Goosebumps

There was a burial in the Churchyard this morning. I keep meaning to remind the vicar to email me when one is due, so I can make sure Irene and Sylvia are in the lower field. They panic so when the gravedigger trundles across the top field in his little digger.
It was dusk when I thought I would climb up over the Church wall to take a look at the latest grave. I wasn't being ghoulish.....I just hadn't seen anyone in the village to ask who, in fact, had been buried, and so after climbing the gate then hopping into the graveyard from the top of the wall ( farting loudly with the effort of it all ) I passed two brave little hens who were running home late for their roost and went to look at the large group of floral tributes on a grave in the new graveyard .
As it turned out , I didn't recognise the name of the lady who had died so I turned to walk down the Church past for home as it had suddenly become just a little too dark to pick my way across the graveyard back to the field.
As I made my way, I caught a glimpse of the " swish " of someone's coat through the grand wrought iron gates under the lych gate canopy and thinking that it was someone that was picking up one  of the school kids from the village school sheltering from the cold weather , I marched through the gate prepared to say hello to whoever was there.
Only there wasn't anyone there. No parent. No one in a billowing coat. Not even a car parked in full view of the school.
There just wasn't  anyone there.
The whole thing gave me goosbumps

The lychgate decorated for a village wedding


Has anyone else had a similar experience?

83 comments:

  1. There have been unexplained events in my life that have baffled me. One such was as a little girl I went with my parents in their car to see a relative. It was an extremely foggy night and we passed a row of cottages and at the gate stood an old lady in a long dress with an apron over the top with a mop cap on. She waved to us and we waved back disapearing as the cottages were enclosed in the fog my mother suddenly said ' How could that have happened as there are no cottages there' On the way back we came the same way and realised she was right. I can recall the stunned silence in the car and it was never discussed or spoken of again. Very strange.

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  2. Once... 30 years ago; it was broad daylight and my friend and I were dragging our bikes across the old coffin route from Threlkeld in the Lake District as it was much shorter than going round by road. We were right on the top; flat and featureless moorland when we saw a very old man walking towards us, wearing rather battered black tailcoat and top hat. He passed within a few feet of us and lifted his hat. Rather incongruously, we said 'hello'. After a few seconds we looked at one another and turned round...there was no-one there and absolutely no-where for anyone to hide. It gave us goose bumps too and we often talk about him when we meet.

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    1. Thanks Annie and Charlotte
      I adore strange stories like these

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    2. I love the expression 'the old coffin route'. x

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  3. Some one thanking you for good deeds.

    I have a few tales too.

    At least you know you are being watched over...or being watched.

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  4. You had a funny experience on the GOP I seem to recall. , a man and a dog on the footpath. ?? Cemetary are a strange place , neither peaceful or scary .... My favourite joke as a kid was cemetary based ;

    Irelands worst plane disaster struck this morning when a two-seater aircraft crashed into a cemetery. Irish rescue workers have so far recovered 828 bodies. Digging continues...

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    1. Yes I did! Well remembered jason that was a few years ago now....
      As for the joke
      I loved it

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  5. North Wales is well known for ghost sightings like Boadicea and Roman soldiers, John.

    I have seen shadowy ghost figures, smells of pipe tobacco and even heard creaking gates that no longer exist here on our smallholding in West Cork.

    When I lived in Chester I walked over the Dee on the railway footpath bridge near the race course and suddenly felt an eerie feeling and very cold inside. A few weeks later I was looking through local history books in WH Smiths in Broughton and a page showed a train derailment on the very same place that I had been walking weeks previous. Strange or what?

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    1. I never knew there was a derailment there...off to google it!

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  6. Anonymous6:03 pm

    You'll think twice about doing that again.

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  7. Great story and well told. A soul in transit or one on a 'visit'? I wonder.

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    1. Or just some ivy blowing in the wind?

