Poorly chicken

[Chortle Chook]

Perhaps I should have kept this for Halloween, but how about a thread about ghosts Omleteers have had in their homes.

 

We have a ghost in this Vicotrian house. She (her name, I have found out from others in the village, is Mary) will insist on smoking in my bedroom and study (neither I nor my OH nor any of my friends smoke). However I reckon that it is as much her house as mine and that she has as much right to be here as I do and so I talk to her, explain why I'm changing anything or if an upheaval is coming and when I smell her cigarettes I ask her to please keep her smoking to the garden (Apparently she died here, not in Victorian times, but in the 1970s of lung cancer )

 

I've lived with a a poltergeist in my parent's house when I was a child but that was rather nasty. A hair brush was thrown across my parents' room from the window side to the door on the other side, when I opened it; a towel was slung at the door in my Gran's bathroom when I opened that, and the back door slammed on the day we left the house (which was a totally windless day) so hard that all the glass fell out. Mary by contrast seems rather kind.

[Cinnamon]

I have seen 'things' before & can only assume they were ghosts.

As a child I lived in a huge house - more of a Mansion really (it was a nightclub),& saw odd things in the building & grounds. I once saw an Army officer - I remember that very clearly.

 

This house that we are in now is very old & the chap who lived here died here too....it was then empty for a long time.

He was very old & slept downstairs,& used to bang on the wall between our houses if he needed help,which he frequently did.

Anyhow,not long after we moved in (there was a lot of noisy restoration work),we had a late night out.

The following day our neighbour asked what we had been doing at around midnight,as there had been a banging on their walls.

We had been out until 2am.......................turns out it had been 'Old Teds' birthday that day

[Space Chick]

My Aunties house was haunted when we were growing up, it was my Uncles mother. I used to be able to see her, and I used to get into trouble for "telling stories" about what she was doing. After months and months, my Mum finally believed me.

 

She was a friendly ghost, she would walk down the stairs and sit in a green leather chair in the study, just watching what was going on. I think on some level the family must have known as "Ooops, word censored!"ody ever sat on that chair they'd sit on the floor first

 

I have had a few "visitors" to my house, one was quite vicious and moved my bed and slammed my door. I told him to leave and never return, and he didn't. Also my Nan used to pop around for the first few years after she died, the only problem was she kept opening the back door

[keyhole kate]

In 1971 when I was 11 my parents decided to become publicans and I had to live with my aunt whilst they trained and were offered there own pub. Whilst living there I made friends with a girl called Wendy also aged 11 one day when I went to knock for her and while standing at the front door waiting for her to answer looked left through the window into living room where I saw a man sitting in the armchair thinking nothing of it I went in and when in the kitchen asked Wendy who the man in the living room was she said there was no one apart from her in the house. I described the man to her and she got out a photo album and asked me to look through it and within minutes pointed out the man she said that the man in the photo I had picked out was of her Dad who had died when she was eight, she was completely un fazed as though this was the most normal thing in the world and said that he was often seen about the house. At the time however I was freaked out by it.

I have gone on to see my grandmother who died suddenly when I was sixteen, I was devasted as we were very very close, several months after her death I was comforted to see her walk past my bedroom door stop look directly as me and smile and walk on it was then I realise that having gone gradually blind whilst alive she could now see me something she hadn’t been able to do since I was about eight I felt at peace knowing that having seen her I was comforted to know she was still with me and would always be around me.

[Griffin]

My nan died when I was 17. We were always very close. After she died I saw her a few times at our house, if she ever came to stay when she was alive she'd sleep in the spare room and afterwards I'd see her on the bed in that room, just sitting there. My grandad died when I was 8 and I heard him calling my name a few times.

 

I don't recall seeing my nan when I moved out aged 20 but she certainly visited us at our second house. She'd move things that belonged to Mr Griffin We'd hear someone walking around upstairs and we both knew it was her. I found it comforting to know she was there but it terrified Mr Griffin It broke my heart to think that she never got to meet my girls and they missed out on having the great relationship with her that I had so I always felt that she was around looking after them. My mum said she could feel her there too. I've not seen her since we moved out, we'll have been in this house 8 years in October, she's not 'met' Georgia my youngest daughter Daughter number 3 Emily must've seen her when she was small because when making pretend cups of tea with her tea set she'd often say one of them was for Mary (my nans name).

