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Ok... this has freaked me out and I'm pretty chilled

479 replies

Clovko · 29/08/2019 00:19

(NC as I’ve text about this to a few people who haven’t replied yet)

I woke up about twenty min ago, funny feeling and went to check locks downstairs for reassurance (all secure).

There is a note on the kitchen sideboard, lined notebook paper and light blue ball point in blocky neat handwriting. It says:

‘This is your house Kathleen. You live here. David has the front bedroom and your bedroom is at the back. This is your house Kathleen and you can look at the garden.’

Really tidy kitchen, in the middle of an empty side. I went to bed last. Obv I’m not called Kathleen or anything similar and I don’t recognise the handwriting or even the pen ink.

Maybe this will be easier to grasp or solve in the morning? But right now I’m a bit 😳 and unable to sleep...

OP posts:
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6
HesMyLobster · 29/08/2019 23:37

(Desperately ignoring creepy garden post as home alone with spooked dog who's just been in the garden barking at his own shadow!) Confused

What's the sort of explanation @Clovko?!

Mumsymumphy · 29/08/2019 23:37

@Clovko 'I’ve found an explanation of sorts'
Please tell us OP 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

Clovko · 29/08/2019 23:37

Brief summary- I will write more

Source of paper: loft piles of junk, me rooting through up there and having loft hatch open at night to cool house in heat.

Dh: found paper on stairs, without unfolding, thought it was just some mess and went to bin it. Interrupted and forgot about it after returning upstairs to get he bottle he forgot.

Kathleen did actually live here, David was a younger son. Elder son dealt with probate sale, which is only name I remember (he was a walker and a half). Some info from neighbour, some sad.

OP posts:
Clovko · 29/08/2019 23:38

@CustardySergeant I’ve peeked at it a few times today if I’m honest, then that post made me go 😳

OP posts:
IdahoGreen · 29/08/2019 23:56

That makes total sense, OP. Stop being spooked.

SmellbowSpaceBowl · 30/08/2019 00:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Clovko · 30/08/2019 00:13

House is modern inside (this is relevant) as we had to gut it, it was in an awful state. Really dilapidated. Wanker elder son made it a hellish sale, unhappy with price. Damaged stuff, removed fittings, left debts and also a parting gift of not emptying the property but stuffing nearly everything in the loft. He vanished after lists of nasty texts, didn’t live at given address even when we tried formal routes. All I really remember was his drama. We’ve done it up totally, so that’s what I meant - no nooks and crannies with a modern interior, all new kitchen units and floor etc. The house isn’t that modern, 1930s. We’ve sorted it all, but ran out of steam on a lot of loft junk as there was so much, broken TVs and lamps even -so hard to get into even with glass and sharp bits. We gave up chasing him as I had a newborn, dh a new job and the stress was huge.

We knew dad was also not nice from local stories, had to be clear I was no relative moving in at the local corner shop even (he did stuff like hang Union Jacks out the front and call out abuse)

Ive been trying to get on with sorting the junk a bit, also have left the loft hatch open to cool the house at night. At some point this page has fallen on the stairs. DH has picked it up and just gone to bin it, but left it on the side. When he saw it he remembered picking up a piece of paper and hadn’t seen it as a note. In the loft I’ve found a few notepads of this type, different handwriting but loads of missing pages in some and most aren’t filled in much.

I caught neighbour gardening today and asked her about previous owners. A lot of face pulling and looks. She referred to her as ‘that more woman with the illness’, couldn’t be pressed on as to what it was. Was making expressions like I’d twig, but I didn’t. She quite old and tends to talk on her focus! Kathleen has a younger son David too, said he stayed there.

