Mum, Dad & Haunted Barnet Hospital
Jenny Beeson, Norfok, UK
January 2008
Barnet Hospital (located just outside London in the UK) is haunted. My dad fell ill in 1979 and spent several years at the hospital. As a family we would spend hours there visiting and got to know the hospital and the wards very well. My father sadly died in 1985 and I didn't return to the hospital until my mother fell ill in 1995. It was on that visit to the hospital to see mum that I had my first paranormal experience.
I was sitting on the chair next to mum when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an old man wearing pyjamas that were similar to that my dad used to wear. The figure seemed to be lurking behind me and, for a split second, the room temperature dipped. When I turned round there was no-one there. "Are you alright, Jen?" mum asked. I told her I was fine. I didn't dare tell her what I thought I saw in case she thought I was mad.
A few years later mum was seriously ill and returned to the hospital. She was put in exactly the same ward and one evening, after I finished work, I went to visit her. That's when I had my second paranormal experience. Mum woke up after dozing off and asked me for a glass of water. I stood up and, reflected on the mirror above mum's bed, was my dad. He looked exactly the same as he did in 1985. He had an Oxygen mask on and was wearing the same clothes. When I looked over at the bed opposite there was an old lady there. I got my mum some water and decided to take in some air. To say it freaked me out would be an understatement.
There was a nurse outside and I told her I was curious about the ward my mum was in. (I didn't tell her what I saw because she probably wouldn't have believed me). She told me the ward used to be set aside for elderly and infirm MALE patients. It was then I realised my mum was staying in exactly the same ward as dad had been in years earlier.
Assuming it was just the ward that was haunted (and not my overactive imagination) I put the episode behind me. However, there have been other incidents at the hospital.
In the X Ray Dept, shadows have been seen on photographs. In the A & E Dept lights have been switched on and off (an incident reported to me by the friend of a friend) and, when I had to return to have my thyroid glands tested, I felt a presence in the waiting room and I got the impression I was constantly being watched.
Thankfully I don't live near Barnet anymore and I don't have to spend any more time in what I believe is a Haunted Hospital.