Prank-pulling POLTERGEIST
I’d heard rumours my new home was haunted, but would the spirit make itself known? By Tiggy Bailey, 57
My neighbour smiled as we sat together in her front room having a cuppa. ‘You do know your house is haunted, don’t you?’ she said. ‘By an old lady who only children can see.’
I’d just moved into the cottage next door. Built in 1402, there was no denying it had a lot of history. But surely it couldn’t have a ghost.
Many more villagers told me about the ghost over the coming months, but there was no evidence to suggest any paranormal activity.
Then my friend Beth came to house sit while I was on holiday. When I returned, she shook her head. ‘Never again,’ she said. ‘The house doesn’t like me.’
Beth told me how the freezer door would fly open by itself while she was watching TV. And when she opened my usually immaculate kitchen cupboards, everything tumbled out onto her head, as though they’d been pushed. Not long after, I started to notice strange goings on myself. Like when I lost a pair of gloves. I searched high and low, but they were nowhere to be found.
‘Your house is too cold,’ a friend joked. ‘I bet the ghost has your gloves. Boost the heating and she’ll give them back.’
‘What a load of rubbish,’ I laughed.
But when I did turn the heating up, the gloves appeared inside the pocket of my fleece.
Another time, I lost my keys and found them in the dishwasher two weeks later.
Then there was the exposed beam in my kitchen. When I moved in, I discovered a handful of old coins stuffed into a crack in the beam. Every so often, the coins would go missing. They’d always be returned a few days later though.
And when my colleague Glen and
I were in my car for work one day, my lunch box flew from the back seat into the front. ‘I didn’t realise it was Bring Your Ghost to Work Day,’ Glen chuckled.
By then, I felt very at home with my prank-pulling spirit. But she made it clear she didn’t like change.
When I first started dating my now-husband Totters, 54, she wasn’t best pleased. ‘Have you seen my phone?’ he asked one day.
We searched everywhere but couldn’t find it. However, when we returned to the sofa, it was sitting there neatly next to mine. There was no way we could have missed it.
‘Oh, that’ll be my ghost,’ I said. ‘She’s just making her presence known.’
These days, she’s just as mischievous as ever. My possessions often disappear, only to turn up some time later in the middle of the living room floor or on the sofa.
If Totters and I rearrange any knick-knacks, our haunted housemate will have a tantrum and start throwing things until we return them to their original spot.
I’m not scared of her though. If anything, she’s a welcome presence in our cottage. She just doesn’t like change.