To ask for your woo tales?

[Tellmeyourwoostories]

I understand this isn't for everyone but I love a good woo story. Even if you've seen/experienced something but aren't 100% sure and are on the fence, I'd love to hear your stories.

I've had a few experiences myself, nothing majorly scary just in my old house I'd often hear loud clear footsteps when nobody could be there and often saw a shadow figure, sometimes right infront of me and other times in my peripheral so can understand why people think they've seen something but can't be sure. I also worked in a pub that had some poltergeist type activity and various figures had been seen by staff and customers. I'd love to hear yours!

The car park at our local shops has diagonal bays down one side and normal straight-on bays down the other. I'd parked up one afternoon in the diagonal bays to run in and pick up some things. DC and I both opened our doors at the same time on the same side of the car, DC closed their door first and came to stand by my open door. I had one leg out of the car but instead of getting fully out I grabbed DC for a hug and, playing about, pulled them onto my lap. They had grabbed the door handle and pulled the door closed as I pulled them in so I lifted my leg back into the car before the door snicked shut.

Next thing I knew there was an almighty bang and the car rocked. A car from the straight-on bays opposite had mistakenly pressed their accelerator while in reverse and had come flying across the car park straight into the side of my car. If I hadn't pulled DC in for a cuddle then they'd have been standing right in the open doorway of the car and even if I had pulled DC inside, if DC hadn't grabbed the door handle then the car door would have been open and my leg would have been out.

It's more of a coincidence than a woo moment but pulling DC into the car like that isn't a usual thing, I just did it on a whim.

Some of us like a bit of 70s style, or maybe not exactly style, vibe.

I definitely think places soak up atmospheres and emotions like a sponge. Imagine all the history in a certain place or even room, so it's understandable why some places are hostile or sad, especially if something really violent and horrible happened. In my old house I had a certain room that felt more unfriendly and on edge than the rest of the house.

@CarrieMoonbeams My parents bought a house years back when I was just a tot. Come moving day both of their dogs at the time froze on the front door, stuck their hackles up and growled towards the (empty) interior of the house.
Had to be dragged in rather than leading the way which was the norm.
One was a spaniel and the other a golden retriever and neither were dogs with issues. I remember the retriever being my companion and bestie in my early years and both were trustworthy in that sense so no reason for them to be aggressive unless something was WRONG.
Neither settled in the house and it was swiftly sold with parents being all rather tight lipped about it.
Future viewings, my mother always took dogs.

@Verv , that's really interesting. I wonder if your parents ever found out what/if anything had happened there.

I've posted on a previous 'woo' thread about an incident we had in our previous house. I'm being lazy and I've copied and pasted it, below, because my 2 daft dogs did nothing to alert me when I had a really scary experience! Here it is:

About 30 years ago, a relative of mine was killed by a drunk driver. We were very close and I missed him dreadfully.

A couple of years later, I started having quite vivid dreams about him, nothing scary just happy times. Very soon after that, I was on my own at home one night as DH was working. We had 2 very vigilant dogs and they were sleeping in front of the fire, I was reading my book.

Suddenly I had the weirdest feeling - I just knew that there was something/someone standing in the hallway, just inside the living room. I had the strangest sensation on the side of my face, like a pins and needles type of thing. I was so scared that I couldn't even turn my head round to look, so instead I stared at the dogs to see if they'd react. They didn't so I kind of flicked my glance to the side (still too scared to turn round properly) and I saw what I can only describe as twinkling lights! I whimpered shouted "No, go away!" at which point the dogs obviously leapt up and started barking. Everything was back to normal instantly, and I checked all over the house, there was nothing there.

I did wonder later if it was the start of a migraine (although I've never had that type before or since) but it never happened again after that.

I am well known for my love of Christmas, so both DH and my brother said later that it was typical of me, to have a ghost made out of fairy lights!

I suppose the dogs didn't react because your entity was benign @CarrieMoonbeams, in fact it sounds lovely. In some ways I'd love to see a (nice!) ghost, but I would be very frightened. Twinkly lights though - yes, I think I could cope with that! ✨

Following, love these 👻

I agree that places soak up atmosphere. My parents viewed lovely new flats that had been converted from an old prison. My father is totally non-woo but he was white and shaky afterwards and said he just felt a sense of horror and dread. The only other time he reacted like that was when he visited Auschwitz.

