The Haunting of a Poltergeist - This Is a true story

Myself and Mary my wife moved into our terraced house 24 Sherrard Road, Leicester, on the day we got married December14th 1968, it was not long after that Mary fell pregnant and we had our darling daughter Sarah on November the 8th 1969.

The house was mid terraced and had a front room with a fireplace leading to a backroom with a fireplace and a door to the upstairs of the property which had 3 bedrooms. There was no bathroom, or inside toilet, the toilet was outside down the back yard. The kitchen was no bigger than a “Galley Kitchen” and had no hot water, the only water tap in the house was in the kitchen and it was screwed to the window frame with a Belfast Sink resting on 2 pillars of brick just below. Also in the kitchen there was a food cupboard that went from floor to ceiling.

I had decorated the small bedroom at the back of the house for our new baby, the middle bedroom was not very nice and needed decorating, we had used it for a junk room until we had the time to sort out all our belongings. Mary became pregnant again and our son Sean was born on October 20th 1971 we were elated because we had the 2 children we wanted. It was now time to sort out the junk room for Sarah to sleep in, I decorated the room and we put a single bed in it too also a small picture of “Mary – Our Lady” which had been blessed as we were Catholics. It was from this day that things started to happen very slowly but it started to build up over the months.

As the months went by nothing happened not that we had noticed anyway! Mary used to sit in the front room changing Seans nappy she would sit by the fireplace and place the nappy pins on the mantle-piece but as she went to put the pins back in the clean nappy, the pins had disappeared. On a few occasions Mary would telephone me at work quite often saying had I taken any money off the mantle-piece or have I seen any nappy pins laying around and had I taken some to work? It was getting as though Mary would ring too often and my boss’s didn’t like me receiving personal phone calls in company times. It left me with no alternative but to telephone our doctors and ask them why Mary was forgetting where she had put things all the time and I was told that she could be suffering from Post-Natal Depression. I had to accept the doctors answers as I had no clue.

Months had passed and Mary was still complaining of things going missing and now lights being switched on and off on their own! I really did think that she was now losing it, until the day I went up to the children and they were both crying at the same time and when I reached Sarah’s bedrooms there seemed to be a bit of a chill outside than Sean’s. I didn’t take any notice really! Then a few days later I experienced some of the lights switching on and off by themselves, being an electrician I had no answers, only that they must be worn and not holding its position.

Things were changing in the house now ….. The nappy pin thief had stopped taking pins and no more money was taken either, but there was a feeling about the house which I can’t really described. Mary and I loved this house, our house/nest where we were responsible young people who had a family and believed in good values.

A few months had passed and then one day whilst I was at work I had a telephone call the boss’s were not please at all. It was Mary and this time she sounded like a frightened woman. I spoke to my boss’s that I must get home quick as it was an emergency. I was allowed the time off. When I arrived I found Mary shaking and our children quite distressed. She told me that she was standing at the other end of the kitchen preparing dinner with Sarah clinging to her leg and Mary was carrying Sean on her right hip, whilst stirring the pan on the hob, when all of a sudden the cupboard at the other end of the kitchen flung itself open and a big Pyrex dish came out and turned 45 degrease and smashed just missing Sarah’s head.

Now I am a six foot tall man and not afraid of most things but this was something that frightened me! That evening we had taken the children upstairs to bed and they went to there own bedrooms bearing in mind that Sean was about 10 months old now. We would be sitting downstairs watching the television and we could here lights being switched off, on, off, on and the children both woke up crying at about 11.00pm, we went upstairs and could feel a coolness but we both managed to get the children to sleep. This would be the norm now every night at the same time 11.00pm we just tried to ignore the coincidences.

Until one night (a Friday evening) we had taken the children upstairs to bed as usual and we felt it so icy cold and a little unnerving. Then as usual 11.00pm the children were screaming Mary was frightened and too afraid to go up. I went running up to get Sarah as she was so upset by now and I walked into her bedroom and woosh the coldest of cold air hit me, Sarah was still in bed screaming, I grabbed her quick and ran down stairs with her and then went back for Sean and the cold at this time was on the landing to Sean’s bedroom ………. Bless he was standing up in his cot screaming and sobbing with tears running down his face. (Even as I write this I am shivering)

We got the children into the front room where we were …. it was nice and warm near the open fire. I rushed to next door but one who were devout Catholics and I explained the situation to Josie, she came back to our house with some Holy Water. As I opened the stairs door a freezing gust of air hit us. Josie became frightened and left us with a small bottle of Holy Water. I sprinkled the whole door and doorframe leading to the upstairs. Then we took our children to my mums house and they stayed with them for the night.

We arrived back home, and everything seemed to be fine. Anyway we decided to get some sleep on the chair and sofa in the front room. Although pretty scared we shut our eyes and it must have been about 01.00am and we heard a bang upstairs a rattle and we were just about to break wind! We heard a loud thump and something being dragged along the floor another bump and another and still this dragging sound. It stopped just as quick as it started …….. Mary looked at me I looked at Mary and we sat hugged together really frightened as we had never experienced anything like it before in our lives! It was quite for a few minutes but maybe only seconds when we heard a real big thump at the top of the stairs and as it was thumping on its way down it got louder ………. We just didn’t know whether to leave the house or what? What should we do? We had no choice now as this thing that thumped had reached the bottom of the stairs! Then it happened ………….. The stairs door rattled like mad for an hour but maybe 5 minutes! Whatever it was couldn’t open the stairs door! It was obviously the Holy Water had prevented it from coming any further! Then whatever it was had given up and all became quite again.

It was morning now a Saturday morning and I went to our local parish Priest Father Daly and I explained to him what had happened that we think we had a ghost ….. Father Daly replied it sounds more of a Poltergeist than a Ghost. He said he would be down to see us around about 10.30am. I went home to tell Mary, everything was so quite as if nothing had been going on. There was a knock on the door it was Father Daly ……….. He came in and said where a bout’s did this all start from? I told him the middle bedroom where Sarah slept, the house downstairs wasn’t cold but as we opened the door the cold freezing air coiled itself around us. We went into Sarah’s bedroom brrrrr so cold and I’m sure I heard a moan ………… Father Daly said these words as he was sprinkling the Holy Water around the room “All evil spirits leave this place etc. Well you are not going to believe this but as soon as he said those words the room went to warm. There was no cold or freezing air around at all but such a warm soothing feelings were felt.

In the winter Sarah’s bedroom was never ever cold. The children never woke up screaming either. Such a lovely warming house our house!

Even today Sarah can remember those awful times and we shudder and don’t really talk about it too much as we go all goose bumped!

• Favorite
• Report Concern
• Share This
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Add your comment

You need to login or signup to add your comment to this work.

Tags:

art, charm, congratulations, events, everything, ghost, joke, journal, life, love, mystery, poem, short and story