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  8. Out of the corner of my eye - a pet that has passed, someone who is not in the living room, doorbell half ringing, odd sounds, blankets pulled... nope, no billowing coats... I worry about you, John.

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  9. It must have been that fence-hopping fart called up the spirit of a widow,searching for her long-passed flatulent husband. Then, recalling that ghosts don't fart, she hurriedly left the scene knowing she must have heard that scruffy oddball with all the orphaned fowl next door.

    And no, I haven't had any such experiences, being so practically minded. The only ghostly visitation I've had was a side-of-the-eye glimpse in my room of a dearly loved dog several months after she'd passed. It doesn't matter to me if it was real; it was thoroughly comforting.

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    1. See..you had a story! ( and a good one)

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  10. Some weeks after my brother had died, we heard noises in the kitchen late at night. We all thought it was one of the others making tea because they couldn't sleep due to grief. Eventually the noise was rather loud, and we all cam out of our bedrooms to go downstairs to comfort whoever it was. However, we were all on the landing together. We went down and the kettle was on, and the back door wide open. No one there.

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    1. We're you frightened!? Or was it comforting?

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  11. When we lived in an old Victorian terrace, I was convinced I could smell pipe smoke, which just reminded me of my Grandad. It turned out it was a dried up, used peppermint tea bag I'd left in a mug under the bed :)
    My Sister is quite sensitive and is convinced she saw our late Grandma sitting on the end of my bed when I was little, my Mum always said she dreamt it
    Twiggy

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  12. Thanks, guys. I'm feeling creeped out now, even though I'm reading this in the early afternoon! LOL :)

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  13. I often see out of the corner of my eye a black cat leaving the room, tail held high. When I went to see a clairvoyant with my Mum many., many years ago, she said there was a black cat that had arrived with me and was sat to my left (we looked .... as you do, but she meant a ghostly one). It's nice that he's still around, his name was Bluey and he was a first birthday present that stayed with me (as a living cat) until I was eighteen and married. I think it's lovely that he has followed me everywhere.

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  14. That's what you get for hanging around a graveyard as the darkness settles in. The spirits were just checking to see if you were paying attention.

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    1. It's funny jonno, I have never ever felt uneasy being in the churchyard at night.. We have lived a few feet from it since 2006 and it's always felt fine

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  15. I've had a few, and it irritates me no end, because I'd like to think it was all nonsense...

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  16. I never have anything spooky happen to me, except when one of my family or co-workers comes up behind me unannounced. Then when I shriek we both have a hair-raising experience :)

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  17. Other then the women in the flowing yellow dress who came across the hall and out through my office window in the last office in Lexington, not much to report. The building had been built as a nursing school in the 1920's, reportedly some of the students or some of the nuns never left the building.

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    1. Yes floating ladies of Lexington are ten a penny

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  18. When I was about 16 I was lying in bed in the dark of night and I saw someone close standing over me. I eventually called out "who's there?". I got no reply but the person was did not move. I plucked up the courage to turn on the bedside light. Hanging on the corner of the door which was ajar was my duffle coat.

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  19. I used to work in a mental hospital and in the old Matron's office the curtains would suddenly blow into the room for no apparent reason and a cool breeze would emit for a few seconds. . They said it was the ghost of matron farting.

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    1. I've known many a matron with flatulence Rachel

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  20. Nothing of the kind has ever happened to me, but when I worked in the nursing home the patients described frequent goings on. The oldest lady in the home often talked to her sister, who was seated in the chair next to her bed. Except no one was there. A nurse told the lady's daughter. She said her mother had always been clairvoyant. We had such a nice man who was dying from cancer. When the end was near, it rather upset his daughter when he said he saw his late wife (her mother) sitting in the chair across from his bed. I thought it was sweet that she was there, ready to greet him on his journey from one world to the next.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. When it's my tern to go.....I can't see chris waiting patiently for me

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    2. Willy Dunne Wooters doesn't know how to wait patiently.

