The Teenage Victorian Girl Ghost Called Gretchen

When Thom and Meg Morrera bought their Norwalk home, it had been vacant for a year: prior to that the house, which was built in 1870, was rented out for about 10 years. So when the couple purchased the house seven years ago, no one ever told them about the home's other resident ...

Strange things began to happen in the house after the Morreras moved in - toilets flushed on their own, even after the plumbing mechanisms in them were replaced ... but it was two weeks before Thom Morrera literally ran into the ghost.

On his way down to the kitchen in the middle of the night, Thom met something on the stairs.

He explained: "I was on the last couple of stairs and I could feel some kind of pressure against my body. I could feel there was somebody there."

The ghost made its presence felt again when Meg left her wristwatch on the couch. When she came back to get it, the watch was gone!

The couple turned the couch and the living room inside out looking for the watch, but it never turned up. Several weeks later, however, they found the watch in the exact place where it had been originally left.

The Morreras characterise the 'spirit' as playful and inquisitive. The flushing toilets, and missing watch they chalk up to the spirit's curiosity about things the ghost had not seen before.

Morrera said, "When there are things that are unfamiliar to ghosts they want to play with them. She's never done anything that's really destructive.

The most intrusive incident was that of Meg's wristwatch, but Thom pointed out that the ghost was careful to replace it.

The couple believe their ghost is a young Victorian girl in her mid teens. They were thinking about what to call her, while husband and wife were in different parts of the country. By 'coincidence' they both came up with the same name: Gretchen.

It's theorised  that the girl has the ability to project information to them. The couple are comfortable with Gretchen and see no reason to evict her!

10 Ghost Story Posts

Cilla Black Saw White Feathers Following Her Husband's Death

It's white feathers again today with a story about Cilla Black, who sadly died this week. For those who may not know, Cilla was a singer at the Cavern Club at time of the Beatles and went on to have several chart hits. Later she become a television presenter. She was 72 when she died..

Bobby, Cilla's husband, died previously of lung cancer. She was, at the time, devastated but held a firm belief that she would meet him again when she died. She told Michael Hellicar, a colleague, the following - in Cilla's words:

"Since Bobby's been gone, I've had several little messages from him, so I know he's looking after me. He advised me from the spirit world that it was time to give up Blind Date [a TV show she presented], so I did..

"Gloria Hunniford told me that after her daughter, Caron Keating, died, she'd often find a white feather in the most unexpected places. She believed it was Caron's way of telling her that she's all right..

"So one day I went into the garden, where some of Bobby's ashes had been buried under a willow tree - the rest were scattered at our other homes in Spain, Barbados and on the roof terrace of our flat in Westminster..

"I told him that if he was supposed to be my guardian angel, I needed some proof. Suddenly, I looked down and there were five white feathers. I could swear they hadn't been there earlier.

"It was as though he was saying: 'You want feathers, Cilla? Here they are.'".

Cilla Black Music on Amazon UK

Other White Feather Posts:
White Feathers As Messages From The Deceased
The Meaning Of White Feathers As Messages From The Dead
The White Dove As A Messenger Of The Dead

Stepping Into A Different Time Zone Or Time Slip

A while back I wrote about someone who claimed that, somehow, they had slipped into another time zone - experienced time travel if you like. Here's a similar experience from Penny. Wonder what you think?

I had an experience in my late 20's or early 30's that made me wonder about time shifts or place and time bleed-throughs.

I lived in a New Jersey town for 20+ years, but one afternoon on a busy corner of Broad Street, I stepped off the sidewalk and onto the road. Just like that I appeared to be in another era of that town, perhaps the 1800s or early 1900s.

Everything looked a little hazy and my view was a bit narrow (not being able to see too far on either side but to the right of me). The weather was still warm, the sun as bright as before. Only now the road was cobblestones (exactly as they used to be in the 19th century, I found out later) and to my right was a horse-drawn carriage.

By then I was standing petrified and confused in the middle of the road. The carriage was approaching, the horse braying, and I could hear the traffic of horses hooves and footfalls. Behind me and before me, the area (not clearly remembered) was as busy (crowded) as normal reality had been moments before.

Then just as soon as it began, I was back in normal reality, nearly mid road and totally confused. The whole thing didn't appear to take more than half a minute. The "visit" was a normal feeling, perhaps a bit more heightened.

Then the same "visit" occurred about a year or so later, exactly as before - same spot. Again, as I stepped off the road. I saw the same past time scene.

It might be worth mentioning that I seldom get confused in crowds, but that it happened twice in the same spot, surely must point to something having happened there once upon a time. The time stamp on that spot - if disregarding my having perhaps lived there decades ago - might be picking up on a moment in the life of another woman from a bygone era . . . .

~ Penny

Other Random Posts:
Coincidence Clusters And Beating The Coin Tossing Odds
The Cornish Mystery Of Trevethy Quoit Stones
White Feathers As Messages From The Deceased

The Twins Reunion Became A Triplet Reunion

Further to my previous post Coincidence Leads To Twins Reunion there is more to this story than I first thought. Several people contacted me about this. It appears that the coincidence is well known on the US and has been reported on television. Peter Shafran directed me to more information.

