First Person: Driver enjoys ghostbusting

Lorrie Menkens is a driver for the Clovis Area Transit System during the week and a ghostbuster on the weekends. The 46-year-old travels with a friend across the state to cemeteries and sanitariums searching for an entity from beyond the grave.

Who ya gonna call?: Stacy and I are amateur paranormal researchers. We’re kind of like ghostbusters. We go to cemeteries and old buildings here in New Mexico looking for an entity. And it’s a great way to study the history of New Mexico. There’s a lot of history here and it should be preserved.

Silence is golden: We go to a place and we try to be as quiet and still as possible. We have our digital recorders going and we’ll snap photos. We just listen. In a photo, we saw a gentleman leaning on a headstone that we didn’t see while we were out there. It was bone-chilling really.

On the go: I have two daughters. Rachel is 14 and Abbie is 16. They’re go girls. We go camping a lot in the summer. Whenever we get a chance, we’re gone somewhere.

Hubby time: My husband is in Iraq. We’ve been a year without him, but he’ll be back in November for good. He was in the military for 20 years, but retired three years ago. He’s out there now as a contractor with the Marines. He tells me it’s something we have to do to keep our country safe. But I don’t ask too many questions and he doesn’t tell much. He knows I’ll worry.

Superpower of choice: I would want the power to heal. I’d touch everybody that needed to be healed. I don’t like to see people suffering. If I had that, there’d be no sickness in the world.

Globetrotter: My youngest daughter is going to graduate from high school in three years and we’re going to start traveling more. We’ve already planned our first trip to Germany. My husband is from there.

Family town: I love Clovis. It’s a great place to raise kids. I used to live in California, but I went back to visit a few years ago and I will never live there again. It’s a massive rat race. The growth is phenomenal. I lived in a little rural town but it’s not little or rural anymore.

Political views: We need to do what’s right in this country. The politicians need to stop slinging mud and be nice to each other. It goes a lot further than what they’re doing now.

— Compiled by CNJ staff writer Liliana Castillo