Tell me about a random unsolved mystery in your life....

Hello Springy. No, I didn't mean you. My paternal grand grandparents were so obviously Jewish I just can't understand why no one in our family ever talks of it. By chance I'm Irish / Scottish catholic too. It's perfectly obvious to me and my brothers and sisters though. The nose. The hair. Why is it such a family secret?????

My mystery is thus;

After my elder twin son died, the hospital took his hand and footprints for us, as well as a lock of his hair. I put them in an envelope and put them away in a drawer. I went to get them one day and they had vanished. Gone completely. I tore my house apart looking for them, and they had just disappeared. I moved house several times after that too, so assumed they were lost forever.

About three years ago, I felt I really needed to see if there was a copy of the prints in the hospital notes surrounding his birth, so I wrote to the hospital in question asking to be granted permission to have access to them. The replied saying that I had a certain amount of days to reply to them in and that it would cost between £50-£70. Money that at that time, I simply didn't have spare as I was pregnant with three living children and things were a bit tight.

I was upstairs one day moving some furniture around so we could put the new babys moses basket up when I heard some letters fall through the letterbox. Needing a break I went downstairs and one of the letters was from the hospital saying that as I hadn't replied to them, they were assuming I no longer wanted access to his notes and would send them back to general files. I cried bitter tears as I went back upstairs, and felt so sad.

I took a drawer out of the dresser, and in the drawer directly underneath it was a brown envelope. Never having seen it before I sat on the bed and opened it curiously. Inside it were my little boys hand and footprints, as well as his lock of hair. I have no idea how they came to be there then at all. But I'm glad they did.

20+ years ago someone sent me in the post one of those cheap, tartan drummer girl dolls in a clear plastic tube. The sort of tartan souvenir you'd get for £1.99 in the cheapest tourist tat shop on The Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

It had two big pins sticking out the back and a type-written scrap of paper with "Scottish Voodoo Doll" on it. No idea who sent it. No ex boyfriends, no enemies or joker friends I was aware of. Plain weird.

My mum lost her eternity ring. Her an my dad looked everywhere in the house for it and couldn't find it so she assumed it was lost outside. A couple of days later my mum moved a cushion on the sofa and the ring was just there like it had been placed there.

*theough a hole in the toilet door

1. when I was in the US on a holiday when I was young, someone pushed a dollar through a hole in the door. I was already done so opened the door straight away and there was no one there. I thought maybe it was meant for the cleaner of the toilets or something and that it was American thing, but the American family I was with said that it wasn't a Done Thing. I kept the dollar

2. things will catch my eye and I'll dismiss them and then actually end up needing it later that day or at some point over the next few days. For example, saw a 20p on the kitchen side the other day. Acknowledged it, thought can't be arsed picking it up and putting it in my purse, it's only 20p. Later that day I was 20 damn pence short for the parking machine. shakes fist at life that kind of thing happens a lot! I should start picking up this stuff really

Over several years I would always know that the phone would ring a few seconds later and it would be a certain friend phoning for a chat - it doesn't happen now that I have a cordless one though!

Rather spookier was watching something on tv several years ago about Benazir Bhutto, and although I didn't know of her significance at the time I had a split second realisation that she was going to be killed. It was as though a window had opened in my mind when I saw this but closed again almost instantly and the thought just vanished. I remembered it the following year when news came of her assassination.

universal - you can have that determined by a DNA test now. Did you see the documentary about it the other night? They deduced that Eva Braun was in a hereditary chain of Jewish ancestors. Thus obviously suggesting that hitler unknowingly married someone of Jewish heritage. Fascinating.

How does STBXH get money? This baffles his friends and foes alike. He has certain outgoings and no apparent income to cover them.

Whilst we were together now and then a huge wad of notes would manifest in a drawer. Sometimes I could link it to some work he'd done or something sold but sometimes I knew he'd done fuck all for months.

Maybe his parents? But they didn't seem well off enough to drop him a few hundred or so now and then, and I never witnessed any unaccountable cash handover from that source.

Which leaves me to consider blackmail, drugs, or online sexual services. Yup, got to be something along those lines....

Christ giraffes wait till you hear my story...aged 7 got a silver signet ring for my birthday. also got a new bag with two big pockets on the front. Next day was going swimming with school and Mum didn't want me to wear my ring in case I lost it. I pleaded with her cos I wanted to show it off and promised I'd keep it safe in one of the pockets on my bag whilst I went swimming....she relented so that's what I did. But after swimming when I went to get it..no ring in either pocket . I was frantic and v upset..my friends and I looked high and low..dreaded telling my Mum. Went home and hid in my bedroom until I knew I had the face the music..took a deep breath and walked into the lounge and saw someing on the windowsill glinting in the sun...yes, it was my ring! Told Mum and all my sisters and nobody believed me...I cannot explain it to this day..