After the two 'twins' Robert Shafran and Eddy Galland re-united this made headlines in some newspapers. So much so that a David Kellman, a student at Queens College, contacted Shafran and Galland telling them that he also looked very much like them. This became quite a story as this had now become a reuniting of triplets.

According to Newsday the triplets had a natural sense of humour and started making the television talk-show rounds 'and even landed bit parts in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan' and on the TV show, Cheers.

Sadly though 'the laugh track went silent in 1995, when Galland committed suicide at his Maplewood, N.J., home.'

My thanks to all, mostly through Google+, who got in touch with me about the story.

Coincidence Leads To Twins Reunion

Robert Shafran, a new student, was puzzled when he arrived at Sullivan County Community College and was greeted by men who patted him on the back and women who hugged and kissed him.

"Hi, Eddy," they said.

"I'm not Eddy," Shafran replied. He was startled when one woman did not believe him and told him of a birthmark on his body!

Shafran found Eddy, with the help of Michael Domnitz, who saw an uncanny resemblance between Shafran and Eddy Galland, a former student at the school.

With Domitz' encouragement, Shafran called Galland.

"Eddy," Shafran recalled saying, "My name is Bob Shafran. You won't believe this, but I think you're my twin brother.

The two traded statistics. They were born within 27 minutes of each other on July 12th at Long Island Jewish Hospital Medical Center; both were adopted through the same agency within  six months after birth; both were 5 foot 9"; and both had brown eyes and curly brown hair.

Shafran and Domnitz went to Galland's home, where Shafran and Galland stared at each other and scratched their heads and in unison said, "Oh, my God!"

They spent the next three days recalling their lives. There was one difference between them Galland is right handed and Shafran is left handed (so perhaps they are mirror twins).

Neither knows who his biological mother and father are. Galland told the Lawrence Journal, "I think the whole thing is beautiful, but it's also a little spooky to know there is somebody exactly like you.

Other Random Posts:
67 Years After The D-Day Landings They Meet By Coincidence
White Feathers As Messages From The Deceased
Her Front Door Key Returned By Coincidence

White Feathers As Messages From The Deceased

One of the the most popular themes I have covered on this blog is that of White Feathers - where they are seen following the loss of a loved one. Okay, I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, and that many mock such things - that's fine!

I first raised the subject in 2010 because I experienced this myself. I saw white feathers, and in unusual circumstances, following the loss of three very close people within a short period of time.

I wrote back then: "The feathers felt like they were messages saying that things were alright. Often, after we saw one, something nice would happen. Of course, when we are emotional, there can be a tendency to hang on to whatever we find comforting. Some would say that the white feathers were like a crutch.

It's very easy to dismiss white feathers as something by chance or even superstition - feathers perhaps simply out of pillows, or even birds!"

Anyway, whatever your view. Here's a few more stories, some are anonymous - as the people concerned do not wish their names mentioned.

"My brother died last month following a long illness. We were very close and it was a heartbreaking time.

He died in hospital. Towards the end I visited him whenever I could. On his final day I stayed until midnight but the nurses persuaded me to go home and to get some rest. I did what they said.

At six o'clock in the morning the phone rang. I jumped out of bed, knowing who it was. It was the hospital telling me my brother had died. There was a white feather on the table next to the phone.

I headed for the hospital, as soon as I could, and on my car seat was another white feather. I've no idea how it could have got into a locked car. When I was inside the hospital the nurse, who had been so kind to me, said, "There's something on your shoulder." It was yet another white feather.

The feathers kept coming until after my brother's funeral. I really do feel they were messages from him."

~ Joan Ferguson

"I lost my dad on July 24, 2015. July 26th, while dealing with a contractor at his house, I found a white feather on the door handle of my car, finer than goose down, I didn't think anything of it, and blew it off my car with a mouthful of air.

Yesterday at the bank, I talked to an elderly gentleman who told me of finding a white feather the day his daughter passed away from cancer.

Then, while talking with a friend of mine who had lost his dad, he told me to look out for weird things to happen, and mentioned his own white feather story.

A friend and a stranger brought it up without any prompting. I am ex-catholic, and proudly agnostic but this has changed me, be it religious, or just a spiritual thing. I had never heard of this before searching the internet for any info or other's past experiences - goosebumps for sure..."

And it appears to sometimes even happen when people lose pets!

"My lovely dog Bugsy was put down 7 years ago and we randomly get white feathers. Today my beautiful dog Fergie was also put down and there was a large feather under the kitchen table just before the vet arrived. It made me smile that Bugsy was telling me she was going to look after her."

If interested, you'll find lots more white feather stories on 67 Not Out.

The Duels Of Death Coincidence

A short, hard to believe classic coincidence is about the duelling life of Henri Tragne from Marseille in France.

Between 1861 and 1878 Tragne is said to have fought five duels - though I'm not sure 'fought' is the right word because, in the first four, his opponents all dropped dead before a single shot was fired.

The fifth duel had a different outcome. This time it was Tragne who died - of natural causes and, again, before the first shots had been exchanged.

The saying about being scared to death is often used but the outcome of Tragne's duels must surely have been written in the stars.

Random Other Post:
The Guest House And The Girl In A Bikini Coincidence
The Indians Of Haiti As Observed By Christopher Columbus
The Ghost Who Chased A Thief