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

I said about a week ago I had another when I managed to upload a pic...

Here it is. I had cleaned and tidied my bedroom. I'd left the house, came back to find the right one in the center of my bedroom floor. Definitely hadn't been there before. The next day I found the one on the left, same spot on the floor.

No clue where they came from. I'm the only one who would be in this bedroom. House isn't new, but was renovated right before my flatmates and I moved in. How did these just appear? What is their significance?

Unless of course TB was something to be ashamed of back then?

I was born in the late 40s and all through my childhood TB was referred to in hushed tones. I think perhaps because it had associations with poverty and cramped living conditions, people were embarrassed about it, and "TB families" tried to hush it up. Even though it had been more or less eradicated by then, the shame lingered.

Mind you, mental illness was a disgrace too - my poor grandmother died in 1939 aged 52 of "premature senility" (scared the hell out of her descendants as we approached her age, I can tell you) but when I spoke to people who knew her, they were convinced she was menopausal, severely depressed and - with no real treatment options - had just turned her face to the wall. My mother was the youngest - she came home from school one day to discover that granny had been "removed" to an asylum. Mum was 10 years old and never saw her mother again - and they were told to keep it quiet.

We have a lot to be thankful for these days.

Loving this thread.

Vintage That's really interesting, but this was in the 1950's my dad was born in 51 and the way my nan had worded the letters guessed he would have been quite young so probably the mid 50's.

But you never know, as both my grandparents were born in 1920 and 1921 i would imagine that they were brought up knowing that there was a stigma attached to TB.
Attitudes took a while to change back then and they were both very set in their ways so cant imagine they would have thought any different if it was ingrained into them that it was never to be spoken of.

But I still cant figure out why my nan spoke so openly of her sister being in the mental hospital and we don't know exactly why she was there.
We just assumed MH issues but now not so sure??

DisneyDiva we lived in a third floor flat when it happened to us. They get everywhere!! Also had them in attic spaces in a previous house too!!

MandarinCheesecake: hi , re: TB if this was in the 1920/30 yes TB would have been seen as 'bad' or even worse hrs Mental Health issues.

No one really knew what caused it and of course being an infection it could and did infect whole families. The fact that it did mainly affect the young and teens the ones who were meant to be the strongest.

It could not only affect your health but your job prospects and your marriage prospects.

My Grandfather died in his 20's, from the little my Dad remembered and what my Grandma remembered it seems most likily that he had some form of intestinal cancer. However because he was young and coughing blood it was assumed to be TB.

My Aunt & Dad could remember not being allowed to play with some kids as their parents wouldn't allow it.

My Gran had to get a job at the local factory, they made her get a cert of health from the GP.

Even when my DAd was an adult with adult children of his own some of the locals would still say 'yes, but you know his father died of (loud whisper) TB…'

Assuming that this would have been around the same time it could be the reason.

My mum and I went out of my family home and when I came back, all the photos on my bedroom wall were neatly stacked in one corner of the room. About 9.

No one was in, the road is private and uber peaceful so it can't have been some odd road vibration, the walls are a foot thick. The frames were stacked so they hadn't just slid off the wall in one go.

I screamed and ran outside

Another weird one from me. I was in bed thinking about my blue salt pot. I have no clue why. Later when I was getting something out of the cupboard the salt pot fell out followed by a tin of beans. The salt pot landed on my thumb and the beans on the salt pot smashing it.

That is two sort of premonitions in a week .

While we're mentioning random metal things falling I was just in the bath, as I turned on the water a screw fell into the tub. I figured something had come lose from the tap. But the tap is completely smooth no exterior screws, no empty holes where a screw could have come from. The place where the water comes out is covered with a mesh, so it couldn't have flowed through the pipe. Where did it come from?

I've put it on the windowsill, and I'll ask DH to see if he can find where it goes.

I've just had a weird encounter, I work in a college and recently had a new student start, on their first day they looked really shocked to see me. They asked me to look at a picture of their relative on their fb page as it was the double of me. I looked and it absolutely was, it was like looking in a mirror. The relative lives in NZ.

Thought nothing of it, went to visit a friend, miles away from where I live as I've been off over Easter, went into a costas and a lady came over to me and asked if I was Lynne. I said no, she was a bit speechless and apologised but she said I was the image of someone she went to school with but they now live in NZ, she showed me a pic, again off fb and it was the same lady the student had showed me.

So it looks like I have a twin in NZ. But how bizarre for 2 random people in completely different parts of the country to both approach me thinking I was her.

My mother said that while she was having stitches after having me I screamed at each stitch as if I could feel them.

To be honest Lou I'd forgotten about it completely until I read your experience, the baby sleeping in my arms is 16 now. It seemed to come in from the hall and fly at the fan.
I only ever told DH for fear of being laughed at, I've never been much of a woo believer but I could never explain it as Id seen it fly. I wasn't even sleep deprived so couldn't blame that.

Loki - am glad I'm not the only one.

Do ball bearings have any significance, like feathers? It was just so strange .

Lousend, I had a similar experience when dd was little.
It was a really hot day and she was in my arms having a feed. We were on the sofa with a fan in the lounge. All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw something move which was followed by a ping as it hit the fan. I put dd down and retrieved the object - a small ball bearing.

I was alone in the house, we had no pets the time and nothing to explain where it had come from. It was very odd.

We were watching Radiohead perform at Glastonbury in 2003 when all of a sudden our attention was grabbed by about 5 lights hovering high above the stage. They had been moving gradually closer and then stopped right above the band and stayed there for quite a few minutes. Everyone around us noticed them and kept mentioning them but we couldn't work out what they were. We decided they must be balloons with lights and maybe cameras tied to them, but on reflection the next day we decided that actually they couldn't have been that because of the strange way they moved and stayed together. And no, I hadn't taken anything or been drinking that evening!

