The Land of Grimney - The Illustrated Adventures of Cora Pearl, aged 12

I had to tell this, my friends mostly don't believe it, so I rarely mention it nowadays, but it is 100 percent true.

I work as a nurse, and last year a young man and his new girlfriend were brought into hospital, they had been in a bad bike smash, he had lost control of the bike and crashed into a wall. The girl was in a coma with a severe head injury, and the man was critical but conscious. He was delirious and kept saying "Yes, Sally tell my mum, tell my mum" It was very distressing. Anyway, at midday his girlfriend tragically died. Neither of the two had any contact addresses or bank cards in their possessions. At half one the young man woke up and smiled at me and said "Thank you Sally" before slipping unconscious again. At half one an elderly lady entered the hospital and approached a doctor. She said that their was a knock on the door (this was unusual as she had a doorbell) she opened it and a young girl told her that her son was in hospital after being involved in a bike crash. The girl seemed perfectly normal, she was pale skinned, dark haired, very dark eyed, and pretty. Before the mother could find out more, Sally was at the bottom of the garden and strolling away through the gate.

It did not take long to discover that the girl who had been killed was Sally, and the girl that visited the young man's mother had been the very same. It appears that the son and his mother had been estranged from each other for some years, but Sally had told her boyfriend that day that he should make peace with her as you only ever have one mum. I heard that they had become a family again, as was Sally's last wish.

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Anyone else had anything odd like that happen to them? It was the strangest day of my life, although it has changed the way I look at the world completely.

That is quite scary. I am spooked.

Entirely true I think about it quite often, gave me the creeps for some weeks. Then I thought that in many ways it is a happy story. It's an odd one to define....

It is true. So you don't believe me? You don't believe in ghosts? Neither did I until that happened, but can't explain it any other way.

Not as spooky but when I moved into my last house 9 years ago my youngest son, about 9 then, complained regularly that a small girl in a long nightgown often sat crying in the corner of his room at night. There was a boarded up window in his room and once we had removed the board and allowed the light back in the window, which was still intact behind the boarding, the girl disappeared never to be seen again.

Most odd.

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Nydas
http://www.walkerbroad.co.uk
http://www.thesanitycompany.co.uk/

The world is a very strange place, yes, that is creepy too. That story goes with your spooky enigmatic picture, and your rather deep unsettling poetry Nydas.

Not exactly a ghost story. Something, perhaps, a little darker.

When I was 7, I had a nervous condition. My notes called it a tic. My parents called it St Vitus Dance. Whatever it was, my head would shake violently, i would be continually clenching and releasing my muscles.

The doctor put me on Phenobarbitone and told my parents I would have to take it for the rest of my life. I was sent to Great Ormond Street Hospital, then Tadworth Hospital, for a total of about 3 months.

Sometime later, parents and doctor saw an improvement. As an experiment, they took me off of the tablets. To everyone's surprise, there were no withdrawal symptoms from the drugs, and no sign of the illness.

A few days later, my parents received a letter from an aunt. She had gone to a spiritualist faith healer, and he had performed distant healing.

All seemed well, but there was something - different - about me.

I had an invisible friend. I didn't tell my parents, only my younger brother knew. And he probably thought it was a game.

Children at school sensed the oddness. I had very few friends as a child. Certainly none close enough to share birthday parties with. As I grew older, I became the target of bullies - children and teachers. I used to get obscene phone calls (we never did find out who it was).

I also seemed to experience telepathy, precognition, and astral projection. I studied folk lore and magic. I practices trance techniques, Raja Yoga, and self hypnosis. All the time urged on by this invisible "friend".

This continued until I was 21. Had I not been so secretive, I am sure I would have been diagnosed as psychotic and paranoid schizophrenic. I was afraid for my sanity. I tried to convince myself all was imagination, but couldn't.

I was at a college studying to be a computer programmer, when I told a couple of students about my experience. They told me I had a demon. This was Halloween 1978.

I had arranged to meet my older brother. As I walked to the agreed place, this invisible friend kept saying it was going to kill me. I got lost in an area I should have known well. On 2 occasions I stepped out in front of cars and was almost knocked down.

The following Sunday was November 5th. I joined my fellow students at a church. After the service, I was led to a side chapel, where I was exorcised and baptised in the Holy Spirit.

It was as if my mind was filled with a blue white light. I felt good. Very good indeed. I could have been mistaken for a drunk. The demon left me and has not returned (though I suspect it did try some years later).

That was many years ago. I am still a Christian. Still discovering new things about this new life I have.

_________________
Love all, forgive all, show mercy, condemn no-one.
May the King's peace be upon your body, mind, soul and spirit.
May love and joy be ever with you.

http://www.waycyber.com

When I was about 14 I was at home one evening, in the living room watching television. All of a sudden there was a loud thump on the bedroom floor directly above me. I went up to the room to investigate. Although the room was mostly in darkness there was enough light to confirm that nothing had fallen over or slipped onto the floor. As I moved around the room I could feel movement of air like breathing, although it was a still night. Then there was a low but very deep and very distinct growling sound which seemed to come from one corner of the room. It did spook me, but I thought it was the family dog... but when I went back downstairs the dog was fast asleep in its bed.
I used to work with a lady whose father was in the Army, and when she was a young girl he was posted to Germany and stationed near Belsen concentration camp. She told us that the area was always eerily quiet, and no trees or flowers grew. She also told us stories about hearing a baby crying and voices of adults who seemed to be looking for the child, and also that her mother regularly saw and heard figures and anguished voices.
One final tale, which isn't really a ghost story as such but it still gives me goosebumps. My father passed away suddenly when my daughter was not quite two years old. On the day of his passing we were at my mother's house, and my daughter was playing out in the garden. As she was playing an aeroplane passed overhead, my daughter stopped what she was doing and watched, fascinated. She raised her arm and waved at the plane, and as she did so she said 'Grandad' clear as a bell. It was almost as if she knew he had passed, although being so young she had no idea of the trauma we were going through that day. Its a very special memory for me.