True Story

This happened to me when I was a boy, I think I was about 10 or 11. Before I begin, I want to make it clear that I don’t have any religious beliefs but I’ve always been open minded to other people’s beliefs but I do believe in the benefits of positive energy. Even though I’m known for being lighthearted, not taking life to seriously and a bit of a joker, I genuinely listen to people who have beliefs and actually love listening and talking about what people believe in. So, now I’ve hopefully made that clear, now for my strange experience as a boy which has never left me.

At home with my parents, we moved from a 4 storey house into a 3 bedroom house when I was five. During the early years,all five of us shared the largest bedroom because of a lack of beds and that the largest bedroom had a big, open fireplace. I remember how the flames cast a shadow across the bedroom walls, which I found very comforting.

After a few years, I eventually shared a bed with my brother in the smallest bedroom, my sister had a larger bedroom and my parents had the biggest one.

As a boy I tossed and turned in my sleep, often waking up to discover my legs were wrapped uncomfortably in the blanket, which forced me to sit up, unwrap my legs and throw some of the blanket over my brother. One night in particular, I woke up in the middle of the night to the familiar feeling of my legs tightly bound by the blanket. I did the usual and sat up in bed and was met by the sight of what I can only describe as an apparition.

It was a man, dressed in a three piece suit. I could plainly see a watch hanging from a chain in his waistcoat pocket. There was also a black bag resting on the bottom of my bed and he was looking directly at me over spectacles that sat on the end of his nose. Even though I could see him plainly, I could also see my bedroom door through him. I looked at him for what seemed like 10 minutes but in reality was probably just a few seconds, until I found the strength to lay back down very slowly, my tangled legs untouched. I hid under the blanket and poked my sleeping brother to wake him, but he merely grunted at me and went back to his snoring. Eventually I fell asleep.

I opened my eyes to sunlight streaming through the window, looked around the room and ran downstairs. I told my mum what I had seen and she brushed it off as a bad dream. I knew it wasn’t.

Fast forward about 10 years or so and this is where it became fascinating for me.

One of my best friends through childhood up Into my mid 20s lived around the corner from me with his parents. As we grew old enough to ‘Legally ‘ drink alcohol, I would spend evenings enjoying a few drinks with my friend ‘Mark’ and his father. His father, Mr Bannister, had lived on the same street for most of his life. We would talk about anything and everything, so the subject of ghosts eventually came up. It was then that I threw caution to the wind and at the risk of sounding crazy, I told them about my experience in my bedroom. Mark looked at me with skepticism etched across his face but his father listened with interest. When I had finished telling my story, Mark’s father surprised me by admitting that I had described exactly the local doctor who was well known in the area when he was a child. He explained to me how the doctor would make regular house calls on a pushbike with his black bag attached to the rear of the seat.

So he didn’t scoff, he actually believed me.

I’m not sure what to make of my experience but I know I was fully awake and it wasn’t a dream.

I read somewhere once, that some people believe a place or a building can somehow capture a past event that is traumatic and replay the event like a video recording! Maybe that’s true, maybe that’s what I saw. I have no idea, but my mind is open to every possibility.

Maybe I should have written this closer to Halloween.