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  21. I think I have written about my Mum after her funeral on your blog.
    But what I live with every day is I see people, spirits or animals. From the corner or peripheral vision I have always seen movement.
    When I was little I just assumed everyone saw shapes and movement.
    They are not threatening just moving about where they need to go.
    This happens when I am working or reading I see something just out of my sight. If I try to look they are gone.
    I have always had trouble with my eyes and I do see things different (flat shapes) from most people but who really knows.

    cheers, parsnip

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  22. My son in law was killed in a car crash just as our daughter had found out she was pregnant. We got the call and went rushing to their home 30 miles south of us. We slept in the spare bedroom next to what was going to be the nursery. In the wee hours I believe it was around 1:30 am, I was woken by the foot of the bed on my side shaking as if someone were trying to wake me . There was no one there. I was in a cold sweat and shaking. No one spoke anything audible but in my mind it seemed a man was saying "take care of them" . His good friend who lived across the street had a similar experience a day later . He was bathing the children when he glanced in the mirror in the bathroom and said he saw Joe standing there. I think he was staying those few days to say his goodbyes.

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    1. Linda.....thank you for that..bloody amazing

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  23. John, being quite deaf I have this kind of experience quite often. I am trying to get the farmer to whistle when he comes in as usually I don't hear him until he is standing right beside me.
    I don't believe in such things - I am sure there will be a logical explanation.

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  24. Should've gone to Specsavers!

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  25. I have never had an experience like that. Good job you didn't end up falling into a grave yourself - stumbling around in the darkness like a Victorian medical student seeking a fresh cadaver.

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  26. I have written about Lucy our house ghost in the past. We see her once in a while but most of the time she just plays silly little pranks. Just last Saturday my wife and I both had been decorating the parlor for Christmas and she handed me her glasses and I sat them on the fireplace mantel which was cleared of anything else. A few minutes later she asked me to hand them back, I reached up only to find them gone. We both looked around to find not only the glasses missing but the case for them had been taken from the drawer she kept them in. I said aloud "very funny Lucy but you need to return the glasses.” Two days later the case was back in its drawer with the glasses inside. She is a pill to live with sometimes.

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    1. I remember doc........would that be a child ghost!?

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    2. No John, it is definitely an old woman and about the same size as Lucy Warner the original owner of Menagerie Manor

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  27. I always see movement out of the corner of my eye, but it never worries me. Though I think I am going senile now and then LOL
    I admit that I am one of those odd folk who find cemeteries beautiful and peaceful and will stroll through them.
    Every now and then our son will look toward a corner of a room and just say, "Hi or Hello" Freaked us out at first, but now we just say Hi too or assume it is one of our dead relatives coming to see the little man.

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    1. This " corner of the eye" this seems to be quite popular

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    2. Check out shadow people on a search.

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  28. We moved into our current home 2 years ago. There was an elderly bachelor who had lived here with his parents all his life. He had moved but they were long dead. We received a load of historic paperwork which has been passed down, owner to owner over the years so we knew their names. About a month after we moved in we happened to be walking near a lovely church about 5 miles away. I suggested we take a shortcut throught the graveyard. We kind of went off the path and as we stopped to change route, there, right in front of us were the two gravestones of the people who had lived here. It was weird as we felt we had been drawn on that route. Nothing spooky in the house except a lot of noise. Lots and it's just us two, no kids, no pets. I also had a very frightening experience some years ago. I was laying in bed, fully awake, fully sober, not dozing, not sleepy when someone and it was definitely "someone" sat on my bed. It was the most terrifying experience I ever had. I actually clasped my hands and prayed and I'm not religious. I ran, naked out of the front door and i felt as if my hair was standing right up on my head. Really, really certain about it.

