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Clock Smashed

zaknsolly

Fresh Blood
Joined
Aug 25, 2015
Messages
16
My wife’s grandmother is in her 90s and unfortunately is now suffering from dementia.

Until a few years ago she was always very mentally sharp and could be described as very down to earth and not someone prone to tall tales or flights of fancy. She was always extremely well organised, there was a place for everything and everything was expected to be in its place.

About 8 years ago now, she told me and my wife about an event that happened when my father-in-law was a young boy (so this was mid to late 1960s).

One afternoon, they were both sat in the kitchen of her bungalow. She still lives in the same home so I’m familiar with the layout. From the front door there’s an ‘L’ shaped hallway, bedrooms and living room are the first rooms either side off the hall, the hall turns left and the bathroom and kitchen are the next rooms off it. The last room off the hall is a pantry and the back door to the bungalow is accessed through the kitchen. There’s only two external doors to the bungalow.

So, they’re both in the kitchen one afternoon when they hear the front door open and slam shut. It’s the same door now as in those days apparently, with frosted glass and a Yale lock.

My wife’s gran being ever organised and security conscious ensured the door was always kept locked. This has always has been the case and it still is. Therefore, you’d need a key to open it from the outside.

Apparently, both my wife’s gran and my father in law looked at each other and she said ‘what’s your dad doing back from work at this time?’. She then shouted his name and asked why he was home early. There was no answer.

Instead, they heard a smash come from the living room. They both got up from the table and rushed in. The clock from the mantel piece (which was a fairly large solid wooden cased clock) was lying in the middle of the floor with the glass smashed. I remember her telling me this story in her living room and she pointed to the spot on the carpet the clock was found, which was a good few feet (maybe 5ft) from the mantle piece.

They both stood puzzled looking at it. At that moment they heard the front door open and then slam shut. They rushed to it and opened it but no one was there.

They were both apparently completely bemused. It wasn’t a warm time of year and the windows were closed, so the effect of a draft couldn’t explain it satisfactorily (by the description of the clock and how far it had traveled it would also have needed to be a heck of a draft).

In an attempt to rationalise it, my wife’s gran thought her husband must’ve come home having forgotten something (there were only two people with keys for the front door one being her and the other her husband-so he was the only other person able to let himself in). Then, in his rush to collect whatever he was after, had knocked the clock to the floor before rushing back out.

When he returned home at the usual time, he told them he hadn’t been home all day. He’d only been home a short while when a relative called at the house. He had the sad news that my wife’s grandmother’s father had passed away that afternoon. The approximate time of death being the same time the clock was knocked from the mantelpiece.

Both my father in law and my wife’s grandmother (at least up until her condition affected her recollection of things) clearly remembered the events of that afternoon. They had no explanation for what happened that day.
 
Me and the wife were sitting in the back room, it was a lovely sunny day
no wind, the conservatory door was open so was the one into the room
we were in, suddenly there was a gust of wind there whistled through the
room, we both exclaimed "what the F was that" 15 min later a friends daughter
rang to say our friend had passed about 10 min ago.
:litg:
 
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