Hi. I'm the wife of a squaddie and with our regt. busy training for deployment to Afghanistan again next year, I thought I would write about something that happened the last time the regt. were away for 6 months (with a little bit of lead-up).
We moved into this house, along with my then 12 year old daughter, back in Dec 2009, just a short while after our marriage. It's a 3 bedroomed married quarter, on an Army base in the north of England. As is usually the case with 3 bedroomed houses in England, the 3rd bedroom is more of a glorified cupboard, with room only for a single bed and a bedside table.
From the first night we spent here, the door of this small, unused back bedroom would open sometime in the night. I was having a bout of insomnia at the time and would often be awake until 4am-ish. I would come upstairs to go to bed and this bedroom door would be open and, with a huff, I would close the door. It used to annoy me that it was open for three reasons - 1) The room was always really cold, 2) I just didn't like the room, for no good reason and 3) I was always telling the other half and my daughter to keep the bloody door closed to keep the cold out.
I would slip quietly into bed beside my husband and try (in vain) to get to sleep. After an hour or so, you can guarantee I would have to get up for the loo (I have a serious tea habit). I would leave the bedroom to find that the back bedroom door was open again. I always had the stupid feeling that someone within the bedroom was watching me from the gap. Btw, this door doesn't fit properly in the doorframe and whether you want to open or close it, you really have to pull/push and it makes a noise like a muffled fart
I would never hear my daughter come out of her room (it was perfectly obvious when she did) and my husband had never moved from beside me. Yet this door had opened.
This went on for night after night after night. I asked my hubby and child if they kept opening the bedroom door (even though I knew they hadn't) and they of course said they didn't.
After we had been here for around a month (January 2010) my eldest daughter wanted to come and stay for the weekend. So I asked my husband to stash away all his kit he had thrown on the bed in the back bedroom and we did the room up a little, made it nice. After this, the door stopped opening by itself. Eldest child came to stay and decided she liked it so much, she was going to move back in with Mum and never left.
Fast forward to the end of March 2010, my husband leaves for Afghan with his regt. I was very upset and scared for what might happen to him and his colleagues for the whole 6 months he was away. The first night my husband was gone, my eldest daughter asked if she could start sleeping with me, saying that she had never really liked the back room much, that it was always cold (even with the radiator on). She also said that sometimes when she had been out of the room and went back in, she felt as though she had disturbed someone. She started sleeping with me and, lo and behold, we started to get the old familiar trick of the back bedroom door opening by itself every night.
Just over a month after our regt. had left, we got news that one of ours had been killed. We had no idea who it was and there were a couple of painful hours where we wives waited for a knock on our doors. It wasn't for me this time but I did get very upset when I found out who we had lost. I cried a lot that night and my eldest girl tried to cheer me up with a DVD night in bed. We were sat in bed at around 3.30am when we both heard the door of the back bedroom open (I had NEVER actually heard it opening by itself before). We looked at each other wide-eyed and then we heard footsteps come across the landing and stop outside our bedroom door. We only had our door open a little way so we wouldn't have been able to see who or what was out there anyway. Then, the footsteps backtracked a little and we heard them going down the stairs. We both heard the click of the kitchen light followed by what sounded like general kitchen-type activity.
By now, we were both almost wearing brown underwear and there followed something of a comedy. I grabbed my air-rifle from beside the bed and my daughter grabbed her hair straighteners (evidently she was planning on giving our intruder some serious haircare). I nudged the door to my youngest child's room enough to see her lying fast asleep in her bed as the 'activity' noises continued in the kitchen. We went down the stairs, me and the rifle first, daughter and high quality ceramic styling appliance very close behind. I looked over the bannister and could see that the kitchen light was not on at all. The sounds stopped. I came down, reached to the kitchen light switch, turned it on and saw...nothing, just the kitchen. So we went into Cagney and Lacey mode, throwing open doors and brandishing our respective weapons around corners, behind doors. Nothing. Boy, did we feel just a little bit silly.
