Charlie and Hilda were their names, and the souls seemed to be stuck inside the IT office that once rested on the seventh floor of the original Ohio Valley General Hospital.
Just so happens, the IT department was located in a former operating room, but Sharon Tarleton is not positive if that is the reason why she would feel taps on her shoulders, or hear whistling, or wonder why the coffee machine would be turned off when she knew she turned it on.
Tarleton worked at the Ohio Valley Medical Center from 2007-2014, and she experienced frequent paranormal activity while working the midnight shift for the Information Systems Department as a support specialist. Known as the East Building then and the East Tower now, the structure was constructed in 1914 as a 200-bed medical facility.
“Let me begin by saying I saw my first ghost/spirit at age 5. From there I just ignored and blocked it until I started working at OVMC,” she explained. “It didn’t start until I worked midnight shift all by myself, and let me note ghosts/spirits do not scare me because they are lost souls needing help to move on. It started one night I was sitting at my desk with just a lamp on. Florescent lights give me headaches, so I would sit in dark with just lamp.
“I got a tap on my shoulder, and mind you, no one was with me, and on midnight shift it was me in IT on the seventh and lab personnel on the fourth floor,” Tarleton continued. “So, I turned around, and nothing was there. I also should note that to get into IT you had to have a code to punch in; it wasn’t open to everyone because we housed all the servers in the department which was also in a locked area.”
Cold Coffee?
Lights would flicker during the night shift. There were noises. It was an old building situated adjacent to W.Va. Route 2, so some of what she heard could be excused.
But not a cold cup of coffee.
“I am a coffee drinker, and I would make a pot of coffee, and it had the switch on the coffee pot you had to switch to off with your finger,” Tarleton recalled. “My coffee pot would get turned off,, and I didn’t do it, and again I was alone. Plus, I was working one night, and something blew in my ear, and my hair moved. There were no vents in the area, and no windows were open.
“Every time I worked midnight shift, little things would happen like pens would move, the coffee pot would be turned off, the shoulder taps, and I would hear doors close in our department,” she said. “At 4 a.m. like clockwork, I would hear whistling, and I would go out of the department and look up and down hall, and literally no one was there. I called down to security and asked if they saw anyone on camera, and the answer was always no. A few security guys didn’t believe me which is usually the reaction, so I invited them up at 4 a.m.
So, an invitation was extended to the guards.
“I told them to just listen, and yup, there it was, and they couldn’t believe it,” Tarleton said. “They got up and said, ‘We are out of here,’ and they asked me how I stayed up here all alone. So, after that I can feel a presence, and to me it felt like a man and woman, and I decided to give them names, Charlie and Hilda.”
But Who Are They?
Charlie? Hilda?
Tarleton owns no idea if the ghosts she once communicated with were the spirits of a man and a woman, or why they seem to dwell on that seventh floor. Did they pass away in that operating room? In another area of the hospital? Or are they former employees from decades ago?
“I felt a strong presence of a man and woman in the department, but it’s hard to explain, but it was a knowing,” she insisted. “They would always be so active and never leave even though I would say it’s ok to move on from here. So, I named them, and that’s weird to some but not to me. I am not afraid, and hey, since we had to share this space for 8-12 hours a shift, why not give them a name?
“It got to the point I would come back to the department from a help desk call to ER or wherever on midnight shift, and I would say, ‘Charlie and Hilda, I am back.’ It became comforting knowing they were there,” Tarleton said. “I often wonder if they are still there now that the place is closed. Not only did Alecto let many down, but they left the lost souls that remain there down and alone. No, I am not crazy; I am just a believer in the afterlife.”
Future Friends for Charlie and Hilda?
The city of Wheeling officially acquired the OVMC campus on July 1, and since some city employees have moved into the Education & Administration Building that sits in between the original OVGH and the West Tower. Northwood Health Services continues to operate on the campus, and the regional COVID-19 regional testing center is situated on the back of the campus.
Tarleton, now employed by National Tire and Wheel in North Wheeling, hopes the East Tower will be preserved.
“I wish it was still a hospital, but let’s face it, I don’t foresee that happening,” she said. “My hope is that the city of Wheeling will preserve the old building for historical purposes and not just tear it down. But I know it needs lots of love and much money to do that. I just hate seeing it sit there because I feel like it’s dying more each day it sits.
“I think putting the police in the old Valley Professional Center is a great plan. That building is nice, and I can see that working for them,” Tarleton added. “It’s a damn shame how wrong everyone was, including me, about Alecto; I have no idea how that company is even able to do this evilness, period. I ride by there, and it breaks my heart for all affected because I know how much love went through there through every employee that walked the halls and everyone’s true passion and love for their work.
