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Supervising Ghost

 

I've just realised that, yet again, it is almost two years since my last submission, and I apologise for the length of this post - but the background information is important to the story.

I live on one of the most northerly islands of the United Kingdom, which happens to also be one of the most remote islands off of Scotland. We're actually very much nearer to Norway than we are to the Scottish mainland.

The reason I'm telling you this is because this particular event took place here, in our new home, that we bought from the estate of an elderly woman. Her heirs didn't want the house and I don't blame them as an awful lot of work was needed to 'put it right'. In fact, we're still not completely finished the work that's needed, but we're down to just some decorating to do and the removal of horrible and dangerous polystyrene tiles form the last couple of ceilings.

Right, now on to the events that have been happening for almost three years now. When we first came to look at the house to decide if we would like to live here, the house felt very empty compared to our previous home that seemed to have a lot of spirits (ghosts or whatever your preferred term is to describe them) passing through on their way to who knows where.

We had a good look around but weren't sure we wanted to do all the renovations that needed to be done. We knew that we liked the area where the house is (nearest neighbours about ΒΌ mile away) and the fact that there were sea views from one side of the house and lovely country views from the other side as well a very big garden with the luxury of trees on two sides (trees are uncommon here - it's said that the Vikings used them all up building ships!).

So, we came for another look and this time bought our dog with us. The dog had a wonderful time running around the garden like she was on a voyage of discovery! Then, we tried to get her to come into the house with us. She would come in the front door, but very gingerly almost like she was sure that something was waiting to eat her and then back out again! Eventually she came in (with a lot of coaxing and nice treats!) and had a look around the rooms and decided they were fine. We were in the kitchen talking about what could be done there and the dog refused point blank to come into the kitchen. No matter how many treats we offered her, or how much we coaxed her, she would still only come in a foot or two before backing out at speed, not even stopping to turn around.

We decided to buy the house and eventually the dog got used to living here as did our cats - although none of them liked the kitchen.

After we moved in the first thing we did was rip out all the wood in the kitchen as it was both damp and infested with woodworm. Still the animals avoided even looking into the kitchen. This is important to remember that there were no floorboards in the kitchen, just a six foot hole, but when I poked my head in to see how things were going, I saw an elderly lady standing in the middle of the floor seemingly looking around the kitchen to see what was going on in there. She noticed me looking through the door and turned around slowly and smiled at me, such a lovely, warm smile as well.

Since the first sighting of her, she was a permanent fixture for the first 18 to 20 months that we lived here, which happened to coincide with the structural work that needed to be done. The thing that seemed to interest her the most was the design of our new kitchen. Every time we did some work such as putting insulation on the walls and putting new joists and floorboards down, she showed up each time we either took a break or finished for the day. She seemed to really like the new kitchen units and cooking range - we saw quite a lot of her when they were going in! We think she approves of the way we've put the kitchen together.

She isn't in the least bit scary and has come to look at all the work we've done on the house apparently taking her time to investigate each piece of work as we do it.

For the first 5 or 6 months we had no idea who she was, but suspected she was the lady who owned the house before us. When I started talking to local people, we discovered that the lady was indeed the previous owner! She became very frail and had to go into a care home for the last couple of years of her life, but we were told that not only was she a lovely person but that she dearly loved both the house and the gardens. We found out that she used to feed the birds and, since we started to do the same, she's been seen in the garden around the places where we feed them, not just by us but by the children of our nearest neighbours who knew her well.

Our dog and our cat seem to have become very friendly towards her, acting like they are communicating with a living person when she is around and they are no longer afraid of the kitchen.

It does seem that as we do more and more work on the house (and now that it's nearly finished), we are seeing less and less of her. I really hope that when we finish the house and the garden that she'll feel able to move on to wherever she wants, maybe to be with her late husband or her parents.

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The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, tigerfeet, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

Pelatiah (4 stories) (75 posts)
+5
12 months ago (2023-12-06)
Tigerfeet, I LOVE your story! First, I love the location and am about to go to a map to see where you might be. I've always wanted to travel to your area (I'm in Georgia, USA) and love the history of your country as well, going back to the Vikings! What a place!

Second, we share similar stories of previous owners... I just finished writing a comment on another story describing my former owner (you can see on the "Electrical Disturbances..." story).

