This episode of the Sharon tapes was made possible by our backers on Seed and Spark,

Brandon Brown, Ariel Young, Alastair and Margaret, and Talley. If you'd like to support the show as well,

please go to patreon.com slash homestead corner. For as little as $5 a month, you get early access

to ad-free versions of episodes, a special behind-the-scenes podcast, and patron-only AMA

live streams. Before we get started, this episode contains heavy existential dread,

discussions of suicidal ideation, grief, and loss,

descriptions of war, gun violence and executions,

depictions of claustrophobia, burial and injury, and loud noises.

Content warnings and a full transcript are available in the show notes. Death is a tricky thing to talk about.

Our knowledge of death, of the fact that we all die, shapes us as people, and yet most of us

refuse to acknowledge it with anything more than jokes, at least until it touches someone

we know.

It was four years after my encounter at the mirror house and the accident that followed.

It was a lonely time in my life.

Perhaps the loneliest I've ever been, and that's saying something.

I've always felt isolated, distant from those around me.

Maybe it was the touch of the supernatural.

Maybe it was the fact that I was a closeted lesbian growing up in the Midwest.

Or maybe I just chose to be alone because I thought it was easier.

I'd already lost a friend I could barely remember to something I couldn't understand,

and a part of me still blamed myself for her unmaking.

I still had friends, fellow ghost hunters and people I met at signings who stayed in touch when they could,

...