82. A Christmas Ghost Story: Curse of the Nurse!
One night in 1943, the air raids had been particularly severe over London, and so the following day it wasn't unusual for workman Charles Bide to be sent off to various crumbling and damaged abodes to retrieve furniture that had survived the blitz. On this occasion his boss sent him to St Thomas's Hospital.
Upon arrival on this rather cold day he noticed that inside the building there seemed an unnatural coldness, although he thought nothing more of it and made his way through the rooms in search of furniture to secure. Only the sound of his own footsteps echoed throughout the building and when he reached the top floor freezing spots of cold seemed to appear. It was then that he glimpsed the mirror...
It had been undamaged by the raids and as he approached he was terrified to see that in the reflection a figure resembling a female nurse, but adorned in Victorian clothing, was standing directly behind him. The face of the woman was one of turmoil – a grim expression which held Charles transfixed until he shook himself away from the ashen glare.
Mr Bide scampered out of the building. He spoke of his encounter with a doctor but due to the pressures of the time, there was no time for such people to converse about ghosts. However it is alleged that for a few years after Charles' experience, many others did indeed come forward to report the phantom, but none of their confrontations were as chilling as Mr Bide's.
Photo by mark cummins on flickr
