Monday 4th April 2022
The following is an intriguing matter that was first shared with me a couple of years ago now and - to my shame and embarrassment - I had neglected to keep in touch with the party concerned and, basically, stay informed re. developments and so forth. As a result of the aforementioned, I am MOST grateful to the mother of the family involved who has now, so kindly, 'filled me in' on details pertaining to the overall case and, particularly, events that had occurred 'since' we last briefly spoke!
Many, many thanks to the lady involved...!
And so: The family concerned had moved into the property in question just over 20 yrs ago now. There was nothing particularly unusual occurring at first - to warn of disturbance that followed - save for moderately minor incidents, such as the 3 yr old daughter of the family talking in her cot. Entering her bedroom one night, the girl was found to be standing up and, when her mother asked 'who' she was speaking to, the girl replied: 'The man...' Around the age of 5 to 7 yrs, or so, the girl would sometimes ask her mother little, puzzling, questions like: 'Why did you turn my light on and off last night mommy?’ and 'Why do you keep poking me in my hip?'. Despite not having done any of the things concerned, her mother would just apologise and make little excuses up for the nocturnal incidents.
At this point, the mother admits that she started feeling a little anxious that physical things were possibly happening... and she believed she could now sense a presence watching her at the bottom of bed, in the hall upstairs and outside the bathroom.
On one occasion, around the age of 15 yrs old, the daughter happened to leave her guitar out of its case propped against her wall and, in the morning, she reported that something had been 'plucking the strings' during the night? As a result, her father said that it could be moved to their bedroom. The mother wears ear plugs, to aid sleeping, but, the next morning, her husband said, 'Tell me you heard it!?’ When asked exactly what he was referring to, he responded: ‘The guitar..! It wasn’t being 'plucked'... it was being 'strummed'!’ He had been a sceptic, right up until that point!
Following this, things seemingly started to intensify. The mother worked nights and the father shifts, so, as a 16yr old, the daughter would sometimes be in the house alone for an hour at cross-over times. She didn’t like going upstairs in the dark, or when she was alone at home now, but she'd started doing so, tentatively, after making sure the lights were on. One evening, she got halfway up the stairs and 'he' had turned the stairs lights off on her! This was when the mother began feeling angry about her daughter seemingly being the focus of a lot of activity and started 'speaking out loud' (away from her daughter’s earshot) asking for things to cease and for 'him' to leave the girl alone! What was regarded as the 'worst' incident then occurred...
One evening, the mother was alone in the kitchen and the daughter in the front room, watching TV. The former was in the process of washing up, when she heard a bang in the kitchen. She couldn’t place what it was, so carried on washing up and heard a crash... also in the kitchen. When she turned around, 2 items had seemingly flown from the top of some wall-mounted cabinets, gone over her head, and landed by the far side wall of the room!? They had flown approx 12 feet! She was enraged at this; 'he' could have hurt her or her daughter, if she had been present! In anger she actually shouted: ‘You bastard!’, she had been so livid.
Apparently, things actually went quiet after this, for around a year or so... but the mother then got the feeling that the presence in the house had seemingly changed from male to female? The male was still present - sensed lurking upstairs, at night - and they still had to sleep with a light source, because of this. However, ‘she’, the seemingly 'female' element became a focal point of activity on two occasions.
One Christmas, a new tree had been purchased and three photographs taken of it. (Sadly, with the changing of phones over the years, the photographs concerned have been lost). The images were taken around 1 am - after the tree had been dressed - 1 with the tree lights off, 1 with them on and another with an ornament, belonging to a deceased, maternal grandmother, on it. The mother spoke out loud to her Nan, telling her how lovely the ornament looked on the new tree. However, she then looked at the photographs and what she saw sent her cold. While the tree itself was obviously the focus of the images, they had also caught a mirror, situated over the mantle piece, which reflected back towards the doorway into the hall. The door was slightly open and, clearly visible, there was the transparent outline of a woman - halfway in the doorway - looking into the the room! The figure only appeared in one of the three shots. (At the time, the pictures were shared among family members. Inquiries have been made as to whether anyone still has the pics, but, unfortunately, it seems that no one kept them).
