Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 8 EVPs

Have you read the previous parts of this story? Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 1

In the late 70′s no-one even knew what an EVP was. While I have since studied and read up on the paranormal in an attempt to understand what my family and I went through growing up – we did once manage to unintentionally capture a rather impressive EVP.

Only My Mum and I were in the house – my new step-dad was away working. My mum who had been an extremely qualified ex trauma nurse and matron had done the ‘done thing’ in the 50′s and given up work when she married, as was the done thing in those days. Now in the liberated 70′s she was throwing herself back into study as a psychologist (maybe the ghost had driven us crazy and we needed one in the family?) and she had to practice a speech she had to give to her lecturers. Mum …

Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 7

Have you read the previous parts of this story? Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 1

While the “big” and exciting events of growing up in a haunted house always make for the good stories, not everything was intense and amazing… the little things often made to just remind us ‘he’ was still around.

Mum was doing the laundry and going through all the bedrooms and tossing the dirty laundry into the hall where she could scoop it up and take it to the laundry in one trip. Mum noted a number of items; her navy slacks – my new Mickey mouse undies (very important to a 5 year old in the 60′s!) and my sister’s brand new ‘hippy’ shirt. Mum remembers throwing them into the hallway and even them flying through the air in her peripheral vision. It wasn’t until later when she was pegging the clothes on the line she realized all 3 items were missing. Being a …

Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 6

Have you read the previous parts of this story? Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 1

One of the standards of growing up in a haunted house in the 60′s and 70′s before a lot of literature was available on the paranormal, meant we were left struggle with dealing with a haunting mostly on our own. My mother told me she did go to the local church one time in the 60′s when my Pop’s ghost was rather busy and was told she just needed to pray more. She didn’t need to exactly get rid of him, just understand what was going on and no-one seemed to be able to help.

Of course coming to terms with a full bodied apparition that appeared on a regular basis was different to a “poltergeist” and we didn’t even know the word at the time – but we had one of those as well.

Being a recently widowed mum to two teenage girls …

Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 5

Have you read the previous parts of this story? Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 1

Knowing I was growing up in a haunted house in an ‘ ordinary ‘ suburb in an ‘ ordinary ‘ looking house, became the family secret. Most families have their ‘ skeletons in the closet ‘, unfortunately ours walked around…..literally.

The house was a 50′s style bungalow my Dad had financed after coming back from Korea – he and my grandfather both died suddenly in 1967. We often saw my grandfather’s ghost, as did friends and neighbours which did make for some awkward explanations, but much to my personal disappointment no-one ever saw my father.

As a sudden single mum with 3 young daughters and strapped for income my mother took in a boarder from the country who was studying at a local University. One day as the boarder was sitting in the lounge, she saw what she would later describe as an elderly …

Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 4

Have you read the previous parts of this story? Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 1

While we had many little anecdotes and stories growing up in a haunted house in Liverpool, Australia – we knew it was my grandfather and while it was a little odd we had become used to him being around.

There was only one time we truly felt terrorized and to the best of our knowledge what ever happened, was nothing to do with my grandfather.

The late 70′s were busy – I was now a teenager, my older married sisters had ‘ run home to mother ‘ fleeing bad marriages bringing grand children and pets with them. We suddenly had a full house….again.

The night it started I had a fight with my mother and stormed down the back yard to hide in the dark. I picked up dirt from my step-father’s garden beds and threw it at the fence in the typical rage …

Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 3

Have you read the first part of this story? Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 1

My family had long accepted we had the ghost of my grandfather wandering around… literally. My older sisters recounted the sounds of my grandfather going down the hallway to prepare a pre-dawn breakfast many years after he died.

As the youngest I was mostly shielded from these events as they happened but as I got older I became aware of the ” stories “.

I can remember being 17 and waking with the same pre-dawn alertness I recognized from an experience when I was almost 5. I lay there and there was no mistaking the screaming of my senses – something was about to happen.

With my older sisters moved away – there was only my mother and myself in the house. But I heard the door of pop’s room open and close with its distinct “click” and the sound of heavy male footfalls …

Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 2

Have you read the first part of this story? Growing up Haunted in Sydney Part 1

Growing up in a haunted house where I had seen my grandfather as a young child and my sisters had sensed things and one of their boyfriends had actually seen him as well, made me think as a child seeing dead people was normal.

When I went to school at 5 and started telling other children about my dead grandfather – I was given grief counseling. It took my mum to explain I couldn’t just tell people our ‘little secret’ and I learnt to keep it to myself. Irrespective if our ‘little secret’ was a 6′ 4″, barrel chested man with massive shoulders from years working manually in the mines who just happened to be a ghost.

My middle sister was rebellious and had decided to date a bikie! Mum wasn’t impressed but knew the more she would say NOT to go out the …

Growing up Haunted in Sydney Australia

My family had the sudden death of my father New Year’s Day 1967 followed 6 months later by my Grandfather ‘Pop’ who had also lived with us… before I had even turned 5. This left my mum with 2 teenage daughters and myself as a single mum raising us on her own.

The first hint of anything was when my 17 year old sister had a fight with her fiancé and uncharacteristically ran up the hallway and threw herself on what had been Pop’s bed in the end bedroom. My mum re-tells the tale that my sister eventually ran screaming back in to the lounge room saying “someone was in pop’s room.”

My Pop’s room was a westerly facing room and it was afternoon taking the full brunt of the setting sun and should have been the hottest room in the house! Instead we all found a chilled room which caused us to shiver with the cold. My mother stood …