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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

327 replies

SnotRags · 02/02/2022 09:45

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.

OP posts:
XantheBreeze · 02/02/2022 11:39

@burstcouch
Ooh do tell! If you mean ‘the Deva’ I think it was the old Victorian ‘lunatic asylum’ and the creepy tower is still there.

irisetta · 02/02/2022 11:45

Go up there tomorrow with your phone and see what you can record! Just leave it recording the whole time...

Staffy1 · 02/02/2022 11:48

Follow her and tap her on the shoulder. If she’s solid, she’s not a ghost.

Threewheeler1 · 02/02/2022 11:50

@HangoverSquare

Poor Julie, stuck in work for eternity. If I'm gonna do some haunting it had better be somewhere a bit more fun than the office.
I know, what a massive bummer! Spending eternity never catching up with paperwork and wondering who's eating stinky tuna sandwiches again Sad Grin
CalamityJaney · 02/02/2022 11:55

I’m not a believer but can absolutely identify with this. Twice now, we’ve had a ‘normal’ person walk down the side passage either side of our house. The first time my son saw it and said ‘I think daddy’s home’ but there was no one there, I thought a prowler perhaps but there really was no one there. And then a few weeks ago my mum saw someone and said ‘oh, who’s this’ but again, absolutely no one there. So either we have recurrent prowlers who immediately hide and get away (very unlikely given the house/plot) or it’s something else/a ghost(!) that literally just vanishes into thin air. No explanation but the everyday-ness of it all doesn’t make me frightened of it happening again. Just totally unexplained!

Sittingonabench · 02/02/2022 11:57

Aw poor Julie. I’d embrace the weird and take some fake flowers up or a cactus with a little note for Julie. If they don’t exist it’s a nice memorial or alternatively show pranksters you’re not scared and if they do then hopefully give the spirit a nice lift. Not sure on what I believe personally. Don’t think ghosts are out of the realms of possibility but if she was a nurse then hopefully she was a nice person

Outlyingtrout · 02/02/2022 11:58

There’s literally always an explanation that is infinitely more likely than anything supernatural. Even if the only explanation you can come up with is that a person slipped, bumped their head, imagined the whole thing and then had no recollection afterwards. That’s unlikely but it’s still far more likely an explanation than having seen a ghost.

In this case there are several obvious explanations for OP’s experience. Either “the nurse” was there or she wasn’t. If she wasn’t, that can be easily explained by a combination of OP’s insomnia and the perfect storm of already feeling that the building is spooky, discovering the previously unknown locked second floor of partially abandoned hospital (which just sounds like the basis of a cheap horror flick in itself), the comments from the security guard prior to going upstairs. All of this, combined with OP’s insomnia, would make her a prime candidate for having her eyes play tricks on her. Furthermore, the comments from reception staff afterwards will have reinforced the image in OP’s mind. It’s very possible to have memories of events alter after the fact and it could easily be the case that OP has embellished what she actually saw in her own mind.

Or perhaps the nurse was actually just a nurse. Since this is a medical facility that’s still in use it’s very plausible that this nurse may have a key for another access point to the second floor and was up there working.

A lot less likely (but still far, far more likely than anything supernatural) is that one of the reception staff was playing a trick on OP.

CaptainThe95thRifles · 02/02/2022 12:01

I'd say common things are common, and colleagues on a wind-up are about as common as it comes. The spooked-out security guard screams wind-up merchant.

But I bloody love the idea of poor Julie being co-opted onto the staff for eternity Grin

Witchinthedales · 02/02/2022 12:02

Ghost.

diplodocus · 02/02/2022 12:07

You may have found the answer to the staffing crisis. They've tried bringing back retired staff but not dead ones yet.

Jeds55 · 02/02/2022 12:08

No time to read the thread so apologies if this has been mentioned before but I'd try to Google if someone has died there just to see if even the story is true. Won't help you much but something ro do

Jeds55 · 02/02/2022 12:08

@diplodocusGrin

burstcouch · 02/02/2022 12:11

@XantheBreeze that's the one!
My mum worked at the countess for years and was always freaked out in that place.

Cissyandflora · 02/02/2022 12:32

@SnotRags

I’m going to insist they let me back up tomorrow, I’ll record it all just in case but very much doubt I’ll be the first person in the world to ever catch a ghost on camera 😂
Don’t forget to give them warning. They’ll need time to set it up!
Thirtytimesround · 02/02/2022 12:38

Hmmmm. You work with a tiny (bored) team in a large, mostly empty, building, and you’d expressed concern before to your colleagues about it being spooky.

I think your colleagues played a practical joke on you. I hope I wrong, it’s mean, but I do think that’s the most likely explanation. Especially with the security guard making such a big deal about no one else being up there.

SnotRags · 02/02/2022 12:40

So another thing I need to find out tomorrow is if there is another way to get up there. Surely there must be as it would be a fire risk otherwise I’d imagine?