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    1. I love that story........a full circle thing

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  29. Ps. On a lighter note but nonetheless I found this shocking in a funny way, have you heard of glitter pills? Omg, what will they think of next. Apparently you can get glow in the dark types. I am thinking of giving them to my mums 4 dogs to avert and late night accidents in the garden! Check them out on etsy. Freaky!

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    1. Remind me to tell you about william eating the plastic Tesco Carrier bag someday

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    2. Ha ha ha, I'm picturing it. I used to love it when I was a kid when the jack Russells ate my crayons! I would follow them in the garden! What is it with shit? I have actually looked at "rate my poo" as well. I actually find it funny. I think I'm a sicko!

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  30. Similar experiences? Yes. But then I have always been somewhat disappointed to eventually realise the mundane explanation.

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    1. Oh andrew..Lyon must have had at least one " odd" experience in your life

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    2. Only the encounters with aliens, but I just pretend these are fictitious as I sell more books that way. That's what they advised me to do.

      (Not sure what "Lyon" means in your comment)

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    3. Nor do I
      Auto spell check I am afraidx

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  31. My middle brother, Dean, died in 1991 at the age of 34 with cancer. My mother was totally distraught. It was a real bad time. Shortly after he died, mother and I went to pick strawberries one day and she commenced to tell me about what my aunt had told her. My cousin called my aunt one night around midnight and he said mama, I wasn't dreaming, but I've seen Dean and he's all right. He said he was in a crowd of people and amidst all of those people his face just shone like shiny dime. Dean said I am all right, I am fine. My cousin said he was smiling and was as happy as he could be. My cousin was convinced he wasn't dreaming, it was like a vision. My aunt said if had been anybody but my cousin she would have dismissed as nothing, but he is the very serious, successful type that she would of never imagined anything like that coming from him. Anyway, I cannot tell you how many shiny dimes my mother found before she passed away in 2012. I have been with her numerous times and she would be walking along and say, "look a there, there is a shiny dime." I have been with her out of state walking along side a road where the grass was well over your feet and what did she find in that tall grass, a shiny dime. It always made her feel like he was close. My mother died in June of 2012 and my birthday was in November. A friend and I went to lunch and on the way home we stopped to get an ice cream. I went into the ladies room and when I went into the stall and looked down there was a shiny dime laying floor! I truly believe it was sign not only from my brother, but my mother too, just letting me know that they are still with me. I just looked up and said, could you make it quarters? I still occasionally find a dime here or there. I always think of brother when I do. I have another about my mother, but I think I've been a little long winded here. - When I was young we lived next to a cemetery. I hated it!!!

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    1. That made me tear up, just a little....thank you xx

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  32. Eek! I suspect I may have been fart propelled home quite rapidly even though ladies allegedly don't do such an uncouth thing!

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  33. We lost a very dear family member to suicide last year. On the night he was buried, I felt someone shake my foot while I was asleep. I woke up and felt it again, then sat up thinking hubs was trying to wake me up. And then I had the feeling that it was my sweet departed giving me a nudge as he moved on. It gave me goosebumps, but in a good way. It was like he was saying. Hey ho...I'm on my way and i'm OK.

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    1. I have just remembered one more. My boss has just died, he was a brilliant surgical oncologist and died tragically young leaving 4 kids. It was very traumatic and I found it hard to comprehend that some that saved so many lives would be taken so young. He was always a crazy busy, eccentric, hyper kind of man with many stresses at work. He worked so damn hard and there was a lot of pressure. I was close to his wife and family so I was having difficulty with it all, plus packing up the office and re arranging his patients was difficult. While I was reading his online obituary, I noted a message from one of his students (he was a professor too). This student was a devout muslim and he had written a lovely message to the family to the effect that the Dr. was desperately needed on another plane. (and he didn't mean an aircraft) That comment stuck in my head and gave me some comfort. A few weeks after, I fell asleep on the sofa and had a dream that was so real, it was more like a vision now I think about it. I saw him smiling. His face was calm and relaxed. He had no wrinkles or stress, only the most peaceful face and was glowing. He was holding a large beautiful cheese. (he was a wine expert and loved his wine and cheeses) After that I was consoled by this loss as I knew he was in a calmer, more peaceful place. A few months later, I went back to the online obituary to read the comment again and I couldn't find it.

