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Original poster

Someone died in my bedroom...

128 replies

HattieMcNastie · 29/08/2019 23:45

I always thought previous tenant died in hospital but neighbour told me he died in my room and wasn't found 'for a while'.

Now I can't bloody settle and keep scaring myself with horrible thoughts.

I've lived here 13 years and been fine in my bedroom. Now it feels creepy.

I know most houses have had someone die in them but wondering feels different to being told directly 'he passed away in your bedroom and wasn't discovered for a while'

Just gives me the willies.

OP posts:
RavenLG · 30/08/2019 09:46

My nana passed away in our living room sadly one night when she was looking after me as my parents were working. My mum found her in the morning.

Nothing bad or creepy ever happens, it's a normal ex-council house on a normal estate. Well, sometimes the dogs stare into the corner of the ceiling, my dad jokes she's sat up there watching us lol

ElizaPancakes · 30/08/2019 09:46

I didn’t bother you when you didn’t know, I get that it feels creepy now, but it won’t forever. You need to be more pragmatic.

jamoncrumpet · 30/08/2019 09:50

People die in rooms in houses every hour of every day. My mum died in bed in our old house. My FiL died in the bedroom of their family home.

I don't know what creeps you out exactly. Ghosts?! Are you eleven or something?

IScreamForIceCreams · 30/08/2019 10:21

In our previous house, the owner died from alcohol poisoning and wasn't found for several days, eeewwww. In our current house, the wife of the previous owner died in the spare bedroom and was in there fore several days during her wake.
Doesn't really bother me, I think all houses will eventually have someone died in them.

crumpet · 30/08/2019 10:25

The last 3 houses I have lived in (plus the house I grew up in) have all been at least 100 years old. I’d be staggered if something similar hadn’t happened in all of them and know for a fact it has with my current house.

Zaphodsotherhead · 30/08/2019 10:33

My dad died in the bathroom of our old house, my mum died in the back bedroom of the same house. We sold it and it's now student accommodation - do you think any of them give a second thought to who may have lived there before?

Judging by the amount of bottles in the garden, there's only one sort of spirit that they are interested in.

cannycat20 · 30/08/2019 10:35

CigarsofthePharoahs oh yes, we have our own Legend of Zelda ;) (From now on that is how we'll refer to her. She was actually the owner of the entire house before she passed on and her family had the building converted into four flats...yes, it was a large house!)

Coffeeandchocolate9 that's a good point on the sustainability; I don't use sage (white or blue) in the form of smudge sticks very often but when I do I try to make sure it's as organic and sustainable as possible.

Your suggestion of locally grown alternatives is a very good one though. Lavender would be my choice of "desert island discs luxury" but the other person in my household gets migraines from it, so I have to be careful when I use it. But yes, other options are a bit of boiled water in a spray bottle with a few drops of lavender, or juniper, or rosemary, or one of the other nice "cleansing" herbs that will grow quite happily in the UK (even in personal gardens, as I can attest! And yes, we did also have sage at one address though it won't grow well where we are now.)

ChanklyBore · 30/08/2019 10:44

The last house I owned was a two up/two down type so essentially had four rooms. In the time I had it there was either a death OR a birth in all four rooms. I only owned it for eight years. I bet you couldn’t guess from going in which rooms hosted death and which hosted birth.

Ursaminor · 30/08/2019 10:55

Even if you aren't religious, could you get vicar to come and join you in a prayer to acknowledge the man who died and maybe thank him for providing you with his house or something? Perhaps that would help you get past this, and think of the man as a real person rather than the creepy vision you have just now? I'm not suggesting anything like an exorcism, just a quiet reflection on the person who lived in the house before you, to help you accept and move on.

jamoncrumpet · 30/08/2019 10:57

If I am ever a ghost I hope I haunt a more interesting location than my former home. I'm thinking a film studio or exotic hotel complex in Barbados

kaytee87 · 30/08/2019 11:00

This wouldn't bother me one bit.

Even if (and that's a massive if) ghosts did exist, why would he haunt you and why would you think he'd be a 'bad' ghost anyway?

kaytee87 · 30/08/2019 11:01

I think you have an over active imagination, sorry.

formerbabe · 30/08/2019 11:06

My uncle hung himself in the garage if his beautiful home. I did wonder if my aunt who moved into residential care home had trouble selling the property. Do you know if you have to declare something like that to potential buyers

I highly doubt it.