 

One of my first foster cats was a tortie & white girl who came to me aged 7 months. I fell in love instantly and called her Phoebe. A few weeks later I fostered a 12 week old kitten who had came back into our care. He struck up a really close bond with Phoebe and I couldn't bear to part them so Joe stayed too They were the best of friends, always glued to each others side or glued to me. I clearly recall Phoebes last few hours, they were spent laying on the sofa with me. They went out to play and Phoebe never came back. Aged 13 months she was killed on the road. I can honestly say losing her rates in my top 10 worst experiences ever. Joe missed her too. His face would change if I spoke to him about her, he was a very clever cat and he understood what I was saying. One day I was sat on the floor next to him, he was on a chair, so basically our heads were at a similar level. We were talking and I mentioned her name, he instantly looked up and I could see his head moving as his eyes followed something. I looked over and saw her too, she walked past us just yards away. Joe then looked at me. I knew he'd seen her too.

 

I'm certain that when I kick the bucket my nan and Phoebe will be there waiting for me!

 

We've got a ghost cat here in this house although I'm not sure who it is yet. They sleep on Mollys bed. She says she can feel a cat laying down next to her legs but when she looks there's "Ooops, word censored!"ody there but there is a dip in her duvet. Our cats are cremated and I put their ashes in cushions. She's got two cushions on her bed, Ezzie and Alex. I assume it's one or both of them! I'd like to see them.

[bluekarin]

One day I was sat on the floor next to him, he was on a chair, so basically our heads were at a similar level. We were talking and I mentioned her name, he instantly looked up and I could see his head moving as his eyes followed something. I looked over and saw her too, she walked past us just yards away. Joe then looked at me. I knew he'd seen her too.

 

Oh that just brought tears to my eyes. Poor puss cat

 

Ghosts in houses, or at least the idea of having one freaks me out no end. I don't think I would be comforted at all. My husband has seen things here, but I have asked him not to tell me. He did once - didn't sleep properly for a month

[The Dogmother]

I am a total sceptic and probably the last person to believe in this sort of thing, but I've lived in a haunted house; a totally benign presence.. knockings, things moved, cold spots, doors opened. The usual stuff.

 

My Nonna (Italian grandmother) came back to see me after she died - very clearly and distinct. She's been with me on and off ever since and is a very comforting presence.

[lillybettybabs]

before we moved down here we lived in a rented house in a village outside Solihull.

I have near felt such a horrible presents in my live; OH worked away a lot and i would go to bed with an air

rifle at the side. It was a heavy feeling i i didn't see anything i just knew something horrid had happened

there.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Ghosts in houses, or at least the idea of having one freaks me out no end. I don't think I would be comforted at all. My husband has seen things here, but I have asked him not to tell me. He did once - didn't sleep properly for a month

 

 

Me too bluekarin. I have never seen anything, and I don't ever want to, I know I would be absolutely freaked out rather than comforted, especially if it was someone I didn't know.

The house we live in was brand new when we bought it, and was a farm previously, so I do sleep soundly knowing that no-one has ever died here and the scariest thing that might come visiting is the ghost of a hen or a cow!

[The Dogmother]

before we moved down here we lived in a rented house in a village outside Solihull.

I have near felt such a horrible presents in my live; OH worked away a lot and i would go to bed with an air

rifle at the side. It was a heavy feeling i i didn't see anything i just knew something horrid had happened

there.

 

I had the feeling in a house once - didn't stay there long.

[millie]

I rented a house near Manchester airport for a short period. It had double glazing and secondery glazing, was very small, just an old terrace 2 up and down. I lived there with my baby son and his father. I smelt a couple of times, someone walking past with a strong perfume on, (or thats what it seemed like) the way it hits you, then drifts away, think it smelt like lavander. This only happened when i sat in the arm chair. I thought of allsorts, it wasnt when i'd just sat down, so a smell didnt waft up, there was no one but me and son in house, no drafts. I didnt tell a sole.

I came home from shoping with son one day, my partner was stould in the kitchen and said "something really weird happened today, i was sat in the arm chair", i knew the rest!!

[snowberry]

When I left home, I lived in a 1950's block of flats in Putney. I had been there about 6-9 months when I raised the subject of the empty sofa seat in the living room. Like Spacechick, "Ooops, word censored!"ody sat in this space, not even guests. I wrote down what I thought & my flatmates did the same. When we compared the answers, we all roughly had the same answer . It was that the space was for the elderly lady who sat there all day & all night. She was lovely & just smiled benignly at everything that happened around her.

A while later I knew that she wasn't alone, though they weren't connected. People always complained about how chilly my room was even in summer. If I walked past my room & glanced in out of the corner of my eye, I saw an Edwardian gentleman in his 30's wearing an evening suit lying on his side, head in hand on my bed, looking at me. Hand on heart, I'm telling you he was evil. On those nights I took my chances in the living room with Granny ghost.

