On November 1, 1971, we moved into our OWN house. We had watched it being built, and were so excited when we moved in. I admit, it was a 'council house', but my husband was working for the municipality, and was allowed to buy it.
Our three girls shared a bedroom at first, until everything could be sorted out to my satisfaction. Everything went well. No problems of any kind.
In a few years, the eldest was going to school, then the next one and two years later, the last. At this time, I had a full time job, so did not get a lot of time to help our girls with homework etc.
When my Aunt from Kimberley, wrote to tell me that she had to vacate her house (which she had inherited from her mom, my Gran), I gladly invited her to come live with us. She had never married, so, had no children to look after her in her old age. She had helped my Gran look after me, when I was young, so it was only fair to look after her as she grew older. (Also, she would help our girls with their homework - BIG factor.)
Auntie, with the money that she got for her house, built a 'flatlet' onto our house. A lounge, bedroom and en suit bathroom. Unfortunately, due to the size of our property, the only inside access to the house, was through the main bedroom, although, she had her own front door.
Fast forward a good few years... The children had grown up and left home. Auntie was still hanging on... She grew very frail, but continued her usual practice of taking her meals with my husband and me, then watching TV with us in our living room, until bed-time. Most of the day, she would spend in her lounge, reading or napping.
Often on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday, when she was not with my husband and I watching TV, we would see her pass the doorway at the end of the passage and go into our toilet. My husband used to grumble, and ask me why she did not use her own.
One day, after seeing her go into OUR toilet, she took so long, that I went to see if she was ok. To my surprise, the toilet was empty. I shrugged it off, thinking that we had been too busy watching TV to notice her departure.
In February 2003, Auntie passed away in hospital from pneumonia, at the ripe old age of 93 ½, after living with us for 28 years. She is sorely missed, even after all these years.
Strangely enough, even after her passing, we still noticed her 'going to our toilet'. The only thing is, now we know it is not her. The other evening, during a discussion with my husband in the kitchen, we realised that we are seeing different women. He sees a woman in a long dress, walking upright. I see a woman, bent with age (maybe with osteoporosis, like my Auntie had.) Both he and I see the figure going into the toilet, but very seldom, see her coming out.
One night, I was in the living room alone, suddenly, my hair was parted at the back, by a huge breath of air. I swung around, startled, and before I realised that our cabinet with DVD player, amplifier etcetera was only about six inches away, said "Don't DO that"! I was mystified. No way could anything human have got behind me, and there was no draft in the house.
About three years ago, we were given a pair of pitch black Labrador x Rottweiler dogs (brother and sister). We already had a very unsociable Boerbull female (she hated men) but that was ok. Sasha had to be kept in the back-yard anyway. We kept our two black beauties in the front yard. Zeus and Cleo adapted well as they were only one year old. All was going well, until one morning in August, we discovered that all our dogs had been poisoned. Zeus was only barely alive! It was too late for the two females. We phoned our vet, who managed to get here and save Zeus, but only just!
After that, Zeus made a slow recovery in the house. He became a spoilt brat, being let into the house every night. He took up residence in our living room, sleeping on 'his own' couch. Every night, when he was well enough to eat solid food, he was (and still is) given a large bone, as a treat. He usually runs straight to the kitchen, where he sits in front of the fridge waiting for me, while I lock up the front of the house.
We noticed that on some nights, he refuses to enter the kitchen. He will sit in the passage outside the kitchen door and whine. Not even a juicy bone will coax him into the kitchen. On other nights, he will come into the kitchen, take his bone, but stand looking at the door to the passage, whining all the time. Then he will make a dash, skidding on the tiles, to get past the couple of inches of passage, and into the living room.
On one of the nights that Zeus refused to enter the kitchen, my husband and I were both in the kitchen, getting water before retiring. My husband said something to the effect "So, there is someone else here tonight". We left the room together, and commented to each other that we both had 'goose bumps'. Well, the goose bumps lasted all the way to the bedroom, and for some time after that. We confirmed with each other that it was the first time that that had happened! Never before had we had a hair rising experience in the bedroom.
One night last winter, my husband had retired to bed early, as he had a migraine. I was kept busy in the kitchen until about 9pm, then decided it was time to turn in too. The light was on in the living room. I noticed that the one chain from our ceiling fan was swinging wildly, and one bunch of keys on our key holder (there is place for four bunches) just inside our front door, was also swinging. My husbands' snores were resonating from the bed-room. That night, despite the chill outside, Zeus was very reluctant to come in doors. That night, he spent on the mat at the foot of our bed, not moving, until we let him out in the morning.
We are quite comfortable with our 'residents', even though there are sometimes 'things that go bump in the night'.
My question is, do you think we were just too busy, while the girls were still in the house, to notice anything out of the ordinary?
Thank you for reading my (boring) story.
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