JAY HOLLIS saw something strange and thinks it might have been paranormal!
I think I have seen a ghost. It has puzzled me for over four years and it’s the only conclusion that seems to make any sense.
It happened one evening at a friend’s house.
We were members of the same band and had met up to discuss the administration details (booking of rehearsal rooms, contacting venues, etc) that I would need to delegate once my son had been born – my wife was due to give birth in six weeks time.
We were seated at opposite sides of his dining table and I was nearest to the door.
As we were talking, his wife’s cat wandered into the room, walked past my chair, did a u-turn and wandered back out.
There was nothing remarkable about this, except that he had been in a sorry state the last few times I had seen him as he was old and very ill.
His owners were doing their best for him but despite this his health had visibly deteriorated, he was thin, his coat had lost its silky sheen and his fur was matted.
However, on this occasion he looked well.
His coat was in pretty good condition and I supposed my friends had managed to put a brush to him.
I was about to mention how well he was looking but the conversation was quite important, so I put it to the back of my mind and then forgot to mention it.
When I got home, I told my wife how well the cat had looked and I remember the exact date, as it was four days before my son was born six weeks premature.
It was a year of big changes, and five months passed before I visited my friends again.
They were moving to another part of the country and were having a leaving party. After an hour or so I realised I had not seen their cat and asked where he was, only to be told that he had died. I asked when it had happened and was given an approximate date that was at least four weeks before I had last seen him!
I almost blurted this out but bit my tongue, as my friends are opposed to any suggestion of the paranormal and the last thing I wanted to do was start an argument. I have still not mentioned it to them.
Could there have been some confusion over the dates?
I did ask if the cat’s health had improved towards the end and it hadn’t, so how can I have seen him looking so well when I had previously seen him in a bad way? Could it have been another cat? The room was well lit and I knew this cat very well. It was definitely the same one.
Did I imagine or dream the incident? I’m not prone to hallucinations and my wife clearly remembers me mentioning it when I came home that night.
So there you have it. Try as I might, I cannot find any explanation other than it was a ghost that I saw.
JAY HOLLIS is a paranormal researcher, amateur historian and musician. He was born in the London Borough of Enfield and lived there for over 30 years before moving to Hertfordshire where he now lives with his wife and children. His lifelong interest in the supernatural led him to write about Enfield’s ghosts and Haunted Enfield, his first book, brings together for the first time all of the stories, legends and documented evidence of the supernatural from around the Borough into one volume.
