Tell me about a random unsolved mystery in your life....

[RevoltingPeasant]

....inspired by the intriguing threads thread!

Does anyone have a mini-mystery, or a story they want to know the end to? We can all supply improbable answers

Here's mine....

DH and I go for a walk around the block most nights before bed . Almost every night, at a particular point in the neighbouring street, there is an 'offering' of baked goods in the road.

Sometimes it is bread rolls. Sometimes, baguette. Once, about 8-9 Mr Kipling's Bakewell tarts. Just lying there in the road.

At first we thought it was for hedgehogs, but then the cakes? And in the road??

What's your unsolved mystery?

Love this thread.
Mine is - what happened to my grandfather? Grandmother divorced him either whilst pregnant or shortly after my mum was born and brought mum up on her own (there was apparently domestic violence as he didn't want children). We have divorce papers somewhere which has a national insurance number. When dm was diagnosed with illness she was curious to know about her father and I said I'd look. Didn't managed to get anywhere so paid the forty quid or so to smedley as I had NI number. They came up unable to help. Now DGM hadn't had anything to do with him or his family for the fifty odd years between their divorce and her death, they divorced around WW2 time so he could have been in the forces (surely a record though), emigrated or I suppose changed his name. But he might have gone on to have other children and mum may have had siblings. He is surely dead now but I'd love to find out more

Here's mine. I bought a car. When I went to collect it I took my mum along as we'd been shopping. I was swapping my old car for a newer one.

The salesman took one look at my mum and asked if she'd ever worked in such and such. They chatted for ages. Then he asked how her children were. Mum was confused, said I was there. He said she had left work to have a baby. Mum denied everything.

We went home and I asked her in private. Said I'd love to know if I had any older siblings. She told me she left for another job and they were just nasty rumours.

She didn't marry my dad until 3yrs later and I was born 4yrs later. I've tried telling her I wouldn't mind if she changed her story.

Also, which version of my grandma's story is the truth? Was theman in the pictures with her mum her dad or her stepdad? Why did her sister run away from home? All dead now so no-one to ask. Why did she only ever have one child in a pre ww2 era?

More recently, How can you not know you're pregnant. For nine months. How can you get admitted into hospital to be told you're in labour.

I used to fly too. Some days I look at someone and pictures or colours come into my head. I know what's going off in their lives as if they had told me and I will sometimes ask them about it which confuses them as they haven't told me anything. I also answer my husbands questions before he's even asked them.

My mum gave me a Georgian ring which had been my grandma's. I lost it and could not understand how. I rarely wore it and kept it in a ring box in my jewellery drawer. About 6 times over 4 years, I emptied the drawer and went through every box thinking I might have put it in a different one. by mistake and it was not there. Eventually, my mum asked about it and I told her the truth and she was upset that it had gone. My mum died in January and the night before her funeral I could not sleep and I emptied the drawer, in the vain hope of a miracle and being able to wear the ring for her funeral. The ring was back in its original box. I have no idea!

Hairy that has rather upset me. Maybe your sons made the couple up to comfort themselves and they have forgotten it was their imagination IYSWIM. I wouldn't be able to ring exSIL up and give her a piece of my mind.

Thought of another one. Many years ago my dad was made redundant and money was very very tight. That summer he was reversing into the garage and hit something that turned out to be a box with 12 bottles of rather good wine in it. The box was unmarked and had no delivery note. This was before the internet so he couldn't find out where they had come from, they were mixed, no obvious company on the labels. He asked all the neighbours - very rural area and there weren't many, but no-one had missed an order. My parents waited a few months in case they were claimed but no-one turned up so they started drinking it at Christmas. So who left it there?

I have a weird one from today, I'm gobsmacked.

DS has just turned 2 and loves windmills so we went to one today. Strangely he refused to go close to it, saying "No, ok here" and "Other way!"