We went back to our bedroom and soon after we had resumed watching our DVD, the noises started up again downstairs. This time, we just turned the film up a little, shrugged and ignored it. This became a nightly pattern, the back bedroom door opening, the footsteps always stopping outside our door for a moment and then continuing down the stairs, the kitchen light switch clicking and the general sounds of activity. I have absolutely no idea why because I never actually saw anyone but I developed a firm idea of who this was. I just had a picture of an RAF man firmly planted in my head. A tall gentleman, early 30's, kindly face. I asked my eldest daughter if she had ever seen our visitor. She said she hadn't but that she sometimes thought he was a man in a blue uniform.
My husband came home on 2 weeks leave in August 2010 and it wasn't until after he went back to Afghan (and after my eldest daughter resumed sleeping with me) that I realised I had not heard anything of our visitor nor had I seen the back bedroom door open in the middle of the night whilst he was home. It was business as usual with him though after leave had ended. My husband eventually finished his tour and the first night he was home with us again was when our RAF man once again fell quiet.
Earlier this year, I discussed it with my eldest and we came to the consensus that he was somehow watching over us, keeping us company, letting us know that a man was here while my husband was away. It's a nice thought anyway, even if it is completely wrong. My youngest daughter sleeps like the dead and has never complained of hearing anything, though she says she finds the back bedroom "creepy".
For the last month and a half, my husband has been away training for his next deployment to Afghan and has also been away on a course for promotion and I have hardly seen him. My eldest child moved out into her own place in June and my youngest daughter (now 14) has become a social butterfly and is hardly ever home, staying often for days at a time at friend's houses. I have been feeling quite dejected and more than a little lonely.
Last week, my husband had been gone for 3 weeks and my daughter had spent 5 nights in a row at her best friends house. I was in the kitchen, letting my dinner cook and having a rather one-sided conversation with my dog. Rudely and rather abruptly, my dog bolted into the hallway and up the stairs, making a whining sound as he went. I said, out loud "Well that's bloody charming! Not even you can be arsed with your Mother".
I was answered by a nice smiley but masculine laugh, right there in the kitchen with me. I had a little ironic laugh through gritted teeth (whilst demonstrating my best Action Man swivel eyes) and then hastily busied myself with inane Facebook stuff.
Recently, the back bedroom door has been opening at night
Well, that was long and I'm sorry if I bored you. Typing it distracted me for a little while anyway. Oh, I forgot to say...it turns out that this used to be an RAF base before the Army took it over (not sure when).
We moved into this house, along with my then 12 year old daughter, back in Dec 2009, just a short while after our marriage. It's a 3 bedroomed married quarter, on an Army base in the north of England. As is usually the case with 3 bedroomed houses in England, the 3rd bedroom is more of a glorified cupboard, with room only for a single bed and a bedside table.
From the first night we spent here, the door of this small, unused back bedroom would open sometime in the night. I was having a bout of insomnia at the time and would often be awake until 4am-ish. I would come upstairs to go to bed and this bedroom door would be open and, with a huff, I would close the door. It used to annoy me that it was open for three reasons - 1) The room was always really cold, 2) I just didn't like the room, for no good reason and 3) I was always telling the other half and my daughter to keep the bloody door closed to keep the cold out.
I would slip quietly into bed beside my husband and try (in vain) to get to sleep. After an hour or so, you can guarantee I would have to get up for the loo (I have a serious tea habit). I would leave the bedroom to find that the back bedroom door was open again. I always had the stupid feeling that someone within the bedroom was watching me from the gap. Btw, this door doesn't fit properly in the doorframe and whether you want to open or close it, you really have to pull/push and it makes a noise like a muffled fart
I would never hear my daughter come out of her room (it was perfectly obvious when she did) and my husband had never moved from beside me. Yet this door had opened. This went on for night after night after night. I asked my hubby and child if they kept opening the bedroom door (even though I knew they hadn't) and they of course said they didn't.
After we had been here for around a month (January 2010) my eldest daughter wanted to come and stay for the weekend. So I asked my husband to stash away all his kit he had thrown on the bed in the back bedroom and we did the room up a little, made it nice. After this, the door stopped opening by itself. Eldest child came to stay and decided she liked it so much, she was going to move back in with Mum and never left.
