Growing Up With A Ghost

This story is something I have wanted to write down for a long time. It combines a mixture of personal memories from myself and stories from my family.

I was born on a council estate in North Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. There was my Mam and Dad and, at the time, my younger sister. I remember from a very young age the feeling of dread when I walked up the staircase to visit the toilet or go to my room. I would stop and look behind me and then run up the stairs. The strangest thing about this I remember jumping from the top of the stairs and being taken hold of, and the only way I cam describe it is "floating to the bottom. I do not know whether I was dreaming this or it actually happened. Here is the strange thing, years later my sister and I were talking about the old house (we had moved at this point) with our family over a few drinks at Christmas time. I told her about my experiences and she said the SAME thing used to happen to her!

During this family get-together one Christmas night, a lot of stories came to the forefront. Apparently, according to my parents, I ran in from the garden one day and stated that I had been talking to an old man in the garden, but there was nobody there.

One day my Mam and Dad went out for the night and we were being babysat by my dad's younger sister. Nothing happened whilst they were out but it did when they came back. She said she was talking to them in front of the fire (she was standing in front of them, they were sitting down). Alison went white. When asked what was the matter, she replied, "Did you not see that man walk past you?"

Other things like when I was young in my cot, and asleep in my own room, my dad said he could hear my potty moving around the bedroom. When he went to inspect, it was quiet. (His was in the bedroom next to me.) He even jammed the potty under the cot leg and still heard the noise! He went to inspect and it had been moved from being jammed under the cot leg!

Our neighbours complained also about loud banging and noises from our heating pipes... But we had silence from our house.

Lastly, the strangest story. My parents were asleep one night and were both awoken by a noise coming from their bedroom door. My dad said that there was a white light coming from the bedroom door and it was opening! The scary thing is the door was opening the wrong way. It was opening back on itself instead of into the bedroom. My parents said they put their heads under the blankets and it went away.

All the other houses around this one are more or less knocked down now for new development, but this one is still standing.

I have nightmares about the place and wonder if strange things are still happening to the present family. I was so young, was I dreaming? Or what about the stories from different sources? You decide:)

I have had a few other ghostly experiences - at other homes. I might publish these later.