In the second instance, the mother - something of a night-owl - was sitting downstairs alone, in the back room of the house, around 1.30 am. There is a sofa situated by the entrance door, with another towards the far end of the room near a TV and a set of French doors. The mother was sat on the furthest sofa. The French doors had their blinds open - no net curtains - so a clear reflection of the rest of the room could be seen in the window glass. All of a sudden the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she felt frozen in fear... She found that she couldn't turn her head to look at the entry door. She sat there for what seemed like minutes just waiting for something to happen... though it could have only been seconds. Then, reflected in the French doors, she saw 'her' come in... A little, white, transparent, old lady came ‘shuffling’ into the room - very slowly - and sat down on the sofa near the entrance door, then simply 'disappeared' within a couple of seconds of sitting down!
The mother was amazed! She had no sense that the old lady was evil, or malevolent, in any way... but it certainly did scare her. She told her sister what had occurred the very next day and - only a couple of days later - the sister dropped by at the house, just as they were going out. It was early afternoon and, as she popped upstairs to grab a coat, she heard her sister shout "Oh my God!" Rushing downstairs, she found her sister to be shaking and as white as a sheet... she said, "Oh my God...! She’s just walked past me (in the hallway) and gone in there (the back room)!"
The description she gave of the figure tallied exactly with what had been witnessed only days earlier, right down to the woman's shuffling motion!
During the earlier half of 2018, the family suffered a house fire, meaning that they had to leave the property while it was cleaned and repaired. Even without the family present, strange things seem to have continued at the house, however... the 'crosses', shown in the three photographs accompanying this post, seemingly 'appeared overnight', on both sides of the door frame to the parents bedroom and the bathroom! The markings certainly hadn't been there previously and their appearance caused cleaners to 'down tools' and refuse to return! What the crosses were made with is a mystery, but they were described as 'sticky to the touch' and impossible to remove...? Interestingly, the mother of the family knew the previous occupants of the property when she was young and they were staunch church-goers... It appears that the crosses were never removed, but simply 'painted over' during the subsequent renovation work.
During their time working in the house, builders discovered house deeds in the loft and, inside the deeds, there was a death certificate for a male who had died in the property. It was this man, the mother believes 100%, who was the 'presence' she had been sensing and experiencing in the past. While the house was still being renovated, she traveled to the property - during the early hours of one morning - and said, out loud, what had happened to ‘his’ house... It was explained that that the builders were only repairing and restoring the house and that no one means any harm. She then read out his death certificate and said that he could still visit his former home... as long as no one heard, saw, or felt him, and that he left her daughter alone!
After the house was completed, around 3 months later, it felt completely different; she sensed nothing malevolent there at all.
Some weeks further on and a friend of the daughter of the family said that their sister was a medium, who wanted to 'master her gift'... and asked if she might be able to 'do a reading'? Upon her arrival, the daughter was told that a 'little man' had been following her around since 7 am... but she didn't know who this was? Straight away, the daughter identified this man as her grandfather, who had been a Lay Preacher and whose ashes were always kept in the mothers bedroom in the house. (It was this situation that the latter believes kept the haunting activity away from her at night. It was suggested that the presence of the father / grandfather serves to keep the happenings at a minimum - not completely gone, but 'low', at a tolerable level).
During the reading, a second, male presence was 'picked up on' and this spirit told her: "I’m not a part of the family... but I’ve been with their family... I want to say that I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that I’d ‘gone’, but I do now, and I’m sorry for what I did!"
The mother is sure that this was the haunting presence, the deceased, previous resident of the house, apologising for his actions... I'm told that they have had no more 'major' incidents in their home and the property is now peaceful. On occasion, the family cats will still 'stare at something', but, certainly, nothing feels bad or oppressive. Once in a while, the occasional knocks on the mothers dressing table might be heard... but, compared to how bad it was previously, they are happy to live with this!