A few years later I was talking to someone who had also been there, and straight away when I mentioned Radiohead we both commented on the strange lights.

What were they? Was anyone else there and saw them?

The weird thing that happens to me is I have premonitions. Basically, I am filled with so much dread that my kids or hubby plus parents and siblings are going to die!! Its terrible I won't be settled for a week then I will hear someone has actually died! Though it is never anyone close to me but I know them. I have never told this to anyone since its so distressing. Lovely thread though.

mandarin- or it could have been a glider? They are completely silent.

No was definitely an aeroplane, it totally overshadowed the street and just missed the tops of our houses, not sure how high the house is but guessing no more than 30ft from ground level. I could see the whole underside of the wing and the carriage as it went over (The other wing was over the roof of the house opposite)
There was no mistaking that it was a plane just like the picture i posted. It really was a surreal moment but like ninja said it's quite spooky when you don't hear any noise. So not much a mystery now that I know that something of that size can fly silently!!

To the poster who wondered about their granmothers' stint in a mental institution - might she have been sent there because of TB? My DGM went to the 'local' mental hopsital but it was used in the 1940/50s (I'm guessing) as a sanatorium

That was me as well, I suppose its a possibility but i'm not so sure. If it were TB then why was it all kept hush hush never to be spoken of ever again, yet it was no big secret that my great aunt was there.
My dads reaction to the gentle questioning of the letters (although I hadn't mentioned what we'd read), led both me and my mum to believe there was more to this than we would ever know.

Unless of course TB was something to be ashamed of back then?

I may have created a mystery :)
I was staying with a friend over the weekend and for some reason we decided to create alternate identities for each other. My new name was Sarah and his was Joe. It was his birthday, and I addressed his card "to Joe" and signed it "from Sarah" as a joke. He keeps all of his birthday cards in a special box. I can imagine future generations wondering who Sarah and Joe were and why my friend had Joe's birthday card

Not a mystery, but a strange occurrence/coincidence. In 2007, a friend described a dream he had to me. In the dream we were having coffee together in a place with large windows and fairy lights. Also in the dream, friend's partner was not with us, and was not expected to be with us. This particular aspect of the dream upset my friend somewhat.

Fast forward to 2009. I meet said friend for coffee after not seeing him for nearly 2 years. He and his partner had had a messy breakup and he moved to a different area. When we are ordering the coffee, friend gasps in shock when he sees the barista's face. I ask him what is wrong. He asks if I remember the dream he told me about. He said the dream was about the place we were in, and the barista was in the dream! Sure enough, there were large windows and fairy lights and (ex)partner was not present and not expected! Friend definitely had not visited this coffee shop before he had the dream. I might not have believed it, but I remember him describing it to me two years before.

To the poster who wondered about their granmothers' stint in a mental institution - might she have been sent there because of TB? My DGM went to the 'local' mental hopsital but it was used in the 1940/50s (I'm guessing) as a sanitorium.

Has anyone had the disappearing footsteps?

This was in broad daylight, I was on my way to collect DS from school and walked along the canal towpath. It's busy rather than quiet. There's a Sainsburys there and various turn offs to streets. So not in the middle of nowhere and with hardly any bushes.

As I walked along, I heard footsteps behind me, sounded like trainers. They got closer and closer until I thought "oh fuck, I'm going to be mugged" but also thinking, not to worry, someone will be along and will see. But then, just as they got right up to me then stopped. I looked behind, nothing. I even went back to check there was nowhere for a person to go or hide. I even checked the canal.

What was it?

I work evenings, so I'm often driving home in the dark/twilight. The road home is very rural and about 5 miles in there are fields either side of the road, with woodland on one side.

Anyway. One summer's night I'm driving home in the twilight. It's been a warm day but it's misty now - the mist is just hanging over the fields in the way that summer mist often does. Because it's quite late, and dry, and the road is clear, I'm going a bit faster than my usual 60mph, and then all of a sudden a thought pops into my head and it was "Oooh, I must remember not to hit that deer" in those exact words, as if I was remembering something dull I'd made a mental note of earlier, like buying milk.

I was so taken by surprise by this thought appearing clear as a bell out of the debris of the day's work and what kind of sandwich I was going to have when I got in and whether DH would be up that I actually slowed down to 50, all the time thinking "don't be so daft" - and then I got round the blind corner and there, right in the middle of the road, was a white deer standing stock still in the middle of the road looking straight at me. Had I not slowed down, I would have ploughed right into it. I couldn't have seen it before I got round the corner. And although you could say it was the sort of night you'd expect to see deer and other animals out and about, I have never seen any before or since on that stretch of road.

A few weeks ago I had just been out to the gas meter to put the gas on emergency (stupid pre-pay effort) and then went back into the kitchen, went to hang the yellow key up (the ones that open the gas meter cupboard) on a cup hook above the kitchen worktop. I missed and dropped the bright yellow key, saw it fall towards the counter, then didn't see or hear it land. It was simply gone, I've looked for it everywhere.

I'm glad to read that i'm not the only one to have had objects simply vanish!

If it has been sucked into some vortex thingy then I wish it would spit it back out as I've been opening the cupboard with two knives

mandarin- or it could have been a glider? They are completely silent.

I received an envelope addressed to me (again, spelling exactly right, for an uncommon surname) from china. Strange, I thought ; I don't know anyone in china, hadn't bought anything on ebay for some time, which was my only thought of what it could be.

it contained one broken crayon

Itsfab - because it's a good read?