Barefoot on the hard shoulder
I have always been an enthusiast of the paranormal, spending too much time reading about other people’s experiences and watching ghost programmes. However, I have always been a sceptic, assuming there were mundane explanations for these occurrences. That was until I had my own experience towards the end of June this year.
My mum and I were driving along the M55 between Preston and Blackpool, which we do regularly. My mum was driving in the middle lane and I was looking out the window when I saw a woman walking along the hard shoulder. She was tall and thin with long blonde hair, wearing a hot pink tank top, a white mini skirt and no shoes. My initial thoughts were, “Has she broken down? What is she doing? That’s so dangerous. Where is her car? She needs to be behind the barrier, or she will get hurt”. I was worried not only because of all the cars, but also because it was early and still chilly outside, and with no shoes and thin clothing, she would have been freezing.
Then an ambulance in the first lane went past us and she disappeared behind it. There wasn’t enough time for her to get over the bank that bordered the hard shoulder or behind the trees, because the ambulance was going at a fair speed; nor was there anywhere else she could have gone. She was there one moment and gone the next. I was so shocked I looked in the wing mirror as my mum moved back into the first lane. There was no one there, or anything that could have resembled the woman I saw. I then realised that there was no abandoned car on the hard shoulder either.
I immediately asked my mum if she had seen her, but she was concentrating on driving, as only a few minutes earlier she had had to swerve out the way as a car abruptly changed lanes without any warning or indication.
When I got home, I did some research to see if there had been any accidents or deaths on that part of the motorway. I found out that in 2004, a young woman had died while walking along that same motorway, with no shoes, bag or identification, trying to flag down cars. It happened at the same time of year that I saw her. Her clothing and appearance coincided with the age she was and what she could have been wearing at the time.
I am left with so many questions. Had I seen the spirit of the woman who died? Was she appearing because it was a time close to the anniversary of her death? I am so certain of what I saw that my opinion on the paranormal has changed forever.
Maddie Greenhalgh Lancashire