Family Incidents

A few months back I wrote about my experiences while house-sitting at our eldest daughter's home. While I was away, my husband, Ray, had an incident of his own.

Ray was sitting in our lounge one night, watching DVDs on the TV. He was seated in his Lazyboy, right opposite the TV, with only the lounge light on. From this vantage point, the first part of our L shaped passage can be dimly seen, as light filters through the open-plan dining room, then the serving hatch abutting the passage.

Unexpectedly, Ray's attention was caught by movement out of the corner of his left eye. He was startled, as he knew that he was alone in the house and all was locked up tight. He glanced to the left and was just in time to see a shadowy female figure cross the passage and walk into the kitchen - a matter of three steps. In other words, she had walked through the wall dividing our dining room and the passage to be able to enter the kitchen in this manner. This was not Ray's first sighting of "The Lady", but it was his first time seeing her so close to him.

We have never discussed "The Lady" in front of our (twelve-year-old) granddaughter, Shenay. She spends at least two weekends a month at our house, plus school holidays.

Last month I did myself a mischief, hurting my back and incurring a pinched nerve. I spent the better part of six weeks in bed. During this time, Shenay's school holidays occurred. She would spend time with me, sitting on the side of the bed, chatting about all sorts of things, and just keeping me company.

We had a big sign tacked to our passage door with a reminder to switch the hot water geyser on, or off. One evening the sign was hanging by only one tack - the other was nowhere to be found. Ray came to ask me if I had removed the tack; I had not. Shenay was sitting on the bed with me when Ray walked away saying, "Daar 'pook" (literally translated - there's a ghost); a saying we have jokingly used for years, when something odd happened in our house. Shen turned to me and very seriously said, "Well, you have three possibilities". I raised my eyebrows at her. "Yes", she went on. "The Lady", Zeus, or my mommy". I was surprised as she had never mentioned "The Lady" to me before. I questioned her further. It transpires that she too has seen the shadowy figure of the female that lived in the farmhouse which occupied our land previously. I found that interesting; she is the fourth person to have seen her in our house.

During my 'incarceration' in bed, Nicky, our eldest daughter, came for lunch one Sunday. After lunch, we three females went to lie on my double bed. I crawled into my 'nest' while Nicky lay next to me on Ray's side of the bed, Shen sprawled across the bottom. We chatted for a while, then Nicky drifted off to sleep. Shen and I left her to sleep for a while.

When I returned to the bedroom, Nicky had turned over, facing away from me - I thought she was still asleep. She wasn't. We started chatting again. I confided that on a number of occasions I had felt a presence in the room, but I couldn't tell who it was. Nicky said that something like that had never happened to her in this house. Suddenly she jerked her head up, looking over her shoulder towards the bottom of the bed, with the words, "Shen, is that you?" Naturally, I had a look too - we were the only ones in the room. Right on cue, someone/something had moved from the foot of the bed towards the door and Nicky had seen it. LOL. Just to prove that I wasn't making up stories.

Just the other evening, as I was laying in bed reading, I noticed a translucent, light grey mass move swiftly past the other side of the bed. I can't say it was a figure, as it didn't conform to any shape. A "What the heck was that?" moment flashed through my mind. After a few seconds deliberation, I settled back on my pillows. I concluded that it was only my aunt passing on the way to her Granny-flat, which she had occupied for 28 years before her death. Hmm... Interesting! It is the first time I have noticed that.

On 31 July, Nicky emailed me from work. Her 'tone' was one of excitement. Angel (her departed sister, mother of Shenay) had awoken her by saying "Hello". Nicky says she even felt Angel's breath on her cheek. She replied by saying, "Hi! Sis". What a lovely way to wake up in the morning!

Some time back, can't remember when exactly, Nicky had bewailed the fact that *she* never received messages from her sister, besides the white feathers. I told her that maybe Angel had been sending her messages, just that maybe she had been too preoccupied to become aware of them. Nicky replied, something to the effect of, "Hmm, I guess it would have to be something 'in your face' for me to notice". It wasn't long after that that she told me of waking up to a presence next to her bed. Suddenly she felt a blast of air in her face, enough to move her hair. Well, how much more 'in your face' can you get?

I am dubious about submitting this last incident that took place. I have no idea if it is paranormal or not, but here it is.

I had a weird experience last week. I was in the kitchen making myself toast for breakfast. Ray was out, visiting a friend; I was alone at home. Our toaster sits on a shelf facing our kitchen window. As I went to take the toast out of the toaster, the lace curtain billowed up into my face. Not just the piece nearest me and the toaster, but the whole width of the curtain. The window was shut! In all the 46 years I have lived in this house, I have never had that happen before, not even when the window was open. It was a 'what the heck' moment.