Alison Roberts, 52, Manly, NSW
My boyfriend Drew was on the phone about a unit we’d seen advertised. Back then we were young students in Canada.
Suddenly, he stopped and put his hand over the receiver. ‘It’s haunted!’ he mouthed. ‘Are you still interested?’
‘Sure,’ I replied, intrigued.
The place was part of an old Victorian house, in Waterloo Row, Fredericton, and the former residents had been spooked by the vision of an older woman with grey hair in a bun.
The story went that when the mother’s son had fallen ill while away at war, he’d written his mum a final letter asking her to visit. But his letter never arrived.
‘I can feel her patting my head…’
Now people believed her spirit was still in the house, waiting for her son’s return.
It was easy to see why the house might have a spooky reputation with its high, imposing spire and soldiers’ graveyard around the back, although we didn’t feel any chills or eerie presences.
But it wasn’t long before weird things began happening.
Dishes would mysteriously wash themselves… and we’d sometimes find our clothes neatly folded up!
‘It’s definitely the ghost of a mother,’ we’d joke.
We had a wicker chair that creaked as though someone was sitting in it.
And sometimes our taps would turn on and off by themselves too!
But the guy who’d occupied the son’s old room was the one who experienced the most paranormal activity.
‘The ghost comes and sits on the end of my bed,’ he told us. ‘I can feel her patting my head!’ It was astonishing.
The house was known locally for being haunted, so two investigators who’d researched it came and spoke to us.
‘Don’t go in the basement at midnight,’ one of them warned.
‘And never use a ouija board. There’s already a doorway to another world – don’t open any more.’
However the only time I felt afraid was when I was home alone one night.
I was in bed when suddenly the heavy, locked door blew wide open.
Scared, I ran to slam it shut – and then dived back under the doona!
We look back fondly on our year in a haunted house.
We only hope the spirit of the bereaved mum there found peace at last.