Crosses of Courage
Elle Macdonald, Melbourne, Australia
April 2006
I was thirteen at the time when my parents decided to take a holiday to Lakes Entrance. We were staying at a friend of my fathers holiday house and we were very excited. My brother was to sleep in the bedroom with my parents and my two sisters and I had the other bedroom as there were only two beds in the room, I was to sleep on a camp bed between the two.
The house looked very old and we thought it strange that there were pictures of Jesus, Mary and many crosses on the walls.
Nothing strange happened for the first couple of days except that my father started to become ill. At first it started as a cough but as each day passed my father seemed to have more and more difficulty breathing. I feel it is important to state that my father had never suffered from any problems of this sort in the past.
Eventually it was decided that my father was too sick to continue the holiday and it was agreed that we would leave the next morning.
We all went to bed and all seemed normal. All at once I awoke from my sleep to hear sounds coming from the kitchen. I thought that someone had gotten up to go to the toilet and perhaps needed a drink. Feeling a bit thirsty myself, I got out of bed. I new that it wasn't one of my sisters in the kitchen, as they were both sound asleep in the other two beds. Not concerned, I proceeded into the hallway and on passing my parents bedroom (which was on my right) I peered in to see who wasn't in bed. To my surprise I could clearly see that both my parents and my brother were also sound asleep!. Feeling more curious than afraid I continued down the hallway towards the kitchen. By this time there were clear sounds of kitchen crockery and utensils moving around. By now I was feeling slightly afraid but inexplicably kept moving towards the sounds.
Suddenly, I noticed one of the large crosses on the hallway wall and a feeling of immense dread swept over me. It should also be pointed out that we were not a religious family but I could not shake this feeling.
I stood there motionless for I don't know how long and continued to hear things moving around in the kitchen. Eventually I turned around and went back to bed. I was lying on my back when I felt a great pressure on my body and I found myself unable to move. I was able to turn my head but was too afraid to look at what could be causing it. I started to whisper my older sisters name in the hope that she would wake up. It seemed to take forever but eventually she opened her eyes. The look that came over her face is still to this day one that I cannot describe. I guess the closest would be that it showed terror and awe all at once. I whispered to her that something was on top of me. She said nothing at first but kept this strange look on her face. Then she simply told me to close my eyes and go to sleep. I closed my eyes without looking around and stayed there like that until I eventually did fall asleep.
The next day my father was extremely ill and we considered taking him to the hospital. As we were getting in the car, I asked my sister if she had seen anything last night. Once again this strange look came over her face and she told me that she had seen a ghost floating above my body and that it was female! She would not go into any further detail and to this day still refuses to talk about it.
My father made a miraculous recovery once we were on the road and we cant explain what could have made him so sick in such a short space of time and which disappeared almost as soon as we left the premises.
Since the incident I myself have had many other strange occurrences that I cannot explain.