One of the unusual experiences I have had happened in the early 1970's.
My Uncle John and Aunty Edna had gone to Spain for a holiday, it was
something that many Brits did and still do. I have other relatives who own
villas and spend the English winters there. Anyway my aunt and uncle
went down to have breakfast, Uncle John was in his early sixties and there
was no indication of ill health. Unfortunately that morning he suffered a major
heart attack and as Aunty Edna put it, literally dropped dead at her feet. Not
that you would say that was amusing but what happened next. It was early morning
here in Australia so I was fast asleep in bed. Suddenly I felt a very heavy weight
at the end of my bed which woke me up, Uncle John was quite a heavy person. It
was somewhat a shock to wake up and see the shadow of a man sitting at the end
of the bed and singing to me. I just happened to be Uncle John's favourite niece,
that is of course according to him telling me so, and always showed off his singing
skills whenever I was around. Of course I started screaming "Mum there's a big
fat man sitting on my bed." Having been woken up from a deep sleep, I had not
the time to think what was happening. Within moments of this happening the
telephone started ringing. It was Aunty Edna ringing my mum to inform her
about Uncle John's passing.
Whilst telling this story I am reminded of a time when I was nursing at Hope Hospital
in Salford. I was just out of training school which meant I had only been nursing for 3 months. I was on nights, we had been moved to the old part of the hospital while renovations were happening in the main part. The other night staff were having a bit
of a giggle, which I had not a clue as to why. One of them asked me to go and collect
something from the pharmacy, which you had to go through some of the older sections
and down this corridor which connected the two sections of the hospital. It was known
as the mile long corridor, a temporary construction. This old section of the hospital
had been bombed during the war and it was a very eerie building, reminiscent of
those old houses you see in films like Wuthering Heights. I got to the pharmacy and
collected the item, I knew something was a bit peculiar as the person in the pharmacy
was also very amused about something. I discovered later that I was having a practical
joke played on me.
On the way back from the pharmacy I hurried down the mile long corridor, being
the middle of the night and no-one else around it was quite scary. I got to the end
and was back in the old section of the hospital. We were located on the second floor
and you had to walk through vacant sections to get to the temporary ward I was on.
Suddenly this figure appeared out of nowhere, she was a matronly figure in a green
uniform, all uniforms were now blue, so she looked a bit out of place. She just said to me
"Nurse hurry along, no dawdling" and looked at me with a very stern face. She was a
bit scary, so I did hurry along very quickly, the whole atmosphere in that building
was spooky. I arrived back on the ward, and was asked by the others, anything happen
while you were going or coming back. I said I had bumped into the Matron as I was on
my way back, she's a bit gruff I said. They looked at me, as they had not known whether
the story was true or not. But the story goes that when that section of the hospital was
bombed, the Matron was killed and some said she still wandered the corridors. I pointed
out that, no this person was very real and was wearing a green unform but her headdress
was different to the usual one worn by the senior staff. It turned out that my description
of her matched exactly that of the Matron who had been killed. Needless to say I was very relieved when we were able to return to our renovated ward.
Comments