A couple of years later just before I moved out, I spoke to a man who lived in a coach-house at the end of our drive. Until then I hadn't realised that the flats were built on land that had previously been a mansion. The mansion had been destroyed in a massive fire that was apparently started by the son of the owner because of some monetry disagreement.

[Chookiehen]

I've worked in too many pubs in Edinburgh old town & New Town to not believe in ghosts. One pub in particular, was next to the old Royal Infirmary, and had several residents - one used to like waiting till there was only girls left at the end of the night, and would knock on the wall behind the old fireplace, and there was one occasion where I was pushed over when I was counting stock (like someone kicked me in the square of my back), when I was alone in the pub. And the first day I was left in charge, and was being very cocky, swinging my keys around like a warder. It got busy, so I put the keys in a locked drawer, and put the drawer key in my pocket, but when I unlocked the drawer again, the keys had gone - front door, back door, safe, office, cellar, the lot. Cue much panicking, and searching for about half an hour, until I was a nervous wreck, and went back into the locked drawer to get out the phone book to admit to the area manager what had happened, and there was the bunch of keys, sitting right on top of the phone book.

[Alis girls]

Cigarette smoke is a coomon one - our last house I smelt it in the kitchen numerous times and OH and ES did too on one occasion. Elecrical items switched themselves on as well in our old house.

Strangely in this house I have found the TV in my room switches it self on now on 2 occasions - OH said it was the cat walking over the remote but the cats were out. Our cat also stares intently at times and even if you stroke or call her name she ignores you she is so fixated. Strangely never felt scared. But then if its our loved ones why would we. My dad has seen my mum - it did scare him but i suspect thats because hes eldery and has a touch of dementia.

[lillybettybabs]

I used to smell smoke when ee first moved in this house, I had comforting thoughts that it was my Grandad

making sure i was ok. Turned out to be next doors youngest son having sneaky fags next to our fence.

[The Dogmother]

used to get that when next doors son would stand at their back gate having a fag - the smoke would drift in through the back door which is usually open in good weather he also used to flick his fag butts at my back gate, so one day I went out there with a dustpan and brush and swept them up while he watched, handed him the dustpan and asked him to dispose of the butts in his own bin. He didn't do it again

[Seagazer]

My dead Nan sat on my bed smoking a cigarette when I was 18. I thought it as my boyfriend (it was dark and I had been asleep). I only found out about 6 years later when my sister saw a medium, the medium said - your nan says to say thank you to Ann for the ashtray (I had got up and put one near to where my nan was sitting).

 

We have a ghost in this house that my ES has named Frank. He turns things on and off, freaks the cats out etc. One day, when I was on my own in the house, he moved my DD's study chair in her bedroom. I could hear it rolling across the wooden floor - that was a bit spooky.

 

The last experience I had was last year in a B & B in France. My hubby was snoring (too much vin ) so I moved to a bed across the room. It was pitch black in the room. I got settled in the bed and immediately there was a snippet of a conversation being held above my bed. To say that my mouth went dry and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest is an understatement. I jumped back in with hubby and kept my head under the covers.

 

I mentioned it the next morning and was fobbed off. On our last morning the B & B owner admitted that they hear conversations and had seen ghosts in the house. They asked me not to mention it if I left a comment on their website

 

I'm a bit worried about staying in different places now and would definitely never book to stay in somewhere that is known to be haunted.

 

My old dog Sally paid a last visit to me about 3 weeks after she died. I was so upset when she went that I took to my bed for a couple of days. A few weeks later and I was thinking about her whilst sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. All of a sudden the cat flap opened out into the garden. Sally always sat with her head looking out into the garden through the flap. I think she was letting me know she was fine.

[Alis girls]

I laughed out loud at the dustpan and brush one DM - the others make me tearful - I firmly believe in an afterlife of sorts. My OH was sceptical till he spelt the cig smoke (I did check outside for smokers no to be found!!) and he witnessed the CD player going on and off. Strangely both my house had a nice feel. i always thought houses with a presence would feel horrible.

[Space Chick]

I've had a few hotel related hauntings, one hotel in Exeter I stayed awake ALL NIGHT with this ghost freaking me out!! I was down there with work, didn't do particularly well at work the next day and bearly stayed awake on the drive back to South Wales.

 

My local theatre (that I used to go to when I was a teenager) has a resident ghost called Mary, she has been known to wreck sets if she doesn't like them, or help out when she does

[Seagazer]

I must say our house doesn't feel spooky at all. We all just say 'oh what's Frank doing now?'

 

I feel quite comforted by most of it. I just don't want any more to talk to me.

