samhain

A while ago I mentioned in a post about my tarot cards, experiences and belief in the supernatural. I said I wasn't going to post about it, but a few people commented saying that they would like to read about it.
So as it's Halloween here's three stories about a spirit, a poltergeist and a message.

When I was about 20 I lived in a fairly old house. The place was falling apart really, but it belonged to a friend who didn't have the money to fix it up so he let my boyfriend and I live there for nothing. One night a bit of the ceiling above the landing collapsed and left a hole about a metre square right outside my bedroom door.
As a result it was always fucking freezing on the upstairs landing.

Another friend came to stay there for a while and brought a kitten with her. From the day she moved in, every night we would hear the kitten playing and meowing right outside our bedroom door and it always wanted to sleep under the hole in the ceiling.
I couldn't understand it, given that every cat I've ever had always wanted to sleep in the warmest part of the house, whereas this one seemed to like the coldest part of ours. A few times I tried bringing it into my bedroom but it would just sit by the door and cry until I let it out.

One night I was very upset about something and went downstairs for a while.
When I decided to go back up to bed, still crying, the kitten was sat at the top of the stairs on the left looking at something to it's right and as I passed it I felt something squeeze my hand.
Very gently, it felt comforting.
I remember standing there trying to figure out what had just happened, I was looking at my hand and as I did so all the hairs on my arm stood up and I felt something - like a very light touch - rub my arm.

I really wasn't scared - in fact I felt better.
At the time I was having driving lessons and my instructor was a member of a spiritualist church. A few days later I had a lesson booked but I'd forgotten about it so when he knocked the door I asked him to come in for a moment while I got ready, when I came back he was still stood by the door and was staring up the stairs.
He asked me if I knew my house had a spirit, and told me that there was a little girl stood at the top of the stairs with the kitten, but not to worry as she meant no harm.

I guess when we could hear the cat playing at night it was playing with her.
Soon after that Don who owned the house said we all had to leave as he was selling it on. Jodie moved out first, the day she left we could not find her kitten anywhere, and we never let it out as it was too young.
We never did find it.
I moved out a couple of weeks later, but in the nights before I did I sometimes heard what sounded like the kitten playing outside my room and once or twice I heard giggling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first children's home I worked in was in a building that had previously been an old peoples home. The upstairs was completely locked up apart from one room at the top of the stairs that was used for staff sleep-ins. The TV room was under the part that was never used but it was nothing unusual for us to hear someone walking about up there, and although we locked the kitchen at night there were times when in the morning pots would be out of the cupboards.
It wasn't the kids - there was no way they could get in these rooms once locked.
And often whoever was staying in the sleep-in room would hear knocking from the next room, which was empty and locked, some of the staff had refused to sleep in the room.

One night I stayed in this room, and when the knocking started I had said "you don't bother me so shut up" and just gone to sleep. In the morning when I woke up I got dressed and ready, gathered up my stuff (I was going off shift) and put everything apart from my house keys and the night keys (which I needed to lock the room behind me) away in my bag. I put the bag over my shoulder, left the room, locked the door, put both sets of keys in my jeans pocket and went downstairs. As I was going down I heard a bang from upstairs, so I turned round and said "fuck you" to whatever it was.

I went straight to the kitchen where the other staff member was, put my bag on the table and made a coffee. We were sat there chatting when the new days staff arrived. When I went to handover the keys I only had the house set in my pocket, no night keys. As my jeans were the only thing I was wearing with pockets I retraced my steps back, thinking they might've fallen out - but there was no sign. This was 7am on a Sunday and neither of the two kids we had in residence were there, both had gone on home visits for the week-end so there was only myself and my colleague in the building.

I was 100% sure I put them in my pocket, keeping keys safe is a habit in that job, but my colleague and I went through my bag, the only other place they really could be - no keys. I even 'shook' myself to see if I could hear them on me - nothing. We got the spare night set and went back up and looked in the sleep-in room - no keys. We went through everything but could not find them.
One of the women who had just come on shift had a few experiences of her own in that house, she asked me if anything had happened and I told her what I'd heard and said. . . she just gave me a knowing look and told me to go home, the keys would probably turn up eventually.

I went home, made a drink, turned the TV on and dozed off on the sofa.
When I woke up a couple of hours later I ran a bath, as I was taking my top off I heard a clinking sound and in the hood was the set of keys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The last story is maybe not so spooky, but to me it means more.

My Mum had a sister called Iris who died from cancer. I love the song Iris, it's always been one of my favourites even before my Auntie died. I had played it for my Mum too.
I lost my Mum three years ago this December, the day she died from the minute I got to her hospital bed I had that song playing in my head.
From then whenever I listened to it - in fact for a while I couldn't - it made me think of her.

Weeks later when we cleared her house we found a little portable stereo, Mum liked to listen to the radio at night and had used it for that. I took it home, put it in the bottom of my wardrobe and forgot about it.
Months later I was in my house with my then boyfriend, his football team were playing and as the match wasn't on the TV he wanted to listen to it on the radio. I remembered the little stereo so went and got it for him.

When it was half time he went off to make a drink and I decided to have a play around with the radio. The ex had found it hard to tune in when he was looking for the sports channel, but I moved the dial and straight away hit a music channel.
Guess what song was playing. . . .

Coincidence ?
There are hundreds of radio channels and millions of songs.

So I don't think so.

Happy Samhain people :)