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    2. I have heard many of these experiences Chania
      Some of me think it's just grief
      But to be honest , I think it's something more

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  34. I wonder who else might have been wandering over the graves?

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  35. When I lived with my parentrs, we lived in a large house. Doors would burst open or slam shut when there was no wind. A glass chandelier in the hall exploded, all sorts of stuff. One morning one of those old candle holders, the sort Florence Nightingale would carry, appeared turned upside down on the kitchen table. Nobody had seen it before, and mum being mum, called in a medium, who informed us that a child had died unexpectedly there a number of years back, and just wanted to be noticed. I would like to say that I don't believe in any of that sort of thing, but the events were very scary. Mum lit a candle in the holder, and nothing else happened again.

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    1. That sounds rather theatrical and very scary
      .how could you not believe after all that's?

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    2. I fully believed in malicious ghosts and stuff then. Now, I guess I believe that we leave something electrical behind, but nothing that thinks for itself.

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  36. I think I agree with your theory gary

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  37. I have very odd coincidences occur when someone I love dies. During the months I was caring for my father when he was dying, one particular song on my playlist became his favourite: Breakable by Ingrid Michaelson. For the first few days after his death, every time I turned the radio on (on any station) the song was playing... and it was never a popular song. Several months ago, when one of my brothers died, I found a trail of dimes down the stairs... and when I had picked up all the dimes, the phone rang; it was my mother telling me he was gone. Neither my sweetheart nor I had any idea how the dimes had gotten there, in a perfectly aligned trail down the stairs, but with that brother's sense of humour... Well, it is exactly something he would have done.

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    1. My theory is that nothing else in the universe is ever wasted, just converted into another form/energy/whatever, so why should we assume that we would be? Mayhap these things are the result of energy being converted.

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  38. My long-held theory is that when we die, our spirit leaves the body at the point of death and continues its journey. Sounds a bit deep, but to me it explains how 'ghosts' exist, because they definitely do exist. Why shouldn't a spirit inhabit another guise so that it appears to people? It also explains why people claim they are reincarnated. Also, why I am familiar with a place, even when I have never been there before . . and this has happened to me in the far west of Cornwall, even to accurately describing the scene around the next bend in the lane, the man who would be standing there and how he was dressed. Rather scary at the time and it left the 4 of us speechless.

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  39. Last year, I made my friend a pom-pom garland for Xmas and while take a pic of it draped around my sitting-room mirror (the pom-pom garland, not me) something dark drifted into my line of view from the left-hand side. I thought it was the sunlight reflecting from the adjacent window but when I uploaded the pic, there was a black spot showing up on the mirror. The pic I took 30 seconds later showed no black spot. I have no idea what it was or what it meant but I always remember thinking that a black shadow across a mirror depicted death. Maybe it's just coincidence but a month after that, my health took a downward spiral. I'm ok now though.

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  40. I also think it's electrical and that there are time slips. I lived in a big Victorian hotel for 4 years, and saw a man in a suit smoking a cigarette, staring out the window, plain as day, then he was gone. I saw a leg and part of a blue plaid skirt step out of a wall, then disappear. There's no sound, it's like a silent movie. But there have been several of these weirdnesses, and each one totally freaked me out.

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  41. We moved into a newly built house some years ago, one of six on the site of an old farm, 'Blight Farm', a family name that means merry apparently. But a dark tale unfolded. I wrote about it on my blog once - http://www.anniecholewa.com/2012/10/a-true-story-for-halloween.html. Were there ghosts involved, I have no idea, but it was all very odd.

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  42. Such stories freak me out. I can't believe I read them all. Now I am scarred.

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