[Chortle Chook]

Despite being definitely susceptible to ghosts, I don't really believe in an after life and think that a ghost need not necessarily be the person themselves coming back, but could be a manifestation of the emotions that a paarticular person or persons have transferred to a place, especially if the emotions were very strong. When we see someone we love, it could be that we long for them so much that our emotions have conjured them up.

 

When my father died very suddenly I was totally grief stricken and was crying so hard on my drive back from my parent's home to my own that I could scarecely see. At a roundabout I very nearly had a serious accidient with a lorry. Suddenly my father's car (which none of us could start as none of us had the code ) appeared in front of me and guided me the full 100+ miles to my own home. I just followed it. When I got very close to my house, on a totally straight stretch of road, it disappeard. I think I had conjured it up - possibly.

[soapdragon]

What a fascinating thread! Its amazing how many people have had 'paranormal' experiences !

 

We live in a newish house - about 23 years old; have lived here for 15 years - and both OH and I have 'seen' someone but we didn't admit this to each other until we had been here for about 8 years ! On several occasions the figure that we have both seen was thought to be the other one of us but on a few occasions we have seen the figure when each of us was alone in the house.

 

Almost as soon as we moved in things would go missing only to reappear days/weeks/months later in completely different places - again it took us a while to cotton on that this was not just misplacing things or the other one of us moving things - it happened too often. I got into the habit of saying, out loud, 'Come on, please can we have xxxxxx back again as we really need it' or similar and it generally worked !

 

For us its not a frightening feeling - part of the reason that we bought this house was the good vibe when we viewed .

My most immediate expereince was when I was pregnant with ES, having dropped OH off at the pub one Sunday afternoon (as I used to do before children - wasn't he lucky !!) I felt partucularly tired, sick and generally worried as to how the pregnancy was going. I went upstairs for a lie down and then heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I looked towards the open bedroom door and saw a ......not sure how to describe it, not an actual figure but more of a person shaped shadow which moved through the door towards me. I felt very calm even though part of my brain was shouting 'this is not normal!' I was still lying on the bed and felt a gentle pressure on my forehead - very peaceful. The next thing I knew was that the 'phone was ringing....it was OH asking why I was so late picking him up. I had had the best and deepest sleep that I had had for months and felt really good. It was a very positive experience and, after that, I was far more relaxed and confident about the pregnancy.

 

Since the boys have arrived there has been very little 'activity' tho both boys talk about Wilf who lives with us and is obviously very real to them. I know that some children do have imaginary friends but still wonde r. In terms of who this 'prescence' might be, tho our house is quite new, the land it was built on was, apparently, part of the battlefield of a significant Civil War engagement so who knows!?

 

I have experienced several other very strong feelings - horror, despair, just plain nasty, peaceful, calm etc in other locations (varying from castles to stately homes to other peoples houses) over the years, not often but from time to to time and these always catch me unawares. Its interesting that these have occured when least expected; when we went to The Tower of London I fully expected to 'experience' something but did not, the same in the famous haunted gallery at Hampton Court.

 

Normally I am a very rational person but ...... I find it rather wonderful that all this is still going on in such a technical age when we seem to think that we know it all!

[Gertie]

I have a totally open mind about ghosts etc. I definitely know what you mean about vibes though. How nice to have felt soothed by the experience.

 

I was at a friends birthday party which was in a large apartment in a converted manor house. All the rooms came off one long corridor. I was pushing my friends little daughter up and down the corridor on her little bike with a handle on. I glanced into the kitchen and saw the bottom half of a lady wearing pencil style skirt in brown khaki, tights and court shoes standing with her back to the door. I got the overall impression of war era from the style. I didn't think anything of it until I got into the lounge and everyone at the party was assembled in that room, and no one had gone past me. So I think that might have been a vision of something. As soon as I saw everyone in the lounge, I got goosebumps all  over!!!!

[Guest]

I take Ghost Walks at work - I love storytelling and my public like them too!

 

I had never seen anything at work until a gorgous sunny evening last July, when we did and evening called "dine with the guides". My boss was taking a tour around the house after our meal and I went along to listen! Up in the attic, which was the childrens floor, (nursery, bedrooms etc) I felt a pussycat weave around my legs and looked down for him - but there was nothing there - I then felt a child grab my skirt as the cat ran around my legs....very odd - but not scary!

 

__

[snowberry]

My mum used to live in a flat in a converted house in Kensington Park Gardens.

One evening she heard, rather than saw a 'ghost'. She heard what sounded like a very tall woman in taffeta type large skirts walking down the hall.

But the steps carried on through the length of the house & remember this was a house conversion....there was a new wall partitioning it from the next flat..