Universal did you mean me? No, not Jewish. Irish/Scottish Catholic

When ds was about 10 months old we planned to go away for a night to a friends wedding, leaving ds with my mum & dad. About a month before we went I received an anonymous letter through the post.

The writer said their daughter had told them about our trip. They didn't think we should leave a child under 18 months with anyone at all. They were telling me this as they'd done it & their daughter had been ill & at that age they can't tell their carer.

I have absolutely no idea who it was. My mum has no idea either.

They had my address, but didn't know my surname. The address was written by someone who's not from my borough. The handwriting indicates they're quite old. A complete mystery!

I found it sad that someone so old had lived with this regret for so long.

BrianButterfield That happens to be ALL THE TIME

But what is more spooky was that I was just reading through this thread and KNEW that was what you were going to write about just before I read it. I am not woo at all, but saw your name and thought 'Brian does that thing where you think see people then you really do'. I have gone all shivery.

And it's odd because with the 'glimpsing' people out of the corner of my eye thing, I sort of know when a 'false sighting' is a sign that I am really going to see that person. Sometimes I think I see the same person two or three times over the course of a few days before the real one actually materialises but by then, I am expecting to see them - even if I haven't for months and moths.

What IS that about?

And the dog one, was it a dog or a bitch? If it was an unneutered dog could it have caught the sent of a bitch in heat?
It took a while to persuade my dad to let our dog have the snip and some of the things that very small animal did in pursuit of the ladies were frankly astounding, he climbed a 6ft chain link fence once and I know he'd done that because the next door neighbour saw him at the top. He was also very miserable and shaky if he couldn't work out a way to get out and find the bitch he could smell. Could it be that?

Oh also

My dad died when I was a baby. But apparently before I was born he had another kid. He always denied it. Now we're older I see this lad and he calls me sister but I've never really accepted him. I'd like to know if he is my brother.

Ravenrose, could you look back on electoral rolls and see if you can work out where exactly your parents lived?
You might be able to contact an old neighbour for information or does your birth certificate list a different job occupation for your father that you could trace?

Wonderful thread
My mystery is my great grandparents only had one son (my grandad) they died before I was born. As a child we used to go to their grave every weekend with my nan and grandad to place flowers and there was always another bunch there, big and more expensive than we could have afforded, every single week. They and no idea who they were from and even asked the cemetery people to keep a eye out just in case someone had the wrong grave? And they wanted to thank them (the grave would be often tidied and cleaned too) but no one ever saw anyone. This went on for years and years.

Am I Jewish?

I think I've seen the poo thing before. Did these poos look like wee Malteasers? In my days on the wards we'd occasionally find them in the beds. There was no question that someone else had done them, especially as some of them were in the beds of bed bound folk who we'd turned less than 2 hours before.

I think what happens is that a wee bit of poo sneaks out and dries out a bit so that it doesn't leave skiddy marks. Its then gently rolled into a wee ball by the action of the sleeping person and by the same action makes its way down the pyjama leg or out the top. Its still a bit damp inside so if you squash it, which is more likely with the bottom of the legs or the feet you get a wee brown mark. Other folk who've squashed it a bit higher up recognise it as their own poo, that's why all the mystery jobbies are at the end of the bed.

PP who's wee girl found the mucousy poo, could that have been some snotter or sputum stained with old blood?

Oh and the dog story, with the scratches? I honestly think i would move house after that! Frightening...

latrucha- the filter bit, the part you unscrew. I find rusty pins there sometimes. But it might be that you have high levels of iron in your water, it might be to do with inflow piping, all sorts of things can leave the marks. I have them on a white duvet cover and I am not quite sure how they got there. If you used Chlorine based bleach on the marks, they may be there forever. i am not sure if they will still respond to the stain remover once that has been done. But worth trying. I think Stain devils do a rust remover, I am about to hunt some down for my cover.

My beloved grandmother gave me her engagement ring before she died. I haven't been able to find it for the last 10 years. I've looked everywhere and am convinced that it is in my ex's house (where I lived before). He has looked with no luck.

this is one of those occasions where I wish ghosts were real and someone could find this 90 year old ring. Sometimes I speak aloud, asking for it back

According to my late MIL, DP was definitely dreaming something weird when she found him asleep at the top of the stairs as a small boy shouting that he'd jump. He's mentioned the weird flying feeling before, once or twice, and I have felt it might be sleep related. He doesn't sleepwalk now

DS is also a sleep walker (apparently runs in families), but as he's pretty much incoherent when sleepwalking I'm not sure if I'll find out if he gets that flying feeling.

Xmas 1987 I got a Criristmas Card from Belize. I had never even heard of the place. I had to look it up in my Nan's Sunday Times World Atlas. My Father went ballistic (he was that way inclined) and had only just calmed down when six weeks later a Valentines Card arrived, with the same postmark.

I was grounded for a month even though I had no idea who it was from and had been single (not even a little snoggeroony or slow dance) for 18 months....