AIBU to feel really distressed about what I've been told has happened in my house

[OnlyWantsOne]

We completed on our house this week. I went over there today ( had just picked keys up) to have a look round, see how much cleaning I need to do before we move in etc

There was a knock at the door. Old lady who lives down the road wanted to say hello etc and introduce herself.

I invited her in - she was telling me about bin days and reliable milk men, then she starts telling me about the people who lived there before. And then she says

"We'll you know, it was all very sad what happened"

Me, intrigued "really? What was?"


It turns out a baby was murdered in my house 25 years ago. I very small baby - this woman told me how, etc and in which room (my bedroom)

I'm moving in with 3 small children, my 6 week old being the youngest.


I just feel distressed she's told me. I wish she hadn't. I'm not easily spooked or concerned with ghosties etc but I just feel very sad about the whole thing now.


Hmmm

[Moominsarescary]

25 years is a long time for someone to be in a psychiatric unit, or forensic psychiatric unit as would probably be the case. I'd probably take what the old lady said with a pinch of salt.
Even if you researched it whatever you find may not be accurate.

When I worked in nursing homes we always opened the window after someone died as many of the older patients believed it helped their spirts to move on.

[ellathefox]

There was an old house in the town I went to uni in that would have been beautiful if renovated. Rumours were that a son had murdered his elderly mother in it years before. Not sure how much of that was true but I'd have happily bought that house if my job hadn't taken me to the other side of the country.

[BigFatLegsInWoolyTIghts]

Moomin My friend is an ITU manager and still does that! I think it's lovely.

[jumpingjackhash]

I wouldn't be concerned or let it bother me. Our house is late 19th century so is bound to have seen the odd dead body, it really doesn't bother me - in a way I quite like the idea the place has some history and is still likely to be standing and performing a role when I'm long gone.

It's the people in it that make it a home, after all!

Having said that, there's a nice-looking family-sized house in my parents' village where a man murdered his wife and then killed himself - it was put on the market by their estate quite soon after (must be about 10 years ago now) and is still empty.

[Hopeforever]

Moon, sadly is all too true that people were locked up for decades. Single mums were taken into psychiatric hospitals as teenagers simply for having a child out of wedlock and were still there in the 1980's as elderly women. They were too institutionalised to live outside. In the late 80's they were taken to supported housing I think. So so sad :(

[NellyJob]

yes but OP said the old woman said that this incident happened 25 years ago (ie 1980s), and that the mum 'had been locked up in the asylum since' which is clearly bollocks.

[Frontpaw]

Sounds like just a bit of local colour story. Ignore it!

[Moominsarescary]

Yes I know hope I trained as a mh nurse, that was before care in the community though in the 80s so wouldn't apply in this case

[hellymelly]

I live in a 200 year old house, it is attatched to another house (at one point they were one). A few years before we bought our side, the man living in the next door bit threw himself out of the attic window and fell to his death (4 storey building). We didn't find out until a day or so after moving in,and his wife then died a few months later (strangely in the place he landed), but our house isn't sad feeling, and nor is next door now ( a small boy and his family live there so lots of noise and fun). Sometimes I think of the poor man when I am in my attic, especially if I'm looking out as I can see where he climbed out a few feet away, but mostly I feel fine about it, just sad for him and his wife. All old houses have histories of good and bad times, enjoy your new home and fill it with love. (You could plant a rose or a flower in the garden for the baby if you find out it is true maybe?).

[Jux]

Burn a little dish of sage in each room. That's traditionally how you cleanse a house.

[Bubblemoon]

A neighbour told me that the previous people in one of our old houses had suffered a "terrible burglary at Christmas time." Perhaps pouncing on new neighbours with horror stories is a recognised condition? Amityville Syndrome?

The house in question had previously been a hospital, so a few christmas stockings being nicked was probably smallfry to what had happened there. And no, we didn't have to share our dinner with multiple poltergeists and theives, we lived there quite happily and sold it for a profit 5 years later.

[expatinscotland]

I lived in a home where a previous tenant had committed suicide in the bathtub.

Occassionally I could smell jasmine while soaking in the tub, but other than that, meh.

I've probably lived in other places where people shuffled off this mortal coil - a lot of places in Edinburgh are sited over plague pits or old cemetaries - Greyfriars cemetary used to be much larger than it is now and is bordered by scores of tenements. Last week, in fact, two bodies were found in the garden of a really nice home there when construction on an extension began.

[LadyHarrietdeSpook]

bbface Thu 04-Oct-12 20:25:02
I would be more concerned that this is utterly thoughtless woman is my neighbour.

This.