The Lady In A Night Gown

Here is another story about my early paranormal experiences. Unfortunately, the end was tragic for one of the persons involved.

It was in 1956, I was staying in the town of Rose Hill when I was young and I had friends staying in the town of Curepipe which is in the center of the island. I was I think 12 then, when I went to one of my friends on school holiday. He was staying in a colonial style house and had 4 sisters and 1 brother. One of the sisters seemed sick and sad. She was quite thin with tired eyes.

Their house was situated quite close to the train station (there were trains then but were soon to be dismantled).

At my arrival, the parents of my friend told me that we were not allowed to play neither by the basement of the house accessed from outside nor on the big trees of "Jamalacs" (wax apple) and "bergamot" in their yard. If doing so, we would become sick and no doctors would be able to treat and cure us. On top of that, we had to be in the house by 5h45 pm. We should never be playing at around 6pm and after in the yard. I already got scared but also curious. I asked my friend why? He told me that his parents used to do a kind of offering every week or month, - I don't remember -, where they would place under the trees, one lit cigaret, I small glass of rhum as well as some sardines. This "tradition" is inherited from the Indian culture. Apparently, doing so would attract a spirit called "minis prince" who would protect your yard from bad spirits and intruders.

I was going to spend a week there and was very uneasy about all those warnings. My friend then told me that his parents did that because people would get into their yard (there were no gates then, only an alley leading to the yard) and steal things as well as fruits on the trees.

He continued saying that his family, neighbors and workers had seen this spirit several times and which appeared as a very tall white and thin entity. No one should look at his face otherwise being slapped and becoming very sick even dying. (terrifying!).

Apparently, one day, some kids penetrated their yards and got onto the trees to steal the fruits. Later on, at their place, they became very sick. 2 of the boys died, a third one became insane.

I don't know if he was exaggerating or saying the truth but I was terrified. I definitely did not want to stand by those trees at all and would not want to see any "minis prince" whatsoever.

The 2 first days went by without any problem. On the third day, however, an event upside down the tranquility of the house.

By 7 o'clock, we were inside playing dominos. I wanted to go the toilets. I left the room where everybody was and walked toward the corridor. As I passed by a window, I looked outside and saw a woman dressed in white walking from a wax apple tree towards the basement of the house which could only be accessed from outside. I was intrigued by this vision which seemed very unusual. I lost sight of her. After doing my business, I told everybody what I saw. They all looked at each other and I could see fear and embarrassment on their face. They told me it was ok but no one wanted to talk. We played some more dominos then had diner. By 9 pm everybody went to bed.

I was sleeping in the same room than my friend. I asked him about what I had seen and he said that it was a ghost. I could not believe it! He said that this ghost would from time to time wander by and in the house. It would normally appear to two of the sisters in their rooms. As a kid I was fascinated by that story and I was feeling being in the middle of that story. We carried on talking and I don't know at what time we drifted into sleep.

I woke up later in the middle of the night, I wanted to pee. Curepipe is colder than Rose Hill and we were in winter (tropical winter), so it was very cold and damp. I heard strange noises in the house, can't explain, but I could also hear someone whining softly. I was terrified to go to the toilets but I could not hold my pee anymore, I had to go quickly. I opened the door slowly, peered in the corridor and then walked quickly to the toilets which was at the end of the corridor. I quickly did my business but heard like footsteps coming up the stairs. The stairs were almost at the other end of the corridor. I slowly opened the door of the toilet and saw a woman in a white night gown walking from the top the stairs to the room of the girls.

She had like a candle in her hand. She looked like the woman I had seen earlier. What terrified me is seeing this woman go through the door of the girls' room and disappear with her candle. I was in shock and did not want to leave the toilets. I kept looking at the door of the girls' when I heard a loud scream and some thumping noise. Soon, I saw the parents coming out of their room to get into the girls' room. I took the opportunity to run back into my room.

As I got in, my friend woke up and asked me what was happening. I told him what I had seen. Meanwhile we heard the parents and girls talking and someone crying. The girls' room was opened and everybody was up. One of the daughter had actually seen the lady in her room. Just for you to figure out what happened. The girls' room had been split into two rooms. Therefore, to access the last room, you had to go through the first one from the corridor. The two girls in the first room were sleeping and the ghost seemed to have gone in the room between the two beds then walked through the second door to access the last room.

During her passage, the bed covers had been messed and covered the faces of the two first girls. In the second room, one of the girls was not sleeping. She saw the lady come through the door with a candle and stare at her with a scary face, she screamed and the candle went off. Her sister was woken up by the scream and switched on the light. There was no one in their room. The girl who had seen the ghost was shaking and crying. She seemed terrified. It seemed that she had had other scary encounters with that ghost. All of us finally got back to bed and the girls slept with their sisters in the first room.

My remaining days there were very spooky because the parents did not want to talk about these apparitions and there was a heavy atmosphere in the house. We kids met with other friends of the area and talked a lot about the paranormal events and each was adding more scary things about the yard. There must have been a lot of exaggeration as well.

Anyway, I went back home and told my parents about the events.

Two or three months later, we had the sad news that the girl who had seen the ghost died in a very strange accident. The floor of her bathroom collapsed while she was having a shower and she died. The family moved away a few weeks later to another town. The house was left abandoned and was destroyed a few years later. Before it's destruction, many people saw that woman as well as the white spirit in the yard and alley.

My thought is that the girl must have seen that white spirit or played under the trees at the prohibited hours and died because doing so. God only knows...