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Sitting at the end of the bed.

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.

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