We have a Visitor..or is it us Visiting?
When we bought our home is was a square little butter box from the outside but when we entered the front door and saw the Daddo Boards and lovely old feeling of warmth we just could not resist.
We knew that there had been already generations of the same family live here so to us it was just perfect.
On our first inspection, Mrs Vaughan the owner told us that the 3rd bedroom was originally the kitchen and that they had added on a large back area,but the hearth on both sides of the wall ,the bedroom and the lounge room was still under the carpet.( this is to explain later in the story).
When we moved in and placed our furniture all where we wanted to we began our life here,only about a week in to settling,I went in the spare room to fiddle as we do and everything was in a different place,not the furniture but the bits and bobs,I thought my daughter had not liked where I had put her pretties as they were all moved and some even on the floor!
The following few days of us all getting cross with one another for not turning the lounge light off we realised we had all done so but something was turning it back on each time we turned it off,we realised that this is her way of communicating if things aren't right.
A few months of all these goings on and many more were bought to our attention when we saw something /someone dressed in a long brown skirt and cardigan was seen regularly coming from the spare room and going to the bathroom.
Not just seen by us but a friend in particular came often so she could see our visitor,sometimes the moving of objects was so loud we would say "she's at it again"just jokingly,she always showed herself to my Mum.
One of the nieces of the generation before our Mrs Vaughan came calling one day and asked could she look through the house as she had been here daily as a child,as we wandered through and we came to the 3rd bedroom she said"Nana Vaughan used to sit there by the hearth where you have the dressing table and she always dressed in a long brown skirt and cardigan"!ooops.So now we knew who our visitor is.
The lights would go on and off all the time until we would go in and move the bits and bobs around, finally one day Bob suggested that we move all the furniture and leave the hearth area free of anything,old Mrs Vaughan must have been ecstatic as she as she no longer threw things around in that room.
She does however make us know when she is around in a lovely way, I cannot count how often our spare room is cold as ice(not so nice lol), how often a visitor will ask if we came in the bathroom while they were in there,we have friends that will not come visit and stay because they are scared.
Our lady is lovely, she is not scary nor is she obtrusive, she apparently was a lovely painter and when we first moved in I had a passion to learn and did for some years and always felt her watching over me,she will not be seen for months and them Mum will say she just saw her passing by.
As it is so often said, the dead cannot harm you only the living,and in a way I feel blessed that she feels at home with us, we do not talk about it to the grandchildren although they have "imagined" they have seen a lady in brown,when they are past the nightmare stage we will explain and they will know not to be afraid as they have always slept here.
There is my little story of our visitor but I think perhaps we are visiting her, when we looked at the house we realised it used to have a front veranda so we took the boxy bits away and it was all still there, I think Mrs Vaughan was extra happy at that time, her home was back as it was,we wondered if she sits upon it at times and watches the world go by.
A post note after I realised I told the story but not the whole story...
The couple we bought the home from raised their grand daughter after she was unwanted by her Mum, their son was the father,the mother a woman I know well and cannot think why she would have done this..however Janine was raised in this home, her bedroom was the 3rd bedroom. Almost 5 years ago Janine disappeared she was a 37 year old beautiful girl,she was in a place called Bathurst,went out for a good time and never returned, her car and belongings in the car park.It is unsolved and she is considered to have been murdered, I often wonder if great grandmother is waiting patiently for Janine to be safe, somehow I do not think that will ever happen. I often think of the lovely girl and how she was robed of a mother first then of her life,may you rest in peace beautiful Janine, I pray someone is looking after you.
