I had an experience that wasn't a ghost, but it was not something that falls into your standard Newtonian physics...
My grandmother died in 2002. It hit the family very hard as we all loved her very much (despite her various foibles, she was the coolest nana ever!
). One night, a couple of months after she died, I was rather contemptuous with my mum. I didn't have a row with her, but I was in a bit of a mood and spoke to her like she was an idiot. Which in my opinion is not how you speak to your mum.
That night, I had a
very lucid dream. It is hard to explain but despite it being a dream, I didn't really
see anything. But there was what can only be described as a "presence". It felt strange, yet familiar. Then I realised it was my nana. She said to treat my mum with more respect. That is exactly the kind of thing she would have said. Then she went.
Despite the whole lucidity of the event, which felt like it had really happened, despite being in my sleep, I tried very hard to pursuade myself it was a dream.
After a week or so I couldn't keep it to myself any longer. I was at my parents' house, and I explained the whole thing to my mum, hoping it wouldn't upset her. She looked puzzled and said "Perhaps I should tell you something". As it happens, my sister was "visited" by Nana on the very same night in the very same manner.
My sister and I have never talked about it. We both know the other one had the same experience, but for some reason we have never discussed it.
Now, I understand it that many, or most, of you are sceptical, but if you had ever met this woman you would know that if anyone was able to speak from beyond the grave, she would be the one. A real one-off, in her own way an enigma.
I also have a few haunted house stories to tell, but I'll leave those for another time!
