Embracing the Spirits: True Stories of My Encounters With the Other Side (21 page)

had asked for!

Two days later, surrounded by his loving family, Wilfrid

Ashley Freeman quietly passed away. After four years of hard-

ship and struggle, he allowed himself to transition into spirit.

Despite their forewarning, Lesley and her family were shat-

tered.

That evening as she lay in bed crying herself to sleep, Les-

ley was suddenly overcome by the sense of someone being

in the room with her. She rolled over slowly, and gasped at

what she saw. There on the side of her bed was Wilfrid, sitting serenely as though he hadn’t a care in the world. His legs were crossed nonchalantly and he was reaching for Lesley’s forehead. And as he calmly stroked her brow, he smiled … word-

lessly reassuring his daughter that he was absolutely fine.

172 The Interactions of Others

Even now, almost five years after Wilfrid’s passing, Lesley

still gets teary at the recollection.

“I wondered if I could have been imagining it …” she said.

But the intense sense of love and comfort that radiated from

her vision, soon had her convinced. “I’ll never forget the feeling,” Lesley smiled. “I just knew it was Dad’s spirit!”

Over time, the pain of losing her father became less palpa-

ble, but Lesley will never entirely get over her loss. Wilfrid is particularly missed at significant family events, such as Lesley’s wedding in 2012.

Lesley and her fiancé, Jason celebrated their marriage in

Bali, together with close family and friends. As sad as it was not to have her father walking her down the aisle, Lesley was

delighted that her mother stepped in and offered to do the

honours. It was also a great comfort that Wilfrid had managed

to meet Jason just before he died. Although, by then, he was in the grips of dementia, Lesley felt that on some level her husband-to-be and father had connected.

So it was with bittersweet emotion that Lesley and Jason

flew into Bali three days before their wedding, little imagining that Wilfrid would make it known that he would definitely be

there on their special day.

Late on the evening of their arrival, Lesley was sitting

alone on their hotel balcony, testing out the duty-free cam-

era she had just bought. Since Jason was otherwise occupied

inside their hotel room, Lesley decided to test the camera on

herself, and extended her left arm to take a self-portrait.

Upon reviewing the photograph, Lesley noticed an anom-

aly immediately. There was a white filmy object floating just

above her head. She turned around to see what was behind

her, checking to see if there was something beyond her bal-

The Interactions of Others 173

cony which would account for the strange image. All Lesley

could see was a solitary, spindly tree. It looked nothing like the white ephemeral shape which had appeared in her photo.

As she zoomed into the shot, her heart jumped into her

mouth. She was suddenly struck by the realization that the

image was of a beautiful white dove, wings outstretched and

holding a love heart. It was most certainly a wedding gift from her father!

Despite bursting into tears, Lesley couldn’t have felt hap-

pier. She had no doubt that her father was right beside her, and would be sharing in the joy of her and Jason’s wedding day.

Lesley is convinced the white dove in this photograph is a
sign from her father, Wilfrid.

Inexplicable events such as these remind us that there is no

barrier to love in the world of spirit. The seemingly impossible can manifest in the blink of an eye or even in the blasé click of 174 The Interactions of Others

a camera shutter, effortlessly reminding us that our loved ones are never far away

The Enigma of the Haunted House

Is there any way of knowing whether a house is haunted? Is

there a tell-tale sign, or a prevailing sense of foreboding that instantly warns us off ? Do haunted houses need to be of a certain age, or harbour tragic, bloody histories? If only it were that straightforward!

Some haunted houses are patently obvious. So much so,

that one can’t help but wonder what possessed their occupants

to live in them in the first place. Houses like
Monte Cristo
in the New South Wales town of Junee, scream of the ghosts which

linger within their walls. They are Victorian-era mansions

which fit the bill as far as what one would expect a haunted

house to look like. And indeed, in
Monte Cristo’s
case, its foreboding appearance matches the paranormal disturbances

within. It is reputed to be the most haunted house in Australia.

Not only does
Monte Cristo
definitely
look haunted, it’s sinister history cements the likelihood of ghosts. Its past is replete with baleful occupants and tragic deaths; including that of an unfortunate infant who was fatally dropped down a stairwell.

Just as disturbing is the case of a teenage stable boy who was burnt to death in his sick-bed in the early 1900’s. As the story goes, the boy’s foreman suspected the youngster of malinger-ing, and threw a match to his straw mattress in an attempt to

catch him out. The stable boy was, however, too ill to escape

his flaming bed. The horrific circumstances of the youngster’s death seem to have imprinted themselves on the ether, as the

boy’s suffering leaves an indelible sense of doom at the scene The Interactions of Others 175

of his death. It’s of little surprise that the stable is the focus of countless paranormal disturbances.