BrittleJoys · 30/08/2019 11:08

My dad died in the bathroom of our old house, my mum died in the back bedroom of the same house. We sold it and it's now student accommodation - do you think any of them give a second thought to who may have lived there before?

Judging by the amount of bottles in the garden, there's only one sort of spirit that they are interested in.

Grin

You've reminded me that I stayed at a friend's house in the vac when I was a student, an incredibly beautiful house with a lovely atmosphere, which bore no lingering trace of the fact that both his parents had committed suicide (together) in it a few years earlier. Horrible for him, obviously, especially as he'd found them, but he lived for a long time afterwards in that house, married there and had children. I think they only sold in the end because they transferred abroad for work.

Only in stories and the lives of very credulous people do deaths, even complex/nasty ones, leave a 'mark'. You'd be surprised how many notorious houses where murders have taken place do just get redecorated and sold on -- we tend to hear about the ones which are razed to the ground, like Fred and Rose West's house, but lots aren't.

I've been listening to a podcast called 'Damned Spot' which featured an American guy whose job was dealing with damaged real estate (whether because of fire/flooding or the fall out of a crime), and it was surprising how many mass killers houses/scenes of murders just end up being sold, to buyers who know what happened there because it's too high-profile to ignore.

BrittleJoys · 30/08/2019 11:10

If I am ever a ghost I hope I haunt a more interesting location than my former home. I'm thinking a film studio or exotic hotel complex in Barbados

Indeed, or at least to be able to do things more interesting than hiding people's keys or creaking loose floorboards on the landing.

raspberryk · 30/08/2019 11:22

I used to live in my ex pil's annex where the ex grandmother died. Never gave it a thought, other than how peaceful to die in your own bedroom.

My first owned home was 350 years old and I'd wager each room hosted births and deaths, my dd was born in the living room.

I don't understand what people's problem is with death, and why it would be creepy.

NeelixFelicis · 30/08/2019 12:22

One estimate says that 100 billion people have died over the course of human history

Yet when people see a ghost, they all seem to be Victorian! Grin
Never a Viking ghost, or a Roman, or a caveman.

PancakeAndKeith · 30/08/2019 13:13

I completely understand op. It’s not the fact that he died so much, as many people have said most houses will have had someone die in them. It’s more that he wasn’t found and the images this is putting into your mind.

My uncle used to live in the house of an extremely famous author. When the author died he was buried in poets corner. He wanted his heart to be buried in his village church so they took his heart out as he wished. As this was the 20s this took place in his kitchen at the table.
I only found out a few years ago that this table was still the one in the kitchen, where we used to have tea and cake!

I remember reading about a woman who went to London Dungeons or Madam Tussauds or somewhere like that and realised that one of the famous murder scenes was the house she was living in at that time!

VerbenaGirl · 30/08/2019 14:00

My DF passed away in the house that my Mum still lives in. I sleep in that room when I go and stay and actually quite like the feeling of closeness it gives me to him.

BrittleJoys · 30/08/2019 14:48

@PancakeAndKeith, there wouldn't also be a famous anecdote about said dead author's cat making off with said author's heart after it was removed and before it could be buried...? Grin

PancakeAndKeith · 30/08/2019 14:52

I’d never heard that story.
Strangely we never talked about said author when visiting. I was too young really and didn’t much care. I do remember being shown his study which was kept exactly as he left it, but my aunt and uncle lived in the rest of the house as normal really.

cookiechomper · 30/08/2019 14:52

Someone I know very closely has connections to a violent quite recent murder. They know that a family are now renting the house where it took place. I always wonder if they know about the history or not.
I don't think a death in the house would bother me, maybe the thought of it not being found for a long time, but you have to think it was a long time ago and any traces are long gone.

BrittleJoys · 30/08/2019 14:59

Strangely we never talked about said author when visiting. I was too young really and didn’t much care.

Assuming we're talking about the same author, his novels are a bit low on obvious child appeal!

PancakeAndKeith · 30/08/2019 15:01

We are talking about the same man.

Zaphodsotherhead · 30/08/2019 15:05

A house quite near to me was the scene of a murder/suicide. It came up for sale when a friend was looking to buy - reasonably priced. She wouldn't even look at it; she's not scared of ghosts but it's quite isolated and she was worried that any odd noises would be built up in her imagination...