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Exploring
Science and Mysticism together |
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INEKE CRAWFORD describes a haunting,
parallel to Matthew Manning's "Strangers".
In 1979, when coming to Dunedin , we bought a small, old house up
in the
Roslyn hills. I loved it at first sight: Set into the hill with
retaining walls ,
and stone steps leading into the hugely undisciplined and
overgrown
garden, it
looked very private and secure, only the top of one chimney
visible from the road.It
seemed primitive , very like the old crofters
cottages of northern Europe and about 120 years old, I guessed.
Jean, our next-door neighbour, told us what she knew about its history.
She said that when she and her husband first moved into their house,
some fifty years ago, our house belonged to an old lady who had
lived
there all her life. She told Jean that her parents had arrived as
a young
couple from Scotland, and that her Father built the house
himself. She
was their only child and had never married, being content to
stay with
her parents until their deaths after which she remained in the
house
to "look after it ". She and Jean became very friendly and
, when the
"Old Lady" (as she was known in the neighbourhood) got too frail to
look after herself, Jean helped. They had an arrangement that,
when
the Old Lady needed help, she put a red Geranium on her window sill
and Jean would come to the rescue. She died some twenty years ago,
and since then the house had had a chequered history , mostly
as a
rental property - at one time a Gang had moved in and Jean said
the
police had raided the house and found a large cache of weapons stored
in the attic! She was very happy to know that we intended to stay
and
restore the house, becoming "proper
neighbours".
During the next few weeks, busy cleaning, painting, organising
electrician,
plumber etc. to do the much-needed repairs, we became aware that
we
had bought a "noisy" house : There were sounds of doors opening and
closing, footsteps going to and fro, drawers opening and shutting,
kitchen
utensils being used. At first we attributed these sounds to
the men working
on the house. But the sounds continued at night and in the early
morning
hours, long after or before anyone was around. Lying in bed listening
to the
footsteps ( from front room to dining room and back, on and on) I
suddenly
wondered, did we have a Ghost? Was the Old Lady still around?In Europe,
many old buildings had their ghosts stories; but I hadn't
met any in New Zealand.
Whatever, our Ghost was not frightening , it was as if we were merely
sharing our house with an invisible-but-rightful presence. From then
on, I
started to talk to the Old Lady. I told her how happy we were
living in her
house, how we were repairing the damage done to it ;
that we were clearing
the fruit trees from the Old Man's Beard that was strangling them
and were
digging out the gorse and broom, replanting the Herb garden, and being
excited by the many Spring-bulbs that were coming up everywhere. Slowly,
the noises retreated and became less distinct. It took years for
them to
cease altogether but I like to think that , in reassuring the Old Lady
that
her house was in good hands, I helped her to let go of the past
and move
into the new. I still think of her with deep fondness and hope
she is happy........!