Then of course there are the ghosts of the first owners of

Monte Cristo
themselves, Christopher and Elizabeth Crawley.

Mr Crawley’s sudden and unexpected passing (as the result of

an infected carbuncle which progressed to blood poisoning)

further increases the likelihood that he is not ready to move on and leave his beloved home. And although Crawley’s wife lived

at
Monte Cristo
for another twenty three years after his death, it seems she is just as reluctant to leave as her husband. And indeed, in the years following her husband’s death, Mrs Crawley only left the homestead twice.

The home’s current owners, Reg and Olive Ryan, report

that Elizabeth Crawley is a regular and obvious presence.

On occasions she even shows herself; manifesting as a dense,

black-dressed apparition. Her presence is very proprietorial,

and she is quick to demonstrate her displeasure at those she

considers to be unwelcome guests.

Monte Cristo’s
sinister manifestations are numerous and well-documented, and range from the benign to the horrific. Perhaps most distressing to Reg and Olive, were the deaths of numerous family pets, the means of which were quite often inexpli-

cable. The discovery that every bird in the hen house had been killed was particularly disturbing, especially since their necks had been violently rung. The lock, walls and roof all remained intact, with no evidence of being tampered with.

Similarly upsetting was the early morning discovery of the

family’s five month old kitten. It lay dead in a downstairs hallway, its stomach slashed open. Again, there were no signs of

forced entry by either man or beast.

176 The Interactions of Others

As far as
Monte Cristo
is concerned,
it’s certainly appropriate to judge a book by its cover. This is one house that cer-

tainly lives up to its ghostly expectations!

My friend, Jason is passionate about all things paranormal,

as evidenced by his self-named moniker,
Jason Ghostman.
He is particularly entranced by Monte Cristo, and makes a point of

trying to visit the homestead every year. Being a regular visitor, he has become good friends with Reg and Olive. As such,

he has been privy to many of Monte Cristo’s paranormal dis-

turbances, and indeed, has experienced many of them himself.

Olive, Reg and Jason on the front porch at Monte Cristo.

Jason tells me that the feeling of being watched is ever-

present at Monte Cristo, as well as the feeling of having travelled back through time.

“You almost feel like you shouldn’t be there,” he says. “And

in some rooms, you can actually start to feel really sick.” Jason tells me that on a recent ghost tour, some people refused to

The Interactions of Others 177

enter certain rooms, so strong was the feeling of revulsion and foreboding.

On one particular occasion, Jason decided to stay at Monte

Cristo overnight. He had heard numerous accounts of late

night visits by noisy, ghostly children, and was keen to encounter them for himself. As well as making a right ruckus, the

young ghosts were also reported to jump up and down on the

guests’ beds, and Jason was hopeful that they would do so to

him.

He expectantly lay in his darkened room, ears trained for

the slightest sound. The effort must have been exhausting,

because in no time at all, Jason fell fast asleep! He was devastated to discover that not only had he slept soundly through

the entire night, but he had also missed numerous ghostly

manifestations.

Although there weren’t any reports of the young ghosts

jumping on beds, they had been heard laughing and running

up and down the hallways. Jason was devastated.

He was further affronted to discover that one of the guests

in the neighbouring room had seen a black, shadowy figure

purposefully going about its business.

“You should have knocked on the wall!” Jason told the

bemused guest. “I would’ve run in … I had my camera ready

and everything!”

Once he got over the disappointment of missing such an

eventful night, Jason reasoned that there would be plenty

more opportunities to fraternise with Monte Cristo’s ghosts.

And in accordance with his promise to himself, he continues

to visit his favourite haunted house year after year.

178 The Interactions of Others

The grand old lady herself; Monte Cristo Homestead,

believed to be Australia’s most haunted house.

Unlike Monte Cristo, not all haunted houses bear the clas-

sic appearance of looking old and creepy. And by the same

token, even those houses which look positively ominous can

draw a blank as far as ghostly activity is concerned.

The most sinister-looking mansions can be entirely ghost-

free, whereas their non-descript suburban counterparts can be

crawling with ghosts. It would be remiss to assume that only

old homes with chequered histories are likely to be haunted,

as it’s just as likely that a newly-built modern house is home to unseen occupants. It may be that the ghosts are connected to