What got me, she then said how ‘those boys sold straight away. Onto the market before she was cold. Money. Money.’ Said she didn’t go out after her husband died, and hardly before that. ‘Kept herself to herself’.This house was not habitable. The boiler was not working and clearly hadn’t for some time. The bath was cracked through and just ran into the kitchen if the taps turned on, there was nowhere to wash. The floorboards had rot in there. Stank of piss. A ceiling was down, obviously some time ago. The cigarette and mould stale smell was so bad the estate agent stood outside I remember. It was a mad buy, but in a location we couldn’t otherwise afford. But doors couldn’t be secured, a number of windows just had secondary glazing left, the slide out type. The back windows were rotten like sponge. Electrics weren’t safe and some sockets not connected at all. The garden Tbf wasn’t that bad though, mild over growing but fairly mature. It seems this poor woman, with some illness, lived in it when we had presumed it had been unoccupied for years after the father’s death. I found that really quite upsetting.

As an aside.

The garden is freaky... there are so many buried cats we’ve found. I’m sensitive...seriously. Way more cat skeletons to find planting shrubs than is sane. Maybe that got me about it

OP posts:
2018SoFarSoGreat · 30/08/2019 00:22

Clovko that's a really sad story. Poor, poor woman. Poor, poor cat woman.

I would find it difficult to resist reading the rest of the notebooks, but would not be excited to do so.

Thanks for coming back and telling the story. Don't let it spoil the enjoyment of your house though - it is just the past, not then now.

BlueBirdGreenFence · 30/08/2019 00:22

Aww that's very sad. I've worked with families that wouldn't organise 24hour care for a loved one so instead left notes like this for the poor pet who was demented and couldn't remember who or where they were to try and keep them calm. Still angers me now. No excuse for being that desperate about money.

Clovko · 30/08/2019 00:31

The notebooks are mainly teaching related, the fullest is a journal of a student teachers. Comments and notes. 1972. Others are lesson plans for topic work, stationary lists etc. One has recipes. I don’t think it’s a handwriting match.

Ok... this has freaked me out and I'm pretty chilled
OP posts:
dellacucina · 30/08/2019 02:00

Thanks for the update OP x

SecretWitch · 30/08/2019 03:50

Ahh, well happy incident is resolved. I just want to say I think you are very brave to have settled yourself into bed after finding such a note. My scare-O- meter would have been off the charts!

tirednhungry247 · 30/08/2019 06:43

@CustardySergeant and?Confused good for you

tirednhungry247 · 30/08/2019 06:47

Extraordinary...

Branster · 30/08/2019 07:05

Clovko thank you for coming back with the update.
Phew! That makes sense now.
What a sad story about this woman.

MyOtherProfile · 30/08/2019 07:19

Great update. What a relief.

sashh · 30/08/2019 07:39

Thanks for the update.

ShirleyPhallus · 30/08/2019 07:41

Good update, thanks OP

rainbowstardrops · 30/08/2019 07:46

Oh poor lady. How very sad but I'm glad you got to the bottom of it.

ReasonedCamper · 30/08/2019 08:05

Wow, great piecing together, OP.

Poor Kathleen.

I wonder if the note could have been written for her by a kindly friend or sister, an alternative to her money-grabbing sons?

But surely David moved out before the house became so dilapidated?

A woman with severe MH issues lives along the road from us; isolated, agoraphobic, one room, a hoarder, she is cared for by Carers 4 times a day and watched over by a compassionate community of neighbours.

She feeds a huge extended family of feral cats in her garden.

PuppyMonkey · 30/08/2019 08:24

This has got to be the basis of a bestselling novel by next year, imho. Well done, OP.

peridito · 30/08/2019 08:26

That is a sad tale OP.

I think you have to take the view that you have turned around the fortunes of the house ,that Kathleen would have been soothed to know that her home has been put to rights .That a happy family are now living there and making it a home again .

Flowers
Be1atrix · 30/08/2019 12:08

Agree with PuppyMonkey! OP it's so nice to know after all that sadness that you've given it a fresh lease of life and will live there happily with your family.

stayathomer · 30/08/2019 12:50

OP Flowers Sigh, very sad tale. I was about to add I hope ... but we'll, I hope she had some happy times and her mh shielded her in some way from the coldness of it all. Hope you're okay, cos I found reading all of this toughFlowers

Milomonster · 30/08/2019 15:01

Thank you for the update Flowers

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