Ghostly Dreams

A personal account by a reader who wishes to remain anonymous

My story begins when I was a little girl. I was only 6 when my granny died and I have memories of the funeral. I remember seeing the coffin and seeing everyone crying. I know I didn’t really understand about death at that time so I guess it didn’t really effect me much. I was told Granny was gone to heaven and when you’re that young, maybe you think that’s somewhere she’ll be back from in a few days.

I started to dream about her. It’s not something I remember clearly myself but my mother has told me about this. She said a lot of what I was dreaming about at the time was odd, things I couldn’t possibly have known about my granny however over time, the dreams stopped and that was it, or so I thought.

When I was 19 I began seeing a man (I won’t give his name) who I fell for head over heels. Things progressed quickly and I ended up pregnant. He suggested we move in together and so I left my parents house in Carlow Town to be with him in a village on the other side of the county (Again, I don’t want to give details if that’s okay). The house was nice and we did what we could to make it ours however not long after we’d moved in, I noticed little things changing. His temper for one thing, he’d launch into rages for no reason and it would scare me. He started drinking too and after a couple of weeks, I began to regret my decision to move in with him.

The drinking got worse and he’d stay out til all hours, me at home and heavily pregnant. He eventually got laid off from his job and things seemed dire. I was afraid to tell my parents, I guess stubborn since they weren’t overly thrilled about me being pregnant. I felt trapped.

Then the dreams started. I suddenly woke one night in a sweat, remembering my granny trying to tell me something in the dream. It was odd but yet not clear. The dreams happened every couple of nights from then on, her appearing and me not being able to understand what she was trying to say. It was frightening me and that really wasn’t I needed with everything else going on. I phoned my sister, then only 15 and told her I needed to come home. She told me her boyfriend was now driving and they’d come get me.

I began to pack frantically and as I did, he returned. I panicked and he began shouting, telling me I wasn’t leaving and he was going to stop me. He began grabbing me, tossing me around the kitchen. I was about 7 months pregnant at this stage so I began to fear for the baby. He picked up a knife and I felt hopeless in the situation. I struggled to get away and I made a lunge for the door, he lost his footing and fell back through the glass of the patio doors, falling to a slump on the ground outside. It was like he’d been pushed and for a moment I wasn’t sure what to do before my instincts took me out into the front garden. A women walking a dog outside consoled me until my sister arrived.

That night, at home in my parent’s house, after the police had left, I fell asleep with my sister beside me. I dreamt of my granny again and this time, it seemed clearer. She was telling me not to worry and I woke up in a sweat again. To this day, I wonder if she had a hand in him going through that patio door. As for him, the last I’d heard he was in Australia and has never asked to see his daughter who I named Geraldine after my granny. I still dream about her sometimes.