First Sighting
Despite my six years working in a hospice near Henley-on-Thames and the unusual occurrences that took place there; I still maintained a healthy scepticism with an equally intense interest in the paranormal. Four years later I began a new job at Wenlock Lodge in South Shields, was it here that I would finally get see my first ghost?
Wenlock Lodge was a combined residential and short break home for adults with a learning disability. Prior to this it was an old people's home. The large complex, situated in Simonside, South Shields was owned by Social Services at the time. It was a good place to work. I met my wife Tracy there! Anyway, from the air the building look liked an 'H' block.
One morning, after all of the guests had left Wenlock Lodge to attend their day services, I was sat at the office desk in the short break unit writing the morning’s report. The whole building was empty except for staff doing their duties on both units – all tenants had left for their day care too. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a short person walk past the office door towards the lounge.
On the plan above, I've marked with an 'X' where I stood and where the 'ghost' was seen.
Immediately I thought it was one of the tenants whom I assumed had gone to her day care. As tenants are not supposed to be on the short break unit, I jumped up and called her name. As I stepped out of the office I saw the back of this person turn the corner into the lounge. Again I called her name and said, “Come on Julie, you know you're not supposed to be over here”. I walked down the corridor in pursuit of her, and then turned the corner into the lounge. I was about to ask again only to find the room empty. I checked the door of the adjoining conservatory but it was locked. I checked the fire escape and stairs up to the sleep-in room but everything was shut or locked there too. I stood quietly for a moment mulling it over. Had I really seen something? I did another search in case she was hiding, but this is something Julie was unlikely to do.
I walked over to the residential unit to enquire whether Julie was in today. I was informed that she had gone out to her day care with everyone else.
This left me with two questions. Did I imagine it or was it a ghost? If it was a ghost, that would have been my first, and so-far only, visual sighting (be it only a fleeting glimpse)! What intrigues me most is that I first saw ‘her’ out of the corner of my eye and then again after jumping up to engage it. If I had looked in the corridor and saw nothing, I would have put it down to just seeing things. As it appeared to take the same amount of time to walk the length of corridor as anyone else, makes it more interesting for me. From the back, it looked like a real, solid person that resembled Julie, who was known for sneaking onto the short break unit and sitting in the lounge.
Funnily enough, a few weeks before the service closed I was talking about this to Michele, who is one of the night staff. Michele said she’d also seen this person nip down the corridor and into the lounge during one of her night shifts!
This
story was published in Paranormal Magazine,
Issue 19.