STRANGE, BUT TRUE - DAVE'S STORY

By Sarah Cook

Let me first point out that the house we are in was built in 1992 in a town called Didcot in England on the site of an old church that was destroyed by an arsonist on March 9, 1974. The history of the four joined properties is well known to be haunted. In the late 1800's, a young man was believed to have hung himself on the church rafters late one night after being jilted by his girlfriend. The road was an old dirt track and no one would go there at night in fear of seeing the young man's ghost. What prompted me to speak to the local historian was what happened to my partner Dave.

One night back in January of 2006, Dave came to bed and fell asleep and was awakened by a feeling of being pulled out of bed by "someone." He opened his eyes and saw, in the corner of the room, some "black rubbery arms" floating and reaching for him. To the right of him, he saw what looked like a figure of someone or something lying between us on the bed. Obviously he was conscious at the time because he said to me, "Didn't you hear me calling you?" He also said that he tried to grab hold of me to stop himself from being pulled out of bed. Could this have been the mysterious ghost or an attempted abduction?

The historian went to the local church to seek out records as to whether or not this young man who committed suicide was registered there. There were no records to be show this.

Another incident was in the caravan back in 2004. Dave had gone to bed feeling tired. It was a hot summer evening and he decided to open the window which was by his bed. Out of the blue, there was a gust of wind that thumped hard onto his pillow. He thought it was strange that the wind would do that so he got up. It wasn't windy out.

Dave tried to make a cup of tea but something seemed to be stopping him and he felt paralyzed. He decided to go for a walk to clear his head. When he came back, the same thing happened and he could not do anything for himself. Making himself go back to bed and feeling worried about what was happening, he closed the window and felt back to his old self. Everything was normal again. At the time it was all happening, he couldn't even light a cigarette.

This happened twice while living in the caravan and he thinks it could have been his ex mother-in-law.

Still another incident took place when Dave was working on a building site. He uncovered an old well in a cottage garden and had to do some work to refill it. During the two days the well was uncovered, he kept hearing voices and was having bad dreams. It all went away when the well was filled in.

My son, David, who is only three years old, woke crying one night. When attended to he said that a "man" was wobbling his bed. My son knows nothing about "ghosts and spirits" so it's all a mystery to me.

Maybe we do have a resident spirit or poltergeist. We do not know. One thing is for sure, he has not shown himself to me or maybe this is the ghost of the jilted man who has a grudge against males. There is no way of telling.