Does anyone else believe in memories being passed down through the generations? My ancestors came from Odessa in Ukraine and when I visited there I just knew where things were and felt like i had been there before. I had info of where their house had been and just walked there without any guidance. I just knew where it was.

I briefly worked in property when I moved to London and my job was valuing homes. This often meant turning up to empty homes either because they were redevelopments, probate, owners out etc…
All homes have a different feel and I was quite comfortable doing probates or properties where something bad had happened, without getting spooked.
But there was one lovely old Victorian house on the main road (one of my favourite roads - if I’d had the money I’d have bought there) where I just couldn’t go upstairs. It was daytime, it was empty, there were builders working out in the road, but I just couldn’t make it to the top of the stairs - completely spooked for no good reason. It felt like something bad was up there - I tried several times telling myself I was being ridiculous, but just couldn’t.
Got back to the office, made up an excuse and got someone else to go…..they reported no issues, lovely house.

Still can’t explain it!

Off topic, but my family is from Odessa too, and I was born there! It sounds lovely that you felt like you recognised it when you visited 😊

When my DS was 2 or 3 years old we took him to the transport museum in York as he loved Thomas the Tank and the Cars movies. We were approaching the area with the vintage trains when my DS said 'Mummy is that a Stephenson's Rocket' the engine he was pointing to quite far away and as we walked over to it I could read on the information plaque that it was indeed a Stephenson's Rocket (one of the first steam engines). The hairs on the back of my neck stood right up!

Now there is an engine in Thomas & Friends called Stephen and my son had a talking model (he had loads of different ones) and the Stephen one would say 'my name's Stephen I go like a rocket peep peep) but he didn't call the one in the museum Stephen he called it Stephenson's Rocket. How did he know, how? He was a toddler. I still think about it often.

I’ll throw mine in for posterity ☺️

a few years ago my mum was suddenly in a coma, end of life stages. She hadn’t been unwell at all but Covid caused total organ failure. I was having horrible nightmares and didn’t know what to do.

She had always talked very fondly about a convent in her home town. The nuns there had cared for her aunt when she had cancer, and had been very kind to the family.
I was raised religious, but I don’t go to church now.

My mums situation was desperate and the only thing I could think of was to ask the nuns to pray for her. Knowing absolutely nothing I just turned up and knocked on their quite grand front door, it was around 2pm on a sunny day.
A small lady answered and through tears I explained I was desperate and I just needed them to pray for her.
The nun invited me in to a sort of entry way porch, about 5 metres by 5 metres square, two door ways lead off it into what appeared to be a dining room and living quarters.
She sat me down on a small chair and pulled one up next to me, held my hand and just started praying out loud.
Her head was bowed and I just stared down at her hand and occasionally glanced around at the room.

As she was speaking, I noticed that the corners of the room had begun to disappear. I just couldn’t see them.
Instead of angles, there was an inky cloud sort of blackness. I’ve never seen anything so dark before or since. A calm came over me and I just watched this soft dark almost cuddle all of the edges of the room.

It didn’t make any sense at all, daylight was still spilling onto the floor and I could see perfectly well.
The nun finished praying after around 10 minutes, and I can only describe the thickness in the room as a humidity without any heat at all, the blackness was still there moving gently and covering up all of the edges of the room.

I left and walked to down the street completely shocked.
My mum didn’t make it but I am absolutely certain that something godly was manifesting in that room due to that very kind old nun.
The nightmares stopped, and a couple of days later I was able to be with my mum when she passed away.

I'm looking forward to Woo season as I like ghost stories. I hope Danny Robbins does another TV series. I like the Mark Gatiss Christmas ghost stories too.

So sorry about your dear mum. I'm glad you found comfort there.

I'm not sure how woo but..when DH and I were property hunting for our first home there was one that just felt awful. We walked in and although it looked similar to all the other 80's style family homes in the area this one had an oppressive feeling of sadness and violence as soon as you stepped in the front door. DH and I locked eyes at it but carried on because we didn't want to be rude to the agent and waste their time.
When we got to the kitchen we saw an older man sitting there just radiating hatred and I just knew he had terrorized whoever had lived there with him. Obviously we got out of there sharpish and with no intention to buy it.

