Sylvias' Back

[dancin'hamster]

OK ~ so this little story is a little early in the day..........but I think it's fab and I hope you all enjoy it!

In the 1970s at a house off Liverpool's Myrtle Street there lived a woman of around fifty years of age named Sylvia. She was very nosy, and would always be leaning over the garden wall watching the comings and goings of her neighbours. Sylvia seemed to spend all of her time with her arms folded and resting on the wall, and knew everyone's business. Because of her nosiness, Sylvia had few friends, but there was one woman - named Peggy - who lived in a nearby tenement block called Myrtle Gardens. Peggy thought Sylvia was just a harmless nosey parker, and used to occasionally stop to chat to her.

In 1980, Peggy moved to the Garston area of the city and lost touch with Sylvia, but one hot June evening in 1990, Peggy and her husband were driving to a friend's house near the Bluecoat School in the Wavertree area, and as the car went up a quiet stretch of Prince Alfred Road, Peggy saw Sylvia leaning over a low stone wall next to a few bushes. Peggy said to her husband, "I don't believe it. It's Sylvia; stop the car."

Peggy's husband stopped and reversed the Volvo estate until he saw Sylvia leaning over the wall in his wing miror. Peggy got out to talk to her old friend, but Peggy's husband never liked Sylvia, and he stayed in the car.

"How are you Sylvia?" Peggy asked, looking up at her old friend. Sylvia looked as if she'd hardly changed.

"Alright. I came up here in 1985. Don't like it up here though. It's very secluded." Sylvia replied, with a morose look.

Peggy noticed that her old friend's lips seemed discoloured and sort of pale blue. She asked her why.

"It's that gas fire. The carbon monoxide affects it or something the doctor said. Probably bad circulation." Sylvia replied, and seemed very tired. It seemed like an effort just for her to speak.

Peggy felt as if there was a barrier between her and her old mate because they'd been out of touch for so long. Peggy asked her where she lived, and Sylivia just nodded to a place on her side of the wall and said "Over there."

"Church Road? What number? I'll call in sometime." said Peggy, and she opened her handbag to find a scrap of paper to write Sylvia's address down. But Sylvia just shook her head and said, "No it's okay; I don't want any visitors."

Peggy felt really snubbed and embarrassed. She wrote her phone number down and handed it to Sylvia, saying, "Here's my number; you can give me a call sometime if you want."

Sylvia didn't even take the piece of paper that Peggy offered her, so Peggy placed the bit of paper on the wall. Sylvia just said, "I won't be calling you." And grinned.

Peggy started thinking of an excuse to get back to the car, away from her ignorant friend, but Sylvia walked away first without even saying goodbye.

When Peggy got back to the car she told her husband about her old friend's drastic change of personality, and he just said he'd never liked the woman. But upon turning right at the top of the lane, Peggy and her husband suddenly noticed that there was a church on the corner, and next to this church was a graveyard. Sylvia had been leaning over the wall of this graveyard when she had talked to Peggy, and this obviously gave the couple the creeps. They later visited the Reverend of this church, and learned that in 1985, Sylvia had been buried near to the wall at the spot where Peggy had chatted to her. Peggy nearly fainted when she realised she had been talking to a ghost. Sylvia had died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty gas fire. That explained why she had blue lips.

Strangely enough, there are several reports about the ghost of a woman looking over a wall near the cemetery mentioned above in 1992, which gives this tale some credence.

*looks over shoulder*

Hammy x x x

[Cufflink]

Blimey....

Funny thing is, the general impression of a ghost is something white, ethereal, monk-like or something in a sheet with the eye-holes poked out. Well, maybe not the last one.

We don't think of ghosts as being solid, natural-looking individuals.

My mum had a strange experience some years ago, which reminds me of this. She was out shopping around tea-time in the Autumn, and it was dark.

An old lady suddenly appeared as if from nowhere, and asked my mother for two pence for the telephone, so she could call the police. She mumbled something about burglars. My mum gave her the money, but realised that she didn't need money to call 999. The old lady was in a bedraggled state, and had one shoe missing. As my mother watched, the woman headed for the phone box, but then crossed the road instead. My mum glanced away briefly, then back, and the woman was gone.

My mum looked everywhere, assuming the poor woman was in shock, and had wandered off, but she was nowhere to be seen.

To this day, my mum doesn't know if she saw a ghost that night. Perhaps the old lady was the ghost of someone who'd been attacked?

[Lionel]

That was scary

[dancin'hamster]

I really like this particular story ............ it made me go all 'goosey-bumpley'

and Cuffy, apparantly phantasms of the living are more common that ghosts of the dead.........*wonders where she read that*

Hammy x x x

[Cufflink]

and Cuffy, apparantly phantasms of the living are more common that ghosts of the dead.........*wonders where she read that*

Hammy x x x

Ooooh.....deep.

Too deep.

What in god's name are you talking about, hamster?

[dancin'hamster]

*tuts*

Cuffy really

Have you not heard of the theory that most ghosts are just echos of real living people? What about that on on the paper a few months back? The house that wasfor sale......... the owners said it was haunted........ A woman came t view the property and one of the owners nearly fainted because she was the 'ghost'...... she had been born there and often imagined walkin along the hallway.........

I'll try to get some more info for ya sweetie

Hammy x x x

PS ~ unless you're TOO SCAREDY!!!!!!!!

*runs off giggling*

[dancin'hamster]

Criminey.............

look at my spelling

[Cufflink]

I do believe in the living ghost theory, Hammy. I posted a similar account on the `Phillip' thread.

And of course I'm a scaredy.

[dancin'hamster]

And of course I'm a scaredy.

*whispers*

tell me something I DON'T know

[dancin'hamster]

......maybe.........I also wonder if there's a shadowy Hammy browsing the rails at the Anne Summers shop when I daydream at work........