LOVE at first FIGHT!
A debate about ghosts on Facebook made me change my status from single. By Sallyann Hunt, 57
We all know arguing with strangers on the internet rarely ends well! But when I read a question about ‘communicating with ghosts’ from a paranormal investigator on a Facebook page, I couldn’t help but bite.
‘There’s a big difference between ghosts and spirits…’ I typed.
I knew what I was talking about, because for as long as I can remember I’ve seen Spirit, mainly in animal form – wolf cubs padding across my kitchen, dogs and cats manifesting in my bedroom, even the odd sheep in my school corridor!
Mum and Nan were regulars at our local Spiritualist church and often talked openly about the afterlife, so I assumed most people saw the things I did.
After school I fell pregnant, having my son, Daniel, at 18. Daniel’s dad didn’t believe in anything spooky, so I learnt to keep what I saw to myself. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-forties things came to a head, when one of Daniel’s friends was murdered.
Around the same time my dad had a triple heart bypass.
It was a stressful time, and suddenly I felt spirit everywhere. I wondered if I was losing my mind, but Mum explained I was a fourth-generation psychic and ‘the gift’ was likely in my genes.
I started going to the same Spiritualist church she and my nan had. I realised most people didn’t see spirit animals, and some of them were people who’d passed, taking a form they knew I’d be comfortable with as an animal lover.
A few years later, my relationship with Daniel’s dad ended. Now, in 2013, a couple of years on, I had no interest in meeting anyone else. Back on the Facebook page, I’d soon had a response to my comment from Bob Hunt, the paranormal investigator who’d originally posted the question.
Before I knew it we were deep into a debate. It turned out Bob was interesting, funny and open minded – and only lived a few miles away, so we met up.
A few weeks later Bob invited me on a paranormal investigation to the Priest’s House Museum in Wimbourne, Dorset and, before long, we’d started our own group, Keep It Real Spiritual and
Paranormal Events. We moved in together at the same time.
After six years together, in June 2019, we married in a field in the New Forest. I wore a black dress and arrived by horse and cart. We had a drumming Shaman and planted a tree to mark our wedding.
Despite our initial clash on Facebook, I now know paranormal investigators and traditional mediums can get along just fine!