Jay

My husband and I moved into a townhouse in Sandy Bay (Hobart) about six/seven years ago, when he started his new job as a chef. The townhouse was not more than five minutes from the main river and Mt Wellington.

Within days the "happenings" began. Shayne worked mostly nights at first, so I was in the house alone. One night, while in bed reading, I felt someone staring at me...the feeling was so intense. I looked over my book, at the bottom of the bed, and there was nothing there. I put it down to being in a new home, new state etc.

The townhouse had two levels. Every time we walked up the stairs to the bedroom, there was a cold spot at the top of the landing. It was like walking through a freezer. The hairs on my body would rise. My husband did not pick up on these things at first then...it got stranger.

We had a cat, who lived next door, but because we fed him alot, Blackie would come and visit us. Blackie would always appear at night, while Shayne was at work, he would come and stay with me until Shayne got home. Anyway, Blackie would sit at the bottom of the stairs and just look to the landing. He would be riveted. He wouldn't move. He just kept staring. All the hairs on his back would be standing up.

Sometimes, I would be cooking dinner in the kitchen, and while I did that I had the television on. Well, the television would start changing channels on me! The first time it happened, I freaked....someone was channel surfing. The cat would be freaking out at this stage. One night, I just yelled "Stop it" and it did!

I think the scariest thing was one night I woke up, Shayne was still asleep and I saw the ghost. I couldn't see a face, but the shape and the feeling was that it was definitely a male. He materialized in front of me. I have never been so scared in my life. I tried to wake Shayne but he just would not wake up...then all of a sudden "he" disappeared.

"He" followed Shayne to work occasionally as well. One day (a Sunday) Shayne was in the butchery organizing the hotel's weekly meat supplies. Carving up and sorting out each restaurant's needs, when he felt someone grab him on the shoulder. Shayne swears to this day, that no one could've come into the butchery without his knowing. He said he jumped out of his skin. But he also said he knew it was "our friend from the house".

"Our friend" was never ominous or deliberately tried to scare us or hurt us, but it seemed to me he was trying to communicate with us.

I rang a local clairvoyant, who came over one night and tried to communicate with him. She said that it was an Aboriginal man, who had died away from his Group and family. Apparently, the area where we lived was known as a "safe place". Which was used for gathering food etc. Because he died there, and no one knew what had happened, his spirit was restless. The clairvoyant felt his name began with a "J". So Shayne and I started to call him Jay.

She suggested that we perform a little ceremony to help him pass over. She suggested that we buy a plant that he particularly liked, it had little white flowers on it, in the shape of bells.

So, we went to the nursery and searched, and then Shayne pointed to a plant, and said that's it. We went home and planted the plant, and said the Lord's Prayer and wished Jay well on his journey.

From that day on, we never heard or saw Jay again.