By Deanna Isaacs
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Since early childhood, says Fleming, now 32, “I’ve seen the ghosts, I’ve seen the angels, I’ve seen the demons.” Son of one of the toughest men ever to play in the National Hockey League, onetime Blackhawk Reggie Fleming, Chris was raised in the northwest suburbs and still lives in Hoffman Estates. His mother, a flight attendant who believed in the spirit world, was frequently gone overnight–and it was during her absences that the ghosts were most likely to appear. From the age of four, Fleming would climb into bed with his father when his mother was gone, seeking protection. But the ghosts came to his father’s room too. Fleming says his dad, who would never admit fear on the ice, also wouldn’t admit what was happening.
Fleming’s parents divorced when he was in junior high school, about the time he says guardian angels began appearing to assure him that he was loved. He graduated from William Fremd High School in Palatine and went to Beloit College, where he played varsity football and majored in art. By the time he got to Beloit he had learned to keep his ghostly visits to himself. After college he worked for Pioneer Press newspapers, then for an advertising firm. Eventually, looking for something more lucrative, he wound up in the mortgage business.
