{"id":34485,"date":"2024-04-01T08:58:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T06:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=263109"},"modified":"2024-04-01T10:11:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T08:11:38","slug":"danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Robins\u2019 paranormal cold cases: my best friend\u2019s ghost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rssexcerpt\"> BBC Radio\u2019s Danny Robins speaks to a woman who saw her bedridden best friend appear to her in a park \u2013 at the exact moment that she passed away <\/p><p class=\"rssauthor\">By Danny Robins\n                \t\t<\/p><p class=\"rssbyline\">Published: Monday, 01 April 2024 at 06:58 AM<\/p><hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/><?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body> <p>\u201cDo you believe in ghosts?\u201d I ask. \u201cNo,\u201d comes Laura\u2019s firm and immediate reply. \u201cBut have you seen one?\u201d I press.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd the ghost I think I saw was my friend. My best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People often ask me which of my cases has sent the biggest shiver down my spine. I\u2019ve heard tales of ruined cottages in the Scottish Highlands haunted by violent spirits, and Victorian houses where strange apparitions re-enact bloody murders, but the story that sticks in my head most, the one that can stop me getting to sleep, is Laura\u2019s. It is deceptively simple in comparison and yet, for me, it is utterly chilling.<\/p>\n<p>Laura is in her forties now, but the event in question happened in her late teens. She\u2019d left home young and moved into a shared house full of strangers. One became a friend: Anna, a few years older and full of life and energy, with a Rubenesque figure and striking red frizzy hair that seemed to defy gravity. They became best friends. Sadly, however, Anna developed cancer and Laura faced the heart-breaking prospect that her friend was going to die.<\/p>\n<p>She remembers the last time that she saw Anna (by then, they were living in separate houses). Anna was in bed, unable to get up and heavily sedated on morphine. Her last words to her best friend were: \u201cKeep partying, Laura Bear\u201d, her nickname for Laura.<\/p>\n<h3>Ghosts from grief<\/h3>\n<p>Having said goodbye, an emotional Laura walked home