Send Email to Rob Gunn
Subject: My wife and I have seen them too
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 12:04:37 +0100
To: The Official Shadow People Archives
Hi,
I stumbled upon your website after trying to establish that my wife and I are not insane, and just what was it that we've encountered? I've always been a little sceptical about paranormal stuff so what happened to my wife and I came as a surprise to say the least.
My wife was running the vacuum over the bedroom carpet whilst I was chatting to her brother downstairs. She came down after a while looking quite pale. I asked her what was wrong and she asked us who just went to the bathroom. "Neither of us," we replied. She then said that while vacuuming she saw someone walk across the landing into the bathroom. She noticed that whoever it was hadn't shut the door behind them so she stopped cleaning and went down the hall to close it. When she got to the door, nobody was in the bathroom. For a while she thought that either my brother-in-law or myself were winding her up....but not for long.
My first ever encounter was about six months after. I awoke suddenly one Saturday morning, sitting up in bed as if I had been rudely awakened, eyes open staring at a tall shadowy figure at the end of the bed. Behind the shadow figure was the window with the curtains drawn, but enough light spilling through to light the room considerably. The light however did not penetrate the shadow person. It wore a tall hat, like the kind of hat worn in Victorian London (imagine Jack the Ripper) and what appeared to be a cloak. It had no legs but just hovered about three feet above the floor. It stayed there for a second and then appeared to realise that I could see it and seemed to literally move back slightly before turning to it's left and darting off, disappearing into nothingness. I exclaimed a profanity and woke my wife up. I was quite shook up by this and had to get out of bed. She thought that maybe I woke out of a dream but I know I was awake and clearly remember saying 'what the f... was that!'.
A few weeks later my wife got up in the middle of the night to visit the toilet. When she returned to the bedroom she thought she saw me, or sort of my silhouette, bending over my side of the bed. She was just about to ask what I was doing when she noticed me fast asleep in the bed. She quickly looked back at the thing only to see absolutely nothing at all. She told me that it was as if the thing was inspecting me or watching me sleep which gave me the creeps a little even though no harm came to either of us.
This prompted several discussions between us both to reassure ourselves that we definitely saw 'something'.
We've moved out of that house now but there was one last thing that happened before we left. I had just cleared out the loft and was climbing back down the ladder. I took a last look around the loft on my way down when suddenly the ladder jolted backwards and I was flung off to the landing below. I had been up and down the ladder all that day and not once had the ladder moved in the slightest. I didn't see anything this time but got the distinct feeling that the ladder was pushed or kicked from above with considerable force.
We've got two cats and at the time an eighteen month old son. The cats were always on edge in that house and used to hiss and stare at the walls (which I know cats are renowned for doing) but my son used to babble and 'talk' to things that we couldn't see. Since moving home the cats are fine and sleep a lot more and my son, although older, doesn't talk to 'invisible friends' anymore. Shortly after moving, I had a phone call from our buyer. We were out at the time but he left a message saying he needed to ask a question and he sounded quite tense. I called him back and had to leave a message too saying that I was happy to answer any questions he had but he never called back. I often wonder if he wanted to ask the obvious like 'is this haunted' or something but then thought better of it. I guess I'll never know and I'm not about to call him and freak him out by relating this story to him.
I'm 31 by the way, my wife is 28 and we're both normal, rational people. It's taken me a while to talk to anyone outside my family about this but the other day at work the subject came up and I told the above story. One of my colleagues suggested shadow people so I started searching the net. I've found a site with pictures drawn by other 'shadowers' so to speak. One of the pictures was so like the thing I saw that I've started posting my story to any web site that has an interest in shadow people. Until this happened to us I would probably have laughed in the face of anyone who told me that they saw a shadow man. Now I no longer find the subject funny, I'm convinced they exist and really want to know what they are. We've not encountered anything since, thankfully.
Send Email to Rob Gunn
Subject: RE: My wife and I have seen them too
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 09:29:02 +0100
To: The Official Shadow People Archives
I have emailed these sightings on many sites and bulletin boards, but you're the first to respond, and quickly too! You totally have my permission to include this on your site as I wish to hear from anyone, especially in the UK, who have seen similar things.
To answer your questions; when we bought the house, an old Edwardian semi-detached built in 1904 I distinctly remember sitting in the estate agents looking at various property for sale when the picture of the house just stood out from the rest. It's called 'Gladstone House' and for some reason it felt just right. The whole purchase went very well and we became quite friendly with the vendors, including a celebratory meal when a moving date was agreed. It turned out that the husband and owner of the property, a Mr P Barton, acquired the house when his Grandfather died - I presume it was left to him in the will. My wife and I often joked that 'old man Barton' may have died in the house and could be watching us. Remember that at this time I absolutely did not, and still have my reservations about ghosts.
When my wife first saw the person walk into the bathroom she was still pregnant with our son and nothing more was seen for about a year. My sighting at the end of the bed happened shortly after we put the property on the market to sell and my wife saw it again leaning over me about three weeks after that. Then nothing more until the loft ladder incident which really did freak me a little. I almost feel that whatever this thing is, it didn't want us to leave or felt angry that we were leaving it somehow. We had only lived in the house for about 18 months in total so I can't explain why it should feel so attached to us. Maybe as you say it had something to do with our son.
Well, the good news for Mr Shadow is that the couple that bought the house also had a baby boy, so I hope he's happy again now.
I actually find this whole thing deeply emotional, I don't know why because I'm such a sceptic. Perhaps my mind is battling with the thought that maybe ghosts do exist but can't come to terms with it. Whatever the cause, I will never forget that figure at the end of the bed and the way it almost seemed surprised to be caught watching. My wife and I have discussed it several times but she doesn't like to talk about it much as it scares her a little. Personally I cannot tell you enough what a pleasure and relief it is to talk to someone else like yourself about this. These incidents happened about a year and a half ago and I feel that I've bottled it all up since then.
Thank you for listening, and I hope one day I will understand what we saw.