The other night I was coming home from a gig. There were 4 of us. We were parked in a multi story carpark of a shopping centre that used to be a hospital which is believed to be haunted. When we went back to collect our car it was really late & the place was deserted. When we were getting out of the lift I heard a child laughing. When I said did anyone else hear that one other person said yes & another said they heard growls. The other person didn't hear anything at all. Very creepy.

Something weird happened 2 days ago, I visited my dad in the village where I grew up. Down the road was a lady who was in her 60's when I was 16 and she used to give me a lift in her red car to the local restaurant every weekend where we both worked. She retired and I moved away when I was in my 20's but would see her from time to time when visiting my folks.

She died nearly 10 years ago and her house got sold. On Friday after leaving dads with my dh I drove past her old house and there on the drive was her red car and she was standing by her hedge cutting it. She didn't look like she'd aged at all. I was really surprised and said to dh oh look there's Margaret I thought she'd died.

Dh saw nothing, no car no person. I may have finally lost the plot.

After we had to have our beloved, very elderly German Shepherd put to sleep we were all devastated and the house seemed so quiet. One afternoon shortly after I distinctly heard the sound of his claws on the wooden hall floor. It was as if he had come to say goodbye and it brought me such comfort.

tell us more!

I've had a couple.

My daughter is named after my grandmother. The day she was born I was coming home from hospital with her, sitting in the backseat with her in the carseat, holding her hand. I wasn't thinking about my grandmother, the name had already been chosen months before, I was only thinking about the birth and my new baby. For just a split second I felt an old lady's hand in mine, and not that of a newborn. It was only a second but I felt it. It felt bigger, soft and wrinkled and it was cold. My grandmother was born with a severe heart defect and always had cold hands. I am sure it was her just popping in to acknowledge that we'd named the baby after here and say thanks. She loved babies.

My step-dad was horribly abusive and I wasn't sorry when he died. I didn't go to his funeral. A few nights after the funeral I was sitting at home in my son's bedroom, BFing him. He was I think about a year old. I had benn woken up by him and I was in that place between waking and sleeping and it was all completely dark and silent. I started to hear a song step-dad used to sing when he was drunk, and I could almost smell him and feel him there, sort of tentatively hovering. When I was a child I quite liked that song and he did teach it to me, before I realised he was drunk when he sang it and how wrong a lot of his behaviour was. Anyway, I hadn't thought of the song for about 15 years and had forgotten it's existence. I could almost feel him saying to me "come on, there were some good times, weren't there?" And out loud I said "no go away, and take your song with you" and it stopped instantly and I felt that feeling I would get when he would put me down and tell me I was useless, and I thought 2well, you haven't changed" and that was that.

What was it like? what did it look like? was it just light? or did you see him sort of walk off?

I predicted my mum's pregnancies via dream. Both times, she told us she was pregnant a few days later. I was only 5 the first time and 7 the second time. It was actually a horrible experience because it led me to believe that dreams come true and every time I had a nightmare I was convinced it would happen to me in real life.

I saw a man in the shops I thought was an old school friend I hadn't seen in 15 years. Turns out it wasn’t him. Within about 5 mins of arriving home, I received a phone call from my boyfriend telling me said old school friend had committed suicide that morning. Will never forget the feeling and chill it gave me….

I’ve probably told this one before but here goes anyway.

A friend’s sister and her dh bought a house that seemed very cheap - they counted themselves very lucky.
After a while, though, after her dh had left very early in the morning for work, she would become aware of a sensation of someone sitting on the end of her bed.
She didn’t feel any hostility, but was sure that ‘it’ was male, and gradually she felt ‘it’ was moving closer to her.

In the end it was just getting too spooky (personally I’d have been freaking out from the start!) so they got a medium in.
She said ‘His name’s Albert and he’s an old soldier.’
She asked him to leave, and evidently he did, because that was the end of it.

This one really got to me. It was the one that made me go "wow" when reading through these last night.

But, I thought about it randomly during today and I just have to ask. SURELY at some point during your marriage to DH1 you talked about the picture and he said "oh yeh, it was at xxx festival in 1997" to which surely you would have said, "Oh I was at that festival!"