Old Work Colleague

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DwainPipe

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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Jun 21, 2012
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Hi Everyone,
A friend has recommended that I come on here a share a story with you that my Dad recently told me about something that he saw around 40 years ago. Looking at some of the other topics this story seems a little bit tame but its the best I've got at the moment!

A few weeks ago I was visiting my Parents and we ended up talking about ghosts. Completely out of the blue my Dad said that he'd once seen a ghost! This was news to me, my Mum and my brother but he absolutely swore it was true! My Dad has a passing interest in ghosts but isnt convinced that they exist. As a kid I remember he used the watch 'Arthur C Clarke's mysterious world on telly and thats about the extent of his interest but he swore to us all that the following really did happen to him but he kind of put it off as something he couldnt explain so didnt talk about it. Here goes.

40 years ago my dad worked on the railway in a village in Yorkshire. One day he was in a works van with two other men and my dad was in the passenger seat. They were driving down a busy road with shops on either side and lots of people around. As the van stopped at some traffic lights my dad glanced out of the window and noticed a man whom he used to work with on the railway but had retired the previous year called Stan. My dad was fond of him as when he started at work Stan was in his final year but always helped my dad out and ,unlike many of the other older men, was very friendly. My dad recognised him straight away and gave him a wave. Stan waved back to my dad and ( he says) sort of doffed his flat cap then carried on his way. My dad told the other men in the van that he'd just seen Stan but they said they'd not noticed him.

A few days later dad was talking to one of the foremen at work who he knew was friends with Stan. He told this foreman about him seeing Stan who then replied' You cant' have done young' un, he died 6 months ago and I was at his funeral'! My dad asked another man a few days later who also confirmed that Stan had indeed died quite soon after his retirement.

My dad was speechless about this, and sort of still is if you know what I mean. He didnt mention it again at work for fear of some serious mickey taking and even now it's almost as if he's trying to deny what he saw as he's not totally convinced that ghosts exist, but knows for certain that he saw this man who'd apparently been dead for a few months. Dad said he looked just like a normal old man walking down the street. I guess the two men at work could have been pulling his leg, but neither of them mentioned it again plus dad says they were not the type to get involved in pranks. Over the years my dad just put it down to 'one of those things' and didnt give it much thought, however our conversation brought it all back.

I hope you found this interesting, as I say its not much compared with some of the experiences that people have shared, but its one of those things that will probably always remain a mystery!

Cheers
DwainP
 
What a great story :D Thanks for sharing it.

Oh and...Welcome!
 
A nice account there, but is it possible it could just have been someone who looked like him? Sometimes when you mistake a strange for someone you know, they say hello back anyway.
 
Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your responses and for welcoming me to the forum!

Regarding the possibility that it could have been someone else who looked liked Stan, there's every chance that this could be the case and I think that this is how my dad has tried to explain it to himself if that makes sense? However, deep down, dad knows that it was definately him, which is what probably makes him feel a bit unerved by it! He feels as if he should be able to explain it logically as someone who looked very much like Stan but in reality he knows that this wasn't the case!

Cheers
DwainP
 
ghost on main street

this is an interesting post, and parallels an experience my mom had. she used to go into the little local town every saturday to the hairdressers. most times my dad drove her and picked her up. once after this weekly trip she told me she had seen an old friend in town, walking down the sidewalk, and something about his appearance and behavior had caught her attention and she couldn't shake it. he hadn't seemed well, she thought he really looked sick. he hadn't noticed her, just walked by. later she found out he had died months before. she was always an intuitive woman, although she never gave much credit to her insights or intuitions. he had seemed real, solid, but she felt he was "wandering." she came to believe she had seen a ghost.
i've always wondered if he had been visible to others, or if it was just my mom who saw him.
 
This is one of those types of experiences that people will sometimes share after making it clear that they most certainly don't believe in that sort of thing.

Seeing and greeting someone you know who, you find out later, was dead at the time: what a magnificent shock to the system. :cool:
 
Thanks for bumping this up! I’m amazed that it’s 11 years since I shared it!! I spoke to my Dad about this story again earlier today to see if his memory of the event had changed at all. It hasn’t. He shared it with me again pretty much how I shared it on here 11 years ago! He still insists that the chap he saw was Stan!
 
Dwain Pipe said:
Thanks for bumping this up! I’m amazed that it’s 11 years since I shared it!! I spoke to my Dad about this story again earlier today to see if his memory of the event had changed at all. It hasn’t. He shared it with me again pretty much how I shared it on here 11 years ago! He still insists that the chap he saw was Stan!
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This is just the sort of story I like most.
A spooky occurrence, a reliable witness who sticks to their guns over what they saw, a sky-high WTF factor. :cool:
 
Dwain Pipe said:
Thanks for bumping this up! I’m amazed that it’s 11 years since I shared it!! I spoke to my Dad about this story again earlier today to see if his memory of the event had changed at all. It hasn’t. He shared it with me again pretty much how I shared it on here 11 years ago! He still insists that the chap he saw was Stan!
Click to expand...

this is FAB! :twothumbs:
 
My Dad came from the town of Urlingford Co. Kilkenny and left there when he was 14, so a little after the Second World War.
The main Dublin to Cork Road used to run through Urlingford which is nearly smack in the centre between the two cities, and in my Dads day it was a relatively small town. To the day he died he swore that you would often pass someone on the street in this small town and wish them a good morning or good day, only to realise quite quickly they had died and been buried weeks, or sometimes day before.

I expect you had to be in the right frame of mind to see them, as Dad said you only realised after saying hello that they were deceased, you never realised they were gone before greeting them. I suppose you would need to be zoned out?
IMG_1582.jpeg
 
Tempest63 said:
My Dad came from the town of Urlingford Co. Kilkenny and left there when he was 14, so a little after the Second World War.
The main Dublin to Cork Road used to run through Urlingford which is nearly smack in the centre between the two cities, and in my Dads day it was a relatively small town. To the day he died he swore that you would often pass someone on the street in this small town and wish them a good morning or good day, only to realise quite quickly they had died and been buried weeks, or sometimes day before.

I expect you had to be in the right frame of mind to see them, as Dad said you only realised after saying hello that they were deceased, you never realised they were gone before greeting them. I suppose you would need to be zoned out?View attachment 88329
Click to expand...
:nods: A Stephen King story just WAITING to be written if ever I heard one.
 
This reminded me of a similar but didn't happen to me incident.

I worked witha guy, call him Ted who's main job was driving larger vehicles. He was a nice guy and I saw him and his Mrs sometimes outside of work as she worked in a local garden centre. Ted developed a heart condition and was given early retirement.

A year or so later I was at a garden show with Mrs T, very crowded. We were sardining our way down an aisle when I spotted Ted on one of the stalls, I called to Mrs T and elbowed my way to Ted and we had a quick "How are you, etc." conversation. He was sitting at the stall while his wife got a coffee. I was calling to Mrs T but she hadn't heard me and was vanishing in the mob. Ted said something like "You'd better catch her up it's chaos here, give my best to x and x at work" and we said goodbye.

It was only the next day when I thought that nobody had seen me talking to Ted and when I went to pass his greeting on to his former work mates a little part of me was wondering whether one of them would say; "But Ted died six months ago." Thankfully they said ; "Oh yes he was being dragged to that show with his Mrs"!

I was pleased for Ted but, bugger, another non fortean event.
 
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