Did I see a ghost? Or am I going mad?

[SnotRags]

This happened on Monday. It’s been playing on my mind since.

I work in a largely unused community hospital. Some days, I’m the only person working there other than reception and a security guard. I run a clinic and my room is down the end of a corridor - remember there is nobody else in the entire building, all other rooms unused. Just mine at the end with its little light on.

So anyway, I don’t believe in ghosts, never have. However this corridor is bloody spooky sometimes and on a number of occasions I’ve thought I’ve seen someone walking around a corner only for there to be nobody there. I’ve heard the sound of a Zimmer frame walking towards my room, gone out to greet my patient and nobody is there. My cupboard door in my room has had a random rattling handle on a few occasion. A pair of scissors weirdly left my trolley and ended up on the floor (I didn’t see how, just heard the clatter on the floor and saw them lying there). Now, not saying those incidents are ghosts but it was unnerving so I asked security if we could put the waiting room TV on a music channel or something just to make the corridor less silent.

Anyway, on Monday I asked reception where I could find something I needed. She said “that sort of stuff is upstairs”. I asked how I got up there (didn’t even know there was a second floor!) and she said “you can’t, it’s locked”. So I asked security to let me up. He laughed and said “you going up there on your own? Because I’m not coming with you!” … long story short he unlocked the door to the stairs, I went up - was sorting through the stuff I needed and saw a nurse walk past the room I was in (not a shadow or Victorian dressed character, just an actual nurse). Thought nothing of it. Went back downstairs and as security was locking the door again I said “you know there is a nurse up there? Does she have a key for this door?” He said “nobody is up there” and locked the door. I said “I literally saw her! You can’t just lock her in!” He maintained nobody was up there and we walked back to reception where he told receptionist I’d seen “Julie”. Lots of dramatic faces and gasps, they tell me Julie is a ghost - had an aneurysm at work and died years ago.

As I said I don’t believe in ghosts but I can’t stop thinking about it! I definitely saw someone, they even described her and it was the same person I saw. Only thing I can think of is it’s an in joke and there is a nurse who works up there?? (But no patients go up there so what is she doing exactly?)

YABU - it’s clearly an in joke and the nurse works up there, the others say she’s a ghost to freak people out
YANBU - it’s a ghost, why would a uniformed nurse be working on an unused floor on her own?

It sounds ridiculous even to me as I’m writing this but I just can’t stop going over it in my head.

Yes Luibeilt was great. The pictures online were pretty scary too.

Elizabeth Dacre was like The Shining

Have not read the whole thread,OP, but the story is fascinating - especially people who actually remember the nurse. I hope you can let us know when you find out more.
I have occasionally seen what I think of as "whisks", like your description. A slight movement catches the corner of your eye but when you look, there is nothing there. Strangely enough I saw one in my house this week (where I have lived for four years) for the first time for years - never seen anything here before. Previously I saw several on some steps in a courtyard at a stately pile somewhere near Plymouth once. And my mother occasionally got a "whisk" of our beloved cat after she had died.
I have stayed in a genuinely haunted house in the past. The upstairs attics were literally buzzing, and so was a corridor in the floor below.
At night there once I heard a snatch of conversation in the room - a bit like when you change stations on the radio.

@JohannSebastianBach the bit I didn't get about the Elizabeth Dacre one was why did he leave an elderly woman who was sat out in the rain rocking back and forth TWICE??! Frankly he must be a bit of a tosser to have done that 😂 'I didn't know what to say' errrrrrm how about 'hello, are you ok?'!!! I would have love to have known what would have happened if he had spoken to her. Would she have responded, or disappeared into thin air?

Maybe that's why she didn't want him in the house 😁 couldn't be bothered to help an old lady.

@BellatrixOnABadDay

@EmmaH2022

Strycnine that post made me laugh with the Celia and Trevor remark! 😂

I didn't know that about Bond Street unless I knew and forgot!

Interesting re the cafe, do you know which station?

It's Bold Street, not Bond Street.

Love a ghost story, my friends mum used to work in a Bristol hospital and often used to see ghost nurses dressed in the old uniforms with the white caps. She even spoke to some of them to check medications etc and they didn't reply then just disappeared!

I don't believe in ghosts, but I'm struggling to explain what you saw op and love a good ghost story nonetheless.

My dsis lived in an old cottage recently. She often woke up in the morning to find used teabags had been moved from a pot on the worktop into a different corner of the kitchen. Said she never felt scared or fearful in any way there. She lived alone at the time. No mice as there were no droppings.

@CorsicaDreaming ( great name btw). We know it was built in 1885. The same family owned the house until it was sold in 1952. It was then converted into a two family home. It was bought in 1975 by a family who reverted it back into a single family home. We bought it in 2007.

I am certain a few people have died here since 1885. We have been very happy in it despite its many quirks and eccentricities.

When I hear the music, it is very faint. I also have a seizure disorder so I sometimes wonder if that has anything to do with it

In the mid 1990s I worked in TV. We were on a night shoot in a disused London hospital for a children's drama (it was being used as a 'current' ) hospital for several scenes which were filmed over two nights.

I still can't tell you exactly what happened because I didn't see it myself but we were on set in an old hospital corridor. Sets are usually pretty quiet when people are working in the run up to filming - sound getting levels etc. Suddenly there was a bit of a commotion and someone said something like, 'did you see that' and at least 2 people on the set saw a figure walk through part of the set and down the corridor. It stopped filming for a wee while as it really created a bit of a ripple through the set.
Like I say, didn't see it myself but never forgotten it - these were people in the middle of a scene and with their mind on the job!

