The Merry Maid
Report compiled by Joe Riley.
One of our most amazing ghost stories – and one which is still happening – comes from a couple in Liverpool 13. They ask for their names to be withheld, because they may wish to sell their house in the future, and don’t want to put people off. It’s the story of a ghost whom they have named Rebecca and who seems to be responding to their friendliness. But it all started rather alarmingly for our story-tellers, who we shall call Mr and Mrs X.
They were delighted with their big old house having moved into it from a run-down council estate. They particularly loved the open fire in the lounge. “During the winter of 1982, I was up early one morning and after getting the children off to school, I went into the lounge to light the fire,” says Mrs X. After trying for at least half-an-hour, I couldn’t get it to light. I went into the kitchen, put on the kettle, but when I returned to the lounge for my cigarettes, the fire was glowing red. Just then, my wall lights flickered on and off four or five times. I was truly shocked.”
She told her husband, who then admitted that he had experienced some strange happenings. “One morning when he returned from shift work at 5 a.m., he had heard tappings on the kitchen window. He looked out, but could see nothing. This happened three times. Another morning, the ssame tappings, but this time tiny boot prints were visible on some freshly fallen snow. However, all the entrances into the garden were locked and secured. Another time he heard tappings on the bathroom window. And he, too, had experienced the lights going on and off. Even the loo had flushed by itself.”
Mrs X did some research and found that in the 1920s, the housemaid of a family of shipowners had died in the house. “Now we know it is the maid. In fact, she is letting us feel her presence much more often. We have never seen her, but hopefully, we will soon. I have spoken to her and have heard her laugh – a very happy laugh, I might add,” says Mrs X.
Her daughter has even heard a lady laughing in the kitchen, as has her son-in-law. “We have called her Rebecca and now I would miss her if she decided to leave here. She seems a very happy person or ghost and her happiness seems to reflect on all my family.”
Liverpool Echo, 29th January 1985.