PICK ME UP MAGAZINE 17/03/2005 PAGE 20
(please note, although peoples names appeared in the feature we do not place them in full on our website)
Any print you see (like this and this colour) is a little extra we added just to point out the rubbish that gets added.
Kelly W, 26 from Scarborough, North Yorkshire,
didn't believe in things that go bump in the night until she moved into her
first home.
I was watching Eastenders when the light bulb in the lamp next to me shattered
with a loud bang. I screamed in shock and dropped my half eaten Hob Nob. Glass
showered everywhere and the room plunged into darkness. Then strange specks
of light flashed round the room.
'Derek' I wailed to my boyfriend 'Something weird's happening.'
Things hadn't been right since we'd moved into our three bedroom house, two
months earlier, I was pregnant with our daughter, T!, and it was our first
place together.
It was just little things at first, The remote control for the telly disappeared
once and turned up behind the fridge a few days later, Then there was the
horrible smell, like rotten eggs, that spread through the house. No matter
how much I cleaned, it wouldn't shift. Then one day it just disappeared.
'Pull yourself together, Kelly,' I told myself, 'You're being silly,'
But as the years passed by, more sinister things happened.
One night, Derek and I were sat on the settee when there was a loud rumble
like thunder and the ceiling began to vibrate. Our daughters T! 7 and C! 5,
screamed down the stairs, We looked at each other terrified 'The grils' I
yelled, We both shot upstairs, Their bunk bed was shaking violently like a
washing machine on it's spin cycle. 'Mummy!' T! Screamed, 'Tell it to stop.'
It was like something out of a horror film. We grabbed the girls and ran downstairs.
'This house is haunted,' I sobbed to Derek, 'It gives me the creeps.'
I'd never believed in all that mumbo jumbo before but now I'd seen it with
my own eyes.
'We'll have to see if the housing authority can move us,' said Derek.
The next day I phoned the council 'We need to find another house,' I said
'This is an emergency.' 'Why?' came the reply.
Suddenly, I felt a little bit silly, How was I going to explain? 'I , er,
don't know how to put this,' I mumbled, 'But I think our house is haunted'
There was a pause, I could almost hear him trying to stifle a laugh down the
phone, 'We'll be in touch,' he said.
A few days later, I got a letter from the council saying our request had been
refused.
'We'll just have to grin and bear it' Derek said, 'Whatever it is might leave
us alone.'
Fat chance of that. One night, I was lying in bed with Derek snoring beside
me, Suddenly, to my horror, I felt myself being lifted up in the air by some
invisible force. I landed on the floor at the end of my bed with a loud thump,
If it hadn't happened to me I'd never have believed it was possible.
'Kelly' yelled Derek, I lay there, frozen with fear, unable to speak. We took
the children and all slept together on a mattress in the lounge, From then
on, I wouldn't let Derek leave me alone in the house. Even if I needed the
loo, I made him come with me.
'We have to do something,' he said 'We can't live like this,' I flicked through
the adverts in the back of the local paper and made a phone call.
(Actually she read an article about us in the local paper, we have never advertised!).
Two days later, a van pulled up outside the house. A man and woman stepped
out carrying big cases of equipment. (actually it was
night time and we don't have a van!)
'Abbey Ghost Hunters at your service,' (er no)
one of them said. 'I'm Mark and this is my wife Angela'
They immediately set up special cameras that would film in the dark, then
placed voice recorders and surveillance equipment all over the house to record
what was going on. The following morning, we sat down in front of the telly.
'Look at this' said Mark pointing to the screen. There was something underneath
the girls bed, a shape. 'It looks like a dog!' I gasped. 'A ghost dog,' said
Mark, (no I never, actually I said listen to this, it
was dog barking and panting!) Derek and I looked at each other He couldn't
be serious.
They'd also recorded orbs of light flashing around the living room and picked
up a child's voice saying, 'Mummy, I'm behind you,' it couldn't have been
T! Or C! As they'd been with us when it was recorded. (no
they were at their Grans house)
Talk about creepy! It sent shivers down my spine, 'You definitely have supernatural
activity here,' said Mark, 'Because it moves things and makes a noise, I'd
say it was a poltergeist'
Derek looked shocked but, in a strange way I felt quite pleased, At least
it confirmed to me that I wasn't losing my marbles. 'How do we get rid of
it?' I asked. 'I'm afraid there's nothing you can really do,' he said, 'These
kind of ghosts are part of the house, As long as you stay here they will too,'
I was gutted, But there was only one real solution.
I immediately rang the housing association again. 'Please believe me,' I begged.
'You can speak to the Ghost Hunters we've got here and they'll tell you about
the poltergeist,' I quickly put Mark on the phone and he told them about all
the strange events.
Finally, they took us seriously, Last December, six months after the first
ghostly incident, I got the phone call we'd been waiting and hoping for. 'They've
found us a new house,' I yelled, 'We can move.'
Seven years after we first moved in, we finally packed our bags to leave the
house forever. Even then, our resident poltergeist had some goodbye tricks
up its sleeve, Things disappeared from boxes that had just been sealed and
my purse mysteriously vanished, As I looked round one last time, I felt relieved
. 'Goodbye,' I whispered closing the door.
Our new house is so peaceful and quiet and I think of being on my own there,
I heard that a new family recently moved into our old house, I don't want
to frighten them, but they should take care, There's evil lurking in those
walls.
A spokesman for Sanctuary Housing Association says: 'We were aware that Kelly
W! Had concerns about unexplained paranormal activity at the property, We
investigated her claims and it was clear that she did believe the property
to be haunted. With this information, we took the decision to move her. We
have told the new tenants what had happened but they've reported no strange
activity in the property'