OP posts:
Thirtytimesround · 02/02/2022 12:40

Oo I do know of an empty building that a former employee still has a key to and is using a disused area of it for growing weed. Maybe an ex-employee is sneaking in with a spare key to use the space and has started rumours of ‘Julie’ in case she’s seen 🤣

chaosrabbitland · 02/02/2022 12:40

i have a firm belief in the afterlife so yes its very possible you have seen a ghost , if it was just this one thing about the nurse the other staff are telling you then it could be put down to a possible wind up , but you are hearing and experiancing strange things arent you ?

iv watched loads of paranormals and hospitals are frequently haunted as are old prisons and asylums
it all does sound rather fascinating where you are working , im sure im not the only one who wants to see some pictures
have you thought about looking up the history of the building , finding out any info on previous staff who used to work there ?

and if you do really want to find out you can always order yourself a spirit box of amazon and have a go upstairs with it lol

and one last thing you said the staff described the nurse to you , and it was who you saw , how can they be winding you up if they know what she looks like already , only way it could be a wind up is if you described her to them and they all said oh yeah thats her

Gonnagetgoing · 02/02/2022 12:41

Funny about this. Was at a brunch last weekend with 2 new friends. Both talking about areas and places we'd worked.

One of them works for GOSH and other is a lawyer. So both were speaking about possible 'experiences'. The GOSH one had nothing but said there were experiences but she WFH now.

The lawyer however had said that in her training contract a few years before she'd been in an old office somewhere and one day in period between christmas and new year had to go hunting for some files - the legal sec she was assigned was on annual leave so couldn't look for her. Just go to the archive area she was told - as was old file. She stopped outside the room about to go in and heard and saw someone in there moving about - was type of office with just head area in door for window but she swears she saw a woman's shape - sort of in shadow/silhouette with bobbed hair and in a suit and thought that as it sounded busy in there she'd go for lunch and come back and not interrupt. Was on a top floor with only one other office there.

Went for lunch came back and spoke to another legal sec - who offered to go and look for the file for her. Lawyer said "oh I'd been there before lunch but office was occupied by someone looking for files"' - bear in mind this was a quiet time of year not many people in. Legal sec said - "that can't be right as no one else is in today apart from me, you, the other lawyers (male) and Sharon on reception" (who was always there and had long hair). Lawyer said "but I saw X woman there, with bobbed hair and dressed in a suit". Legal sec, "no, that can't be true".

The legal sec she spoke to was quite new but when the usual one was back from holiday they spoke and she said "yes there were rumours of a ghost but funnily enough before we moved here and there was an accountants there. We heard one of their secs had been killed in a car crash and she was known to 'return' to the office to do her work". Funnily enough she also said not many people saw her, she personally hadn't but said one of the lawyers had seen her. General talk in office wasn't to speak about it as they didn't want staff to be spooked and not look for files.

I was a bit Shock when I heard this. Have worked in several rickety old lawyers offices and not once seen or heard anything!

Gonnagetgoing · 02/02/2022 12:42

OP - as to your experience - I have no idea as never seen anything (but felt strange).

wouldn't discount it though

Gonnagetgoing · 02/02/2022 12:45

@Thirtytimesround

Hmmmm. You work with a tiny (bored) team in a large, mostly empty, building, and you’d expressed concern before to your colleagues about it being spooky.

I think your colleagues played a practical joke on you. I hope I wrong, it’s mean, but I do think that’s the most likely explanation. Especially with the security guard making such a big deal about no one else being up there.

@Thirtytimesround - a few years back I worked in an architects office in Soho. Bit old but no 'ghosts'.

Out at pub one night after work - architect tells she'd been working late and heard a noise in stairwell separate in corridor to main offices. Saw and couldn't unsee older male cleaner having sex with a woman in the stairwell! She'd wondered if it was a ghost at first! Shock

SnotRags · 02/02/2022 12:46

Ok so nurse ghost aside … any idea how the scissors removed themselves from the flat trolley and placed themselves on the floor a couple of foot away? It’s a steady metal trolley. Flat. Made a right racket when they hit the floor, proper shit mysen as the same day the handle started rattling on the cupboard door (walk in cupboard)

OP posts:
TheVolturi · 02/02/2022 12:47

Hi op, the hospital hasn't got the initials A V has it 🤔

huffyhufferson · 02/02/2022 12:49

This thread has me gripped!

Gonnagetgoing · 02/02/2022 12:54

@SnotRags

Ok so nurse ghost aside … any idea how the scissors removed themselves from the flat trolley and placed themselves on the floor a couple of foot away? It’s a steady metal trolley. Flat. Made a right racket when they hit the floor, proper shit mysen as the same day the handle started rattling on the cupboard door (walk in cupboard)
@SnotRags - again never happened to me but poltergeist.

Actually... an earring I thought I'd lost turned up in middle of bedroom (messy) floor last week - I'd sworn it had come off on way home whilst taking bus. I mean it could've got caught up in clothes, bag etc but I checked all those loads of times! Pity it wasn't a Tiffany silver/gold one I lost years ago which is definitely lost!