When we re-did our entire kitchen, gutting it completely and starting over in 2020, I had the sense we were being monitored as well! Florence, our previous owner, was quite the Italian cook, and I've also felt her presence in the kitchen. I'm amazed you could see your lady and a bit jealous... Or maybe not:)

One of the things we did when renovating was to remove some decorative columns from the area between the kitchen and family room. They were a bit outdated and I wanted more wall there to put benches on. The day we removed them, I explained to Florence why... I was a bit worried because SHE designed the family room addition with them... That evening my teenage son and I were watching tv and all of a sudden, one of the majolica plates on my mantle slowly turned a quarter turn off it's stand and laid itself down on the mantle. It didn't break, it didn't fly off or fall. Just laid itself down. I saw it out of the corner of my eye, but my son was looking right at it before it moved (maybe sensed something). I said, "What just happened?" and he said, "It was a ghost mom..." (The fam always teases me). But I took that as an OK on the columns. So glad your lady can visit you. I'm not sure they can't come back, even after "moving on." Pretty sure they have free will to come back... I am visited by lots of my dead people (sounds so weird, sorry).
tigerfeet (5 stories) (18 posts)
+5
1 year ago (2023-12-03)
Thank you for your comments.

We think we're very lucky to have such a wonderful lady living with us. From talking to people who knew her when she was alive, she was a much loved lady locally - no one we've talked to has had anything even slightly 'bad' to say about her.

We've recently found out that she was the second owner of our home, inheriting it from her father. So far she appears to approve of the modernisation of her home - she even seems to like the colours we've chosen!

Last week, when we got up, both of the oven doors were slightly ajar even though I knew they were closed the night before. I think she really likes my new cooker! I often feel her around when I'm cooking - particularly if I'm making something a bit 'exotic' like an Indian or Chinese meal. It feels almost as if she's interested in learning how to cook something a little different to what she used to make - but maybe I'm imagining this part!

I think she might stay with us until we've finally finished the modernisation and decorating of our (and her) home.
Rajine (14 stories) (906 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-11-29)
From the way you describe her, she seems to be a wonderful woman even in the afterlife, I suppose she just wants to stick around for a while just to make sure her home is in good hands.
Linjahaha (24 stories) (161 posts)
+6
1 year ago (2023-11-28)
tigerfeet, I agree with Spockie. This 'is' a beautiful story. It seems she's just interested to see how you're taking care of her former home. It wouldn't hurt to 'talk' to her to let her know how much you love her house, & want to take care of it like she once did. She 'would' hear you. Apparently, she 'is' aware of you if she smiled at you.
You're lucky to have such a good, gentle spirit there. My late hubby, & I weren't so fortunate many years ago. We were chase out by the residing whatever that was there. It took us close to a year to readjust to relative normalcy once we got out of there.
I'm glad that you're coming along with the house, & that 'she' seems to be pleased with all your efforts. Very good read, here!

All the Best! ❀ 😁
tigerfeet (5 stories) (18 posts)
+5
1 year ago (2023-11-28)
RC Ruskin - I would really like her to help with the housework! But, failing that we've made it clear to her that she is more than welcome to stay with us for as long as wants to - if that is what she wants.

Our resident spirit, Charlie, doesn't seem to mind sharing the supernatural limelight with her either, which is brilliant as he can be a bit of a bugger when new spirits come to stay with us.
Spockie (8 stories) (203 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-11-28)
Oh, gosh. What a beautiful story and what a beautiful spirit. Who wouldn't enjoy sharing their space with her?
tigerfeet (5 stories) (18 posts)
+5
1 year ago (2023-11-28)
As she was really fond of her birds, I think she was a bit dubious at first about our four cats. Luckily all of our cats are either too lazy and well fed to hunt birds or just a bit too thick to manage a hunt. Whichever the answer, no birds have been bought in and given as presents for us dim humans. I think that she's accepted the cats - they've stopped sitting up from a dead sleep and watching something move around the kitchen or sitting room!

I suspect she will stay with her beloved house and garden until we've finished the repairs, updates and decorating and all the little jobs that need doing in the garden.
lady-glow (16 stories) (3197 posts)
+6
1 year ago (2023-11-28)
It seems like she just wants to see what you are doing to her beloved house and approves of the changes.

Thanks for sharing.
RCRuskin (9 stories) (848 posts)
+4
1 year ago (2023-11-27)
Well, yes, she should move on to her current post-life life. But she seems harmless enough, so maybe she could stay and help dust or something. 😁

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