Since that very first "brush" with a real ghost, when I was eighteen years of age, I have experienced many varied "unexplained" happenings and some terrifying occurrences. Many of the people I mixed with are those who can and have seen, various types of haunting. Much later in my life I married a witch, now a high priest in a coven of his own, and learned that even the impossible is possible.
But, let’s get back to the topic here. From a child, life and death fascinated me, especially walking around graveyards where I would read the headstones trying to imagine what that person could have been like in life. It made no sense that the "essence" of a human, (or animal) would disappear just because the body, (vehicle) rotted and disintegrated. Many times I attempted to speak to ‘moving shadows’ without any luck and probably would have run away had I gotten a response.
This particular time I planned to visit an extremely old graveyard, with ghostly history, near my home in England. My companions were my fiancée who suspected there were supernatural beings and a friend, who was a black belt karate man. The latter declared nothing, could ever frighten him and he did not believe in ghosts, at that time.
We parked the car at the bottom of the hill and walked up it carrying small battery torches, to the iron railings surrounded by the bushes. The moon was nice and bright and the evening was warm. No-one believed anything would be seen, me included, as up to then, I had not had any proof. We were all out of breath when we reached the top, as the hill was a long climb. We happy to see there was a hole in the bush with the railings already pulled apart large enough for us to climb through, with care, as barbed wired ran through the top and bottom of the railings. We managed to get through with some difficulty and began walking around the old church and the crypts.
We walked around the church several times the then back to the front. Without a word to each other, one after the other noticed and stared at a whitish swaying shape, of a woman in long robes hovering about 100 yards away from us. No-one could speak, through shock and disbelief, although I tried to, but no words came. I was thrilled with the thought that I might be able to communicate with what appeared to be a real ghost. My back up of these men as body guards, made me feel safe. I was far more excited than apprehensive, but the hairs still stood up on the back of my neck and felt as if they were stabbing into me. I suddenly felt cold and shivers crept throughout my body.
I began to walk towards the apparition and looked back to make sure the men were close enough to me. To my horror, I saw their eyes open wider in fear and they walked backwards. I felt annoyed as I did not feel brave enough to walk up to the apparition on my own and I was desperate to seize this opportunity to prove there were real ghosts. I turned to look at the ghost, hoping I would find the courage to approach her when my heart almost stopped. The apparition was coming slowly towards us. Not walking, but gliding along the ground. Her hair was waving around in strings and there was a fixed expression on her face so it was not easy to tell if she had seen us. It felt as if she would walk right through us if we stood still. So, I decided to stay there and see what happened.
I heard a commotion of grunts and thumping to the side of me and saw the two big brave "men" clawing at each other to get through the railings. My fiancée was on the top and trying to jump over using the head of the karate friend, who had gone through the gap. In their desperation to flee, they were in each other’s way and were punching each other. It would have been hilarious if the situation had been different. I gave one glance to my right and saw the apparition very near to me now, so I reluctantly bolted for it too. I dove through the now empty gap and fell, like the other two, all the way down the hill.
I was very upset with them for ruining this occasion, and although they had slightly injured each other, I let them have it verbally all the way home. I do remember also that no-one screamed or shouted, in case that would have made the apparition notice us. She might have put some speed on and certainly caught one of us in the hedge trying to escape. Probably me, As I had been the nearest to the ghost and stuck for a short while in the bush, undoing the barbed wire while I felt sure the cold hand of death would reach me. I still remember that fear now. It hurt my chest, so I might have been about to have a heart attack.
We had researched previously, to find that ‘the lady in grey’ had been seen wandering around the graveyard for many years, by police who patrolled the grounds of the large house, and of the walkers who liked to walk near the ‘Goddard Estate’. I could not tell if the apparition we saw was in grey, the lighting was not that good. Sadly, as these two would not visit the graveyard with me again, I did not have the opportunity to find out, or have such luck with a sighting there again.
As I intimated in the beginning of my story, this was the start of my supernatural adventures and I have documented most of my experiences, many witnessed, for my autobiography. But, I will add that very many years later, a ‘ghost’ who I saw two feet from my face, saved my life and that of my sister, in what could have been a fatal head on car crash with a lorry. I may tell that story later.