.

For all those who are loving ‘Uncanny’, search for ‘Haunted’ too. It’s the same bloke (Danny Robins) and is also a terrific series. One of them is about a haunted hospital room. Terrifying!

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/haunted/id1299841207
This is it. Well worth a listen

@LeatherJacketWedding

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/haunted/id1299841207 This is it. Well worth a listen

Thanks so much for this @LeatherJacketWedding I didn't know Danny Robins had another series like Uncanny. That's my dog walks sorted for a few days! DR is so... nice isn't he? Takes all his guests seriously and respects their stories.

Thanks for your fab update yesterday @SnotRags - wow you are brave, I'm not sure I'd have dared go back up alone.

Given the description of Julie given by your patient without you mentioning it first, it sounds like you truly did see a ghost.

So, are you going to keep going up and try and make contact with her again, or just leave well alone now? I'm not sure what I'd do. I was reading your thread at 4am this morning- and not sure it helped my insomnia much 😄

Please keep us posted with any more spooky goings on ...

@ElftonWednesday

Peter Ackroyd in 'London the Biography' talks about how certain streets have ley lines but also morphic resonance (if it's that) and when I've worked in Victoria - in Victoria Street I often get a sorrowful feeling. Apparently there was a women's mental institute there, friend told me this after I got this feeling though

I've felt suddenly terribly sad, slightly sick and just "off" around London Bridge station, especially Tooley Street. I first noticed this 20+ years ago.

I used to travel around the M25 for work a lot.

On my way home driving anti clockwise at around the junctions for Leatherhead and roads for A3 and then A24 I often had a real feeling of loneliness and melancholy for no obvious reason. Later on once I got to M23 junction I'd feel fine again. It was very strong feeling and I did the journey on and off for seven years.

I'm just wondering about that now and whether there could have been bad RTAs at that point.

[quote SecretWitch]@CorsicaDreaming ( great name btw). We know it was built in 1885. The same family owned the house until it was sold in 1952. It was then converted into a two family home. It was bought in 1975 by a family who reverted it back into a single family home. We bought it in 2007.

I am certain a few people have died here since 1885. We have been very happy in it despite its many quirks and eccentricities.

When I hear the music, it is very faint. I also have a seizure disorder so I sometimes wonder if that has anything to do with it[/quote]

Thanks re the name - can't wait to get back there when we can.... imagining a glass of Cap Corse by the Med... as the sun sets.

That's really interesting re your house history, thanks - it would be great if as well as deeds there were a written diary that each household had to write to pass down to the next household who bought a house and then pass on to the next so there would be a real social history.

We've recently bought a house about the same age as yours and the electrician found a Queen of Hearts playing card stuck in the wall. Apparently they also (in Victorian times) would put small children's shoes in the wall when building to ward off evil spirits.

I've written a letter and put it under the new carpet for the next owners to find in 20/30 years time (hopefully this is it for us moving now!)

@InisnaBro indeed! I'd be more worried about the security guard being useless in a dangerous situation than there being a ghost!

Just wondering really why "ghost nurses" is a thing. I mean do you also get ghost builders? Or ghost shop assistants? Like what's so special about nurses?

If it is haunted and nobody wants to go to that floor as security insinuated, why store things there in the first place? How do people go up there and get stuff if everyone is scared? Do they just wait for a member of staff who is not scared to be available and send him/her up to put things in storage and to take things out?🤔 I also can't understand why everybody sees ghosts fully clothed? No-one ever seems to see them naked🤔 It's as if ghosts wake up and think "I must put my clothes on before I wander around the place,
don't want people to see my bits ".Where do they get the clothes from? Are they ghost clothes too? I am truly baffled by this. Esp. about people who see ghosts in longs robes. Clothes the dead person may have never worn in their lifetime but we see so often in movies. I think the security guy sowed the seeds of paranormal activity in your head and your subconscience created the rest. I think it's a figment of your imagination.

She even spoke to some of them to check medications etc and they didn't reply then just disappeared!

The worrying state of the NHS eh. Things must be dire if staff have to ask ghost nurses to check meds🤣🤣

It’s a really tricky one
I can’t rule out ghostly experiences myself having witnessed some weird stuff but on the other hand you could have colleagues winding you up
Have you done any sneaky research on the place itself?

I've done nights in some old hospital buildings which were half empty. It's pretty hard to prank in that situation as everything echoes.

Anyway Julie wanted to keep you company. It's all good.

Someone else must remember the story previously told by an MNer who was a nurse and took a lift down to the basement (to use the vending machine) with a colleague during a night shift?

Upon the lift doors opening, they were met with not an empty basement and vending machine, but a scene from a WW2 burns unit. The OP recalled vividly how one of the nurses turned and stared at them with evil red eyes and they frantically stabbed at the lift button to take them back up to the main floors of the hospital.

Probably total bullshit, but the post was written in the most wonderfully haunting way.

I remember that one @littlerebellion

Along with Savernake forest, and the club in Essex, with the creepy demon boy who never aged 😱

@Polyputthekettleon I like your thinking. Perhaps this is the cost-effective way to secure the extra medics and nurses the Government promised. Might encourage patients to stay in their beds at night.

The only downside is I suspect the spiritual workforce might be concentrated in old community hospitals and secure residential childrens hospitals rather than new-ish builds where the patients are now. Night shifts in such now-closed institutions tended to be interesting though the spiritual patients were usually happy.