Ghost stories are endlessly fascinating.
No matter who you speak to, almost everyone has one – whether it’s something that happened to them or someone they know.
Often at the same time, encounters with ghosts can be both terrifying and comforting, and perhaps that’s why we can’t stop telling them.
Here are seven ghost stories told by women in the Mamamia office.
Nana was trying to tell us something.
“I always told my Nana that when she died she had to do something to let me know she was still there. A few days after she died, I was sitting in my lounge room looking through photos and having a bit of a cry. And then I heard a very loud “thud”. I went into her bedroom, and a suitcase full of her things that had been sitting in the middle of her bed, had fallen to the floor. There was no one in there and no windows open. I can’t understand how it happened. And when she died, my uncle’s watch stopped.” – Catherine, 28
Footsteps in the middle of the night.
“I used to hear footsteps in the hall outside my room when everyone including my dogs were all asleep. There was never anyone there, but one time I went to check and heard “it” throw itself against my door. Then from then on would wake up having felt what I assumed was my cat jump on my bed, go to pet it, and nothing was there. That kept happening for a while. Turns out an old dude died in my room, so there ya go.” – Amy, 31
Come play with me.
“The last place we lived in – my son’s toys started speaking at exactly 3am every night for a while. One was a little dog that could only be activated by moving it and it would say “Come play with me”.
One night, his helicopter toy started a song that we’ve never heard before - every button we tried to push the next day, nothing. Only by violently shaking it did this song play." – Jane, 26
"Have you met the ghost yet?"
"I lived in a house built in the 1870's - it always had this strange smell in it. We would always hear footsteps down the hallway, and the TV turning on and off at random times. One night we heard a crashing sound and thought a brick had been thrown out the window. Turns out that this vase that was really old (and heavy) had fallen off a top shelf in our kitchen that was pushed back against the wall.
Our neighbours also owned the house before us and they asked us if we had the met ghost yet (they researched the house and it turns out someone had died in the home). They also woke up to smashed picture frames in the middle of rooms and those creepy footsteps." – Emily, 34
Voices in the other room.
"My boyfriend lived in this creepy apartment - and I would always ask if his roommate was home because I could hear people talking (specifically laughing) in the other room - he's also heard someone ask him really specific questions (he thought it was his roommate) to find out there was no one home. Soon after he started experiencing sleep paralysis and vivid dreams of being trapped in his apartment." – Michelle, 31
Doors opening on their own.
“We used to live in an old Victorian house, which no doubt had seen a lot of history. I’m not so open to these things, by my mum was never comfortable in the house; she said she felt a presence there. My husband and I usually laughed her off and teased her about it, but then one night, we both heard our baby son crying in his cot. We walked down the long corridor to his room, only to find him fast asleep as we’d left him – but the bedroom door was wide open. The door handles were too high for any of our children to reach even if they had gotten up, and we always closed the doors tight.” – Annie, 29
And hold on tight. This next one is really intense.
“My mother in law passed away very suddenly in January and my sister in law was 6 months pregnant at the time. When she'd had the baby (at the same hospital her mum passed away at) and was leaving the hospital they had the obligatory "first family photo". My mother in law is in the back of the photo.” – Beth, 22
(Note: I have seen the photo, but the family would prefer to keep it private. Trust me though, it’s everything you imagine it to be).
So there you go. There are some things that just can’t be explained.
Have you had a spooky experience? Share it in the comments below!
Top Comments
About 12 or so years ago my ex-wife and I lived in a coastal house that was used as a maternity hospital during WW2, so it was pretty old. We had the relatives come over for lunch one day and they bought their baby son (my nephew) along. He fell asleep in his car capsule on the journey so they asked if he could sleep in our bedroom away from the noise. A few hours later they could hear him laughing. We were all in the lounge so we wondered what he was laughing at. The baby's mother quietly opened the bedroom door to see my nephew reaching up with his arms stretched out towards the ceiling in a 'pick me up' motion and giggling. The boys mother grabbed the capsule and took him out of our bedroom as quick as she could. And that was only one of the 'weird' experiences we had in that house
When i first moved out i lived in a very old house with one other housemate. Both of us on different occasions experienced strange things. One night when i was home alone i heard my housemates guitar strumming. His bedroom door was closed, lights off, windows closed and my cat nowhere near. On other occasions i heard footsteps walking down the hallway towards my bedroom. My cat would always sit in the doorway and stare intently at the hall. By the time of my most frightening experience i was no longer a skeptic. My lamp was dead so i had to get up to switch the main light of before going to sleep. It was winter and freezing, and i always hated the dark in that house, so i switched off the light and ran and jumped into my bed. But as i jumped something warm brushed against my leg. In the middle of winter when nothing should have been there.
The first time my sister stayed the night i avoided mentioning all of this to her because i didnt want to frighten her. The next morning she approached me and asked if id ever felt something off about the house, because she had heard footsteps throughout the night. This was without knowing everything id been experiencing.