We asked him when we got home why he didn't want to go in and he said "Frightened at windmill" so I asked what had frightened him and he said "Bell too noisy inside."

I can't think why a windmill would have a bell in it but sure enough, on the windmill's website it has a bell inside! How does my two year old know that?!

My dad's brother emigrated to Australia at the end of the 2WW. He married, had 4 children, they all came across to visit in the late 1950s. He wrote regularly to his parents and brothers and sisters. Early 1960s wrote to say he had split up with his wife. My dad and his family never heard from him ever again. My dad tried everything to track him down but nothing. His children last heard of him in Darwin, they lived in Brisbane, not long after he left. Odd thing happened, my dad was in a pub just after it happened and an old friend of my uncle's said 'Your John looks well. Nice to see him back'. He swore he had seen him in that pub a few nights earlier. My dad never believed it, said his brother would never ave come back to our small town where he was well known and not gone to see his parents and family. This was all way before me. My dad searched for him for the rest of his life but never found out what happened to him.

Lulu - my family has a similar story to that. My dad had a cousin who he was close to. One day he told us he was moving to Spain with a friend and after that we never heard from him ever again and he also cut contact with all other close family members.

I cannot find a single trace of him online apart from the electoral records from when he lived in the UK. It's very odd indeed. My dad is quite upset by not knowing what happened to him but he has had dreams that he has passed on. It's unsettling for everyone.

Marcipex that is so sad about your Aunt and her baby.

My mystery is from when we first moved to our house (victorian). DD1 was only just 2. We were having a nap one saturday while dh was at work. She sat up and waved and was looking over at the opposite corner of the room. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was waving at "the old man". I of course turned round and there was nothing there!!

She mentioned seeing him a few times after this incident, mainly on the stairs in our house. I had forgotten about this to be honest until DD2 did the same thing after a nap and said the old man is looking at me!! She was roughly 2 years old too.

Freaked me out at the time however I've never felt uncomfortable or frightened in our house and as I work from home I'm here most of the time.

I found my cousins in Australia and we are in touch regularly. They have no idea what happened to him. I would love to know. He would be in his late 80s now so may well not be alive. Australia is huge and I suppose it was easy then to disappear, I think Darwin was pretty remote at the time. It is upsetting for close family who are left. His brothers and sisters never forgot him. They lived in the same small area until very recently so he could have found them if he had wanted to. My dad always thought he had died somehow.

This is my most favourite MN thread EVER!

Lulu and Lottie - when did these people disappear? Might they have gone off to live with someone of the same sex? was it a time when this was very stigmatised?It might be a reason to cut contact. Sad

My MIL died in hospital in the early hours after a long illness. I went downstairs to a courtyard for fresh air as the sun was rising about 5am and sitting on the bench I looked up and saw a women stood in the corner.

She was wearing a lilac orderly uniform. She said "she has gone hasn't she? She's at peace now you know". I smiled and looked away because I was filling up, and when I looked back she had gone.

After we packed up the clothes and said goodbye to MIL, I went to the front desk to say goodbye and thanks to the night nurses. I also asked them to pass on my thanks to the orderly downstairs in the lilac uniform.

They looked confused and said, "you must have got the colour wrong - we have green and dark blue here. Haven't had lilac for at least 5 years. But funnily enough, a few other people have mentioned seeing someone dressed similarly dressed in the early hours of the morning"

Still wonder what/who it was

Early 1960s. I have no idea about him possibly being gay but I think it's unlikely. My mum's uncle was gay and it was never an issue in our family. My dad's brother was always a bit of a 'bad lad' and had been involved in petty crime from being a young teenager. My dad thought he had got into bother again and was just embarrassed at another mess and leaving 4 children. Once he'd gone off my dad thought something must have happened to him. I don't suppose we'll ever know now. He wrote to his children periodically, no return address, for a couple of years and then stopped.

In my dad's cousin's case it has been speculated that he may have been gay and was afraid of people's reaction but we are not a homophobic family at all and he only went missing about 10 years ago.

Ooh Mrmenmug, that's given me goosebumps!

Could the lady in lilac be an angel?

I have one...

When my son was about two and a half a young friend of mine was found dead in his flat. Let's call him Jeff. He hadn't turned up for work and our boss had gone round to see if he was ok. Jeff was a real character, much loved at work but very mercurial and suffered from extreme highs then terrible lows. We all thought he had committed suicide.

I wasn't at work and a very good friend called to tell me what happened. I was terribly upset, and really angry with him. All the way through the day I would exclaim loudly. Things like "oh Jeff why didn't you tell us? You didn't have to do this!" I was so frustrated with the fact that he'd died alone, possible feeling very uncared for, and we all were so, so fond of him.

About six o'clock my son turned to me:
Son: Jeff is here mummy.
Me: wha....?
Son: Jeff is here. Say hello to him!
Me (slightly freaked) hello Jeff
Son: he says it's ok mummy. He's happy now. He's going on a boat to the island.
Me (confused and upset now) ok. I'm sorry though. Really sorry.

I promptly burst into tears, my son hugs me for a long time then just runs off and plays again. There were no more mentions of Jeff.

The following week, I was relating this to a very, very good friend of Jeff's. She went really white and shaky and told me that I wouldn't know this but my son was right. Jeff was being cremated and his ashes would be taken to mainland Greece. They would then go by boat to an island that he loved very, very much and they would be scattered there.

Still gives me shivers.

This is a very silly one:

Went to a lovely hotel near York with DP. Had a posh meal, called 'rondelles of beef' which turned out to mean beef formed into circles. Rondelle sounds like round, easy enough to work out. Never heard that word before though.

Next day, paying obligatory visit to York Minster, we were oohing and aahing over the amazing stained glasswork, when a guided tour came past and the lady said 'now here we see a classic example of rondelle style windows, which of course just means round'.

I was like OMG! But have since learned that this is indeed a thing, it has a name. You hear a new word or expression for the first time, then see it many times again quickly. I'm a v clever person so the mystery is why did I never hear the word 'rondelle' until I was 30-odd? :)

This is my most favourite MN thread EVER!
caractacus - me too!

For about 2/3 years, I was inundated with letters from girls in Indonesia. Literally loads each day! I was about 14 at the time. They all wanted to be my penpal. My mum was still getting them occasionally after I left home at 18. How did they get my name & address? Why so many? So weird.

The strangest thing that's happened to me was that when dd2 was a baby about 12 months old, I had the experience of holding her in one room while she was crying in another. I was not the only one who witnessed this and it freaked us out but never happened again ...

Everythingisawesome - when I was at primary and secondary school, we were asked several times to sign up for penpal schemes. We had to tick which country we wanted penpals from. Is it possible you signed up as a smaller child and forgot about it? Perhaps they lost your form for a while so you forgot and then passed it on?

I had a penpal from school and would love to hear from her again. She just stopped writing.

Yukiko Uenake - If you are out there, I have never forgotten you and hope you are okay.

About 7 years ago me and dp were asleep when we heard someone shouting him so I told him to go and find out who it was. This was about 6 in the morning. He got up checked everywhere, answered the door and looked through windows and there was nothing there and then it stopped. So he came back to bed and he said all he could see outside was extremely low fog. The voice sounded just like his mum so we asked everyone later that day and everyone thought we was weird. It still does our heads in today!!

In the house that I grew up in, I would constantly be searching for things I'd lost only to turn around and find them dead center on a certain table. I always thought it was my parents, but when I was about 19 they went away for the week and I was home alone - and it still happened.

Sounds silly but it was often stupid things that definitely weren't there before, and sometimes it would be things that had been lost for years. After that week home alone I started saying "thank you" out loud whenever anything appeared

My parents still live at the same house but as far as I know they never experienced it.