Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers

Image: Upper Bucklebury graveyard (A favorite place for me – but that is another story!)

As promised I am sharing some personal encounters in regard to ghosts, reincarnation etc. This event happened when I was approximately 10 years old. We lived in a small village in England called Upper Bucklebury. There was only one store beside the gas station, it serviced the community and was a hub for meeting neighbors as well as providing essentials.

(***This village is now world famous due to Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge, once living here)

Like all of my friends at that time, we rode bicycles everywhere and the easiest way to find your child, as a parent, was to walk down the road and find the pile of bicycles on the lawn of a house. The housing estate was fairly new so the residents were mainly younger couples and their children and we became a firm community within the village as a whole. Clothing swaps, coffee mornings, and feeding and bathing whichever children were present at that time of day was usual. I’m sure now-a-days this practice would herald an immediate police presence! We did not think it strange to bathe with our friends in a row in the various baths and then go home for bedtime. Anyway I digress.

We had an elderly lady living in the older home beside our house. It was a run down property with a huge plot of land mainly filled with an old apple orchard and collapsing sheds at the back. The lady, Mrs. Vallece (unsure of the spelling) lived with a multitude of cats, her only companions. My mother would make extra food for our meals a couple of times a week and send myself or one of my siblings to deliver to her. We thought she mainly survived on cat food. She was a kindly lady and enjoyed the interaction with us. Her favorite spot was at the front window watching the world go by. So it was natural to wave to her if we rode past.

On this particular morning, my mother asked me to go to the store and buy something. I jumped onto my bicycle and set off. Mrs. Vallece was at her usual spot and I waved and she waved back. I did not think anything of this. With the item purchased I rode back home and glanced at the front window once again but Mrs. Vallece was not there. Again nothing unusual in that. Once in the kitchen I told my mother Mrs Vallece was waving and would we be taking a meal around for her. My mother looked at me with a strange look on her face.

“You waved to Mrs. Vallece? Are you sure?”

“Yes of course she was at the window like always.”

“Well, actually she couldn’t have been there sweetheart. She died five weeks ago.”

I cannot remember the rest of the conversation but I am sure my mother would have taken the time to explain what might have happened. To this day I am absolutely positive I saw Mrs. Vallece. Maybe it was her way of saying goodbye because I never saw her again.

Have you seen a ghost?

Did you see something that you cannot explain?