A few years ago when we moved to the UK from South Africa we lived with my mother and her Jeremy for a few months. One night around 3 am I woke up with a jolt, like a bolt of electricity had passed through my body. I turned to find that both Pieter and I were sitting up in bed, wide awake and disorientated. He had woken up at the same time as me. We thought since we were up, we may as well do a quick run to the various loos. As we opened the bedroom door we saw my mom and Jeremy across the hall standing at their door looking confused, “What was that?” we all said at the same time. This happened often. The weirdest feeling like youre in a deep sleep for hours and suddenly you are switched on. Its almost like you can hear a bang go off in your body.

We think it may have been our ghost.

There was a ghost of a lonely old lady which we all saw almost every other night and sometimes during the day. She would flit past in the corner of our eyes, and we’d often all see her at the same time. Even Jeremy saw her a few times, and he’s not the type to believe in that sort of stuff. But after it kept happening we eventually just accepted it as part of everyday life at home. She would always hover around the front door, perhaps waiting for someone to come home or post to arrive. Often she would walk up and down the stairs in that area. It was the weirdest thing to walk through her on your way upstairs, especially at night. You couldnt see her face or anything, just this shadowy human sized entity. She was definitely an older woman, we all thought so… her energy was unmistakable and felt very lonely.

For ages we just ignored her and let her get on with her thing, but I was curious and wanted to find out more about her. So I approached her one day and spoke to her. She felt really surprised and shook up, as if she hadn’t noticed me before, and it was the first time she realised she wasn’t alone in the house. I suppose because she was so lonely she started to follow me around in the house, especially at night when everyone else had gone to bed, but usually from a distance. I have to admit it freaked me out a bit. One night she followed me up the stairs. I didn’t want to be rude and tell her to go away, so I went into the upstairs study, closed the door in her face and sat at my computer. I could feel her just outside the door, burning with energy.

Then she opened the door and came in. That was the first time I realised it wasnt just in my imagination, and it totally freaked me out. The door creaked loudly as well which I thought was pretty funny in hindsight but at the time I was too scared to laugh. I immediately jumped off my seat and walked to the end of the room facing the wall. I wasnt ready to accept what was going on. I could feel her right behind me trying to talk to me but it gave me the shivers. Eventually I mustered up the courage to turn around and told her to leave the room, which she did eventually. Why was I so afraid of her? She wasn’t going to hurt me.

I still feel bad about that. All she wanted was someone to talk to.