MIKKELSON, North Dakota — Prairie House has replaced 24 corded room telephones after six residents reported overnight calls from speakers using the residents' childhood voices. The residential care facility remains open, and families may continue calling through the front desk while a telephone contractor reviews the internal system.
The first call was reported September 20 by Ruth Feld, 82, who said her telephone rang once shortly after midnight. A young girl asked whether their father had returned from work and called Feld by the family nickname "Ruthie June." Feld answered that he had come home safely many years ago. The caller thanked her and hung up.
Feld told overnight aide Lena Voss, who found the handset warm but heard no dial tone problem. The switchboard showed no outside call to Feld's extension. Staff initially treated the event as a wrong number combined with a dream, said administrator Peter Solberg, and checked that Feld had not missed a scheduled family call.
Five similar reports followed over eight nights. Residents described hearing themselves at ages ranging from about 6 to 14. The younger speakers asked ordinary questions: whether a dog recovered, whether the family moved, whether a mother stopped being angry. Two residents ended their calls without answering. None reported threats, demands or knowledge of the care home.
Family members confirmed several details. Feld's older son said only relatives use the nickname Ruthie June. Another resident's daughter recognized the name of a dog that died before she was born. Families did not agree on whether the calls were comforting. One asked staff to disconnect her mother's phone at night; another asked that his father's line remain available.
Prairie House uses an internal telephone exchange that routes outside calls and allows residents to dial one another by extension. Contractor Joel Ash said a crossed line could carry a child's voice from another room or an outside caller whose number failed to display. It would not ordinarily cause a handset to ring after its wall cord had been removed.
Staff tested that condition Sunday in room 118 after resident Franklin Mees moved temporarily to a family apartment. The telephone was unplugged, labeled and left on its table. At 1:46 a.m., Voss and another aide heard it ring twice. Voss answered and heard a boy quietly practicing the first eight letters of the alphabet. She said the voice stopped at the same letter Mees omitted in an old school recording his family had played earlier that day.
No recording was made of the calls. Solberg said staff do not routinely record residents' rooms or personal telephone conversations. Prairie House documented the times, extensions and statements made afterward. A memory-care consultant who does not work at the facility said sleep, expectation and familiar family material can shape convincing experiences without deliberate deception.
The replacement phones arrived Monday and were tested with outside and room-to-room calls. The older handsets have been boxed rather than discarded at the request of two families. Solberg said the facility will retain them for 30 days and will restore direct outside dialing after the contractor finishes reviewing the exchange.
Tuesday's overnight log contains no new call report. Feld kept her replacement telephone beside the bed and slept until breakfast. She said she does not expect the girl to call again because the question was answered, and asked staff not to wake her for a single ring.
At 7:10 a.m., as an aide collected breakfast trays, Feld lifted the silent handset and waited. She then said, "Yes, we got out," and returned it to the cradle. The phone had not rung, and the line carried an ordinary dial tone. Feld declined to explain whom she had answered but asked that the old telephone remain in its box.