriage because that didn't work out, unfortunately. And my relationship was kind of coming to an end as well in Vermont. We were just kind of starting to go separate ways. And so Amir and I reconnected. There was completely unexpected sparks. And then I ended up moving back to Los Angeles in 2017 because I really needed to be back in the city for my mental health. and we reconnected during that time. I ended up moving back into, I ended up moving into his apartment in 2018 and we ended up going through the pandemic together in this little tiny one bedroom apartment and we're totally fine, rarely got on each other's nerves, which was really great because I heard a lot of relationships didn't do so well during that time. and then we ended up buying a house out here in Vegas in April of 21 right before the interest rates jumped up we got like a super low interest rate we got super lucky just the timing of everything was just so fortuitous looking back on it over all these years and also another thing that happened is Amir introduced me to more interests like professional wrestling, which sounds so silly if you're not a fan. Hey, if you like it, hey, you're not hurting anybody, good for you. Right. And there's this whole community that's really excellent and beautiful within wrestling. The fans are like really supportive. And we went to independent wrestling shows, which are a lot smaller. and so it was just a really fun experience and I ended up reconnecting with an old high school friend who tried getting me into wrestling when we were younger when we were teenagers but I thought it was silly because it was a different time they were doing different things especially with women's wrestling it was not what it is today it was a lot of more backwards to put it mildly. So there was nothing there I connected with. But Amir got me into, you know, modern wrestling, and it's come a long way, thankfully. So it has become an important part of my life. And I have this whole friend group through it. And he actually proposed to me at a wrestling event on TV. So it's kind of funny how that worked out as well. And we have an awesome life. And I'm so lucky and blessed. He works remote. And that's great because I've been remote since 2013 because of my health. And we can complement each other as far as responsibilities and household management and things like that. And he's just this beautiful, wonderful person who's also my caregiver. And I just I just feel incredibly lucky. And again, looking back on it, the way everything worked out, it was just lined up. It happened in its own time. Yeah, exactly. Well, I tell you, we've had so many stories like that, that things follow a certain trajectory. I can't wait to hear them. Yes, they're great. And your story is very similar. Things had to happen a certain way. You had to go through certain life things. And then, yes, time is right. You two linked up and have a great relationship. Renata, thank you so much for joining us. And happy Valentine's Day to you and Amir and stay spooky. Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. Thank you for joining us for this edition of The Campfire. I appreciate it. It was something a little bit different, but I think it's great because I do believe there's something magical. There is something mystical about love. And we heard it from our storytellers today and we thank each and every one of them. And we thank you for tuning in. Please share the show with a friend. That is so important. Text them a link, email them a link in whatever venue they enjoy, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, any of the major podcast apps out there. Pretty much the campfire is on it. So please send a link to the show today. We love to grow the pool of listeners. That means we grow the pool of storytellers. You hear more great stories. It is a virtuous circle. So thank you for that. Also, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Jim Harreld. Now, I'm not quite sure if we're at 20,000 subscribers at the time that you see this. I know we were right on the cusp of it, not quite there. Hopefully, by the time you see this, we'll be there. But if not, please give us a push. I mean, ultimately, I really want to hit that 100,000 mark. That's kind of my internal goal. So we've got a long way to go. So even if we've hit 20K, miles to go, miles to go. So please help us out with that. And what that does, the reason I'm really focused on YouTube, honestly, I'm going to give you some inside baseball here. We make very little on the YouTube videos. Maybe that's different for other people. But for us, it actually ends up being more of an expense. But it is a great way for new people to find the shows. It's one of the number one ways people find new podcasts is through YouTube, just the way it is. So we got to be there in a big way. And the more subscribers you have, the more likely someone is to push play or a guest is to book a show or wherever it might be. So to get that social proof up, we ask you to be a part of it. So we thank you so much. We'll talk to you next time. Have a great week, everybody. Stay safe and stay spooky. Bye bye.