I counsel troubled spirits
Isat upright in bed. ‘Sharon! Wake up!’ I hissed at my little sister, who shared my room. I was seven years old and in the half-light of the night I could see the shadowy outline of a tall man standing at the foot of my bed.
I jumped out of bed and ran to my parents’ bedroom, leaping onto their bed.
‘What’s the matter, love?’
Mum asked. ‘A bad dream?’
‘No,’ I replied, trembling.
‘It was real...’
When I told Mum and Dad about the shadow man they reckoned I’d imagined him, but they let me sleep between them.
By the following morning I’d decided perhaps it had all been a dream, but then a few nights later I woke to find the shadowy figure looking down at me.
‘Help!’ I yelled, running to Mum and Dad’s room once more. I kept seeing the man but kept being told he wasn’t real. Until one night when I was sleeping between Mum and Dad as usual and Dad suddenly sat up and switched the light on.
At the end of the bed, was the imprint of someone having just sat on the duvet.
‘Show yourself!’ Dad yelled, before running from the room and down the stairs.
When he came back he was shaking.‘I chased it to the cellar but it disappeared…’ he panted.
Now it wasn’t just me who’d seen the shadow man...
‘Let me tell her,’ my gran, who lived next door, told my parents when she heard what had been happening.
Mum and Dad shook their heads.
Tell me what? I wondered.
A year or so later we moved out. I still heard and saw unexplained things in our next home, but I didn’t see the shadowy figure again.
I was in my teens when my gran finally explained about my nightly childhood visitor.
Before we’d lived in the house next door to Gran, another family had lived there and they’d lost a daughter who’d been around my age.
‘Later, the dad took his own life,’ Gran said sadly.
Was the man haunting me because I was the same age as his daughter?
It made me feel really sad. The man hadn’t meant me any harm, he’d just been grieving and drawn to me. I’d been so busy being scared I’d never imagined him having his own feelings. Could I have helped him?
From then on I decided not to be afraid, but to listen to spirits I encountered.
A friend’s mum went to the local Spiritualist church so I got advice from her and read books about Spirit contact and managing the gift of mediumship. At 20 I married and it took seven long years of fertility issues to conceive my son Jordan. It was a difficult journey and I shut myself off from Spirit to protect myself.
A year after Jordan was born I had his sister, Kelly, followed nine years on by Chloe.
After my youngest, Jamie, was born in 2009 I started developing my psychic gift by attending development circles.
I also went on ghost hunts, where for some reason I seemed to attract troubled spirits, who couldn’t move on for reasons of despair or regret.
I’d feel their emotions and ask questions to build up the spirits’ trust: What’s stopping you finding peace? Is there a loved one left behind? Are you frightened to cross over?
Then I’d sit in silence with my mind open, waiting for them to talk to me. Sometimes I’d get a reply, other times they were more reticent.
In June 2017, Jordan, who also sees things, and I started our own paranormal investigation service called Brookes Paranormal.
Wherever we went I seemed to attract those spirits who needed help or healing.
One spirit was a lady called Katherine, who I saw in full colour. She was the mistress of the owner of an old building. When he’d discovered she was pregnant, he’d killed her.
Another man, who’d been a judge, told me how he’d sent many men to their deaths and had also killed his own wife by pushing her down the stairs. He too was trapped in this realm.
I didn’t judge. I just listened and let them tell me how they felt. Sometimes a chat is enough for them to move on. Others are ‘repeat spirits’ who come back to me again and again, even once healed, just for a chat!
Jordan and I have now run investigations all over the country. We have fun, but I still try to help lost souls when I can.
I’ll never know if the bereaved father I met as a child found peace, but it’s my aim to help any other spirits find theirs.
The man had just been grieving