I was going to call this ‘Unexplained Happenings’, but I didn’t think it was much of a grabber, so ‘Spooky Goings On’ it is.
Firstly let me just start by saying I have never seen a ghost, and I haven’t met anyone who can prove they have seen a ghost. Secondly even if I can’t explain an event that happened to me, does not necessarily mean that it has ghostly connections.
The events detailed below have no explanation, apart from where stated. Some of the happenings I witnessed myself, others I was told about, and I will point this out where applicable. Most of the events took place in ‘Salford Royal Hospital’ in (surprise, surprise) Salford. It was originally called ‘Hope Hospital’, but someone in their wisdom decided to change the name it has been known by for decades, confusing everybody in the process.
I worked at Hope Hospital from 2004 until 2011 for NHS Professionals. NHSP would provide staff to cover auxiliary shifts left vacant because of sickness, holidays or fluctuations in seasonal changes (or times when wards have more patients than usual). I worked on every ward except Maternity, I was offered a shift on Maternity but I turned it down. I did a lot of day shifts but preferred and worked more night shifts, when most of these events took place. I have given each event a broad heading and some events might be linked.
Children 1
I was working a night shift at Hope Hospital on the H2 ward which dealt with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), basically lung diseases that make it difficult to breathe. Myself and another auxiliary were making sure the patients were all comfortable. We came to an elderly lady who asked us “What time is visiting ?”.
We said “Its 2pm till 4pm and 6pm till 8pm. Why do you ask ?”.
She then asked “Are children allowed on the ward ?”.
I said, “The nurse in charge prefers them to be over 12. Any younger and it is down to the nurses discretion”.
The elderly lady pointed to the floor between the four beds and said “Who allowed those children in here?” The auxiliary and I looked over and of course there was no one there.
The auxiliary turned white as a sheet and said “Please Alice, don’t say you can see children over there please?”.
But the elderly lady was adamant, “They are over there playing with each other. Can’t you see them?”. We couldn’t. When I got back to the nurses’ station I asked one of the nurses why the other auxiliary had turned white as a sheet at the mention of invisible children.
“The story goes”, said the nurse, “that if a patient says they can see children that aren’t there it means that someone on the ward will die. And it is never the person that sees them either”.
When I came back from my break at 4am, I was told by one of the nurses that a lady of 98 had passed away earlier.
Children 2
I was doing a night shift on L5 and while sat at the nurses station at 12:30am one of the male patients let out a very loud scream. As we ran into the bay, the male patients bedclothes were on the floor. When we asked him how they ended up on the floor, he said the children pulled them off. He was informed there were no children. He was adamant; they were in the room hiding behind the curtains.
At 2:30am he let out another scream. Again his bedclothes were on the floor, and again he claimed it was the children hiding behind the curtains. I sat in the bay from then on and the bedclothes stayed on the bed and on the patient. But before the shift was over another patient had passed away.
I was told a month later a male patient in the same bed as the first one complained about children again taking the bedclothes off his bed. Once someone was sat in the bay again the shenanigans stopped. But before the shift was over another patient passed away again in conjunction with the story.
Voices 1
I was doing a night shift on L6, which at one time was an elderly ward, when I did a shift on there it was a renal ward (all things liver related including dialysis). I was in the ward kitchen doing tea and toast. I heard a voice behind me; I still don’t know what the voice said. But I went to the door of the kitchen looked out but there was nobody there.
So I went back to doing my tea and toast, and I heard a female voice whisper my name. I shouted “Right” and went to the door, again there was nobody there. I even went down to the nurses’ station to see if anybody had shouted me. Everyone replied no. Also the station is at the other end of the ward to the kitchen. I popped on to L5 next door and again no one had shouted me.
So, despite feeling a little uneasy, I carried on with the tea and toast. When I heard my name whispered a second time, I thought sod this for a game of soldiers and quickly took the tea and toast out to the patients.
Throughout the night I had to return to the kitchen for various reasons, but didn’t have any other problems, nor did I on future shifts I did on the same ward.
Voices 2
This incident took place at our last house on Barnsdale Road. I was in the kitchen and the television and radio were off. The house was deathly quiet and three times I heard my name whispered by a female voice that I didn’t recognise. After that I made sure the television and/or radio was on at all times, to make sure it drowned out any weird or strange noises. After that one time I didn’t hear anything else, but to be fair my music was always on loud so it didn’t get a chance.
Objects 1
This incident involved a clock. I was doing a night shift on K1, which is a dermatology ward (to be fair the easiest ward to work on in the entire hospital). The hardest part of the shift was putting creams and ointments on those who couldn’t do it themselves, fortunately most could apply their own so apart from doing observations, there was very little to do. It was the shift where the clock goes forward. At 2am the hands of the clock started whizzing around quite fast and settled on 1am. At the time no one knew why it had happened. I later found out the ward were trialling a prototype clock that sets itself wirelessly. So thankfully that was explainable.
Objects 2
This incident took place at my sisters’ house. It was shortly after my nan had died. From my nans house, my sister had got the print of the ‘Haywain’, which hung on the wall above the fire. She also had my nans hideous carriage clock that she got for working for ‘Green Shield Stamps’. We were sat in my sister’s front room chatting about my nan and having a bit of a laugh. When all of a sudden the picture fell off the wall and hit the carriage clock and breaking it. In fact the carriage clock was broke beyond repair. The picture on the other hand was fine and not damaged at all despite the fact it was well over 30 years old. The strange thing was that my nan hated the carriage clock and we joked that it was her way of showing her displeasure that we still had the clock.
Now for the spooky bit. The string at the back was intact, the hook in the wall was not damaged or weak, and my sister said it had hung there since they moved in.
Visits
My grandfather on my mums side died in 1967, ironically a year before I was born. My nan visited his grave on a weekly basis and often talked to him and told him she missed her morning cups of tea in bed, which he always used to bring her. One day, a few months before my nan passed away, we were down at my nans having Sunday dinner. We were all talking about nothing in particular, when my nan said that John (my grandfather) had visited her during the night, brought her a cup of tea, sat on her bed and chatted to her. At first, even though we didn’t say anything, we all viewed it a bit sceptically. But the more she spoke about it, the more it seemed to me that it had really happened. Maybe it hadn’t happened, my nan was 80, perhaps her mind was a bit clouded and she thought it had happened. My nan was always very sharp witted and I for one wouldn’t of thought she would make it up. A few months later, December 31st to be precise, my nan passed away, perhaps johns visit was to let her know her stay was nearly over and they could be reunited again after over 20 years apart.
Conclusions
It would be very easy to fob these off as supernatural experiences. But to be fair the stories about the children being seen and people passing away could be just coincidence. A lot of coincidences that’s for sure. As for the voices I would love to be able to find a reason for why I heard them, unfortunately I can’t, but it doesn’t mean that there isn’t any supernatural reasons for them. I also think my sister’s picture wasn’t secured properly. It is very easy to be cinical in a world that is full of cinical people doing cinical things. We sometimes forget that life can be full of unexplained things. It isn’t always black and white, the grey areas sometimes outweigh the colour.
Until we meet again.
Be nice to yourselves… and each other (Jerry Springer).
Neil Beattie.