Fast forward to the end of March 2010, my husband leaves for Afghan with his regt. I was very upset and scared for what might happen to him and his colleagues for the whole 6 months he was away. The first night my husband was gone, my eldest daughter asked if she could start sleeping with me, saying that she had never really liked the back room much, that it was always cold (even with the radiator on). She also said that sometimes when she had been out of the room and went back in, she felt as though she had disturbed someone. She started sleeping with me and, lo and behold, we started to get the old familiar trick of the back bedroom door opening by itself every night.
Just over a month after our regt. had left, we got news that one of ours had been killed. We had no idea who it was and there were a couple of painful hours where we wives waited for a knock on our doors. It wasn't for me this time but I did get very upset when I found out who we had lost. I cried a lot that night and my eldest girl tried to cheer me up with a DVD night in bed. We were sat in bed at around 3.30am when we both heard the door of the back bedroom open (I had NEVER actually heard it opening by itself before). We looked at each other wide-eyed and then we heard footsteps come across the landing and stop outside our bedroom door. We only had our door open a little way so we wouldn't have been able to see who or what was out there anyway. Then, the footsteps backtracked a little and we heard them going down the stairs. We both heard the click of the kitchen light followed by what sounded like general kitchen-type activity.
By now, we were both almost wearing brown underwear and there followed something of a comedy. I grabbed my air-rifle from beside the bed and my daughter grabbed her hair straighteners (evidently she was planning on giving our intruder some serious haircare). I nudged the door to my youngest child's room enough to see her lying fast asleep in her bed as the 'activity' noises continued in the kitchen. We went down the stairs, me and the rifle first, daughter and high quality ceramic styling appliance very close behind. I looked over the bannister and could see that the kitchen light was not on at all. The sounds stopped. I came down, reached to the kitchen light switch, turned it on and saw...nothing, just the kitchen. So we went into Cagney and Lacey mode, throwing open doors and brandishing our respective weapons around corners, behind doors. Nothing. Boy, did we feel just a little bit silly.
We went back to our bedroom and soon after we had resumed watching our DVD, the noises started up again downstairs. This time, we just turned the film up a little, shrugged and ignored it. This became a nightly pattern, the back bedroom door opening, the footsteps always stopping outside our door for a moment and then continuing down the stairs, the kitchen light switch clicking and the general sounds of activity. I have absolutely no idea why because I never actually saw anyone but I developed a firm idea of who this was. I just had a picture of an RAF man firmly planted in my head. A tall gentleman, early 30's, kindly face. I asked my eldest daughter if she had ever seen our visitor. She said she hadn't but that she sometimes thought he was a man in a blue uniform.
My husband came home on 2 weeks leave in August 2010 and it wasn't until after he went back to Afghan (and after my eldest daughter resumed sleeping with me) that I realised I had not heard anything of our visitor nor had I seen the back bedroom door open in the middle of the night whilst he was home. It was business as usual with him though after leave had ended. My husband eventually finished his tour and the first night he was home with us again was when our RAF man once again fell quiet.
Earlier this year, I discussed it with my eldest and we came to the consensus that he was somehow watching over us, keeping us company, letting us know that a man was here while my husband was away. It's a nice thought anyway, even if it is completely wrong. My youngest daughter sleeps like the dead and has never complained of hearing anything, though she says she finds the back bedroom "creepy".
For the last month and a half, my husband has been away training for his next deployment to Afghan and has also been away on a course for promotion and I have hardly seen him. My eldest child moved out into her own place in June and my youngest daughter (now 14) has become a social butterfly and is hardly ever home, staying often for days at a time at friend's houses. I have been feeling quite dejected and more than a little lonely.
Last week, my husband had been gone for 3 weeks and my daughter had spent 5 nights in a row at her best friends house. I was in the kitchen, letting my dinner cook and having a rather one-sided conversation with my dog. Rudely and rather abruptly, my dog bolted into the hallway and up the stairs, making a whining sound as he went. I said, out loud "Well that's bloody charming! Not even you can be arsed with your Mother".
I was answered by a nice smiley but masculine laugh, right there in the kitchen with me. I had a little ironic laugh through gritted teeth (whilst demonstrating my best Action Man swivel eyes) and then hastily busied myself with inane Facebook stuff.
Recently, the back bedroom door has been opening at night
Well, that was long and I'm sorry if I bored you. Typing it distracted me for a little while anyway. Oh, I forgot to say...it turns out that this used to be an RAF base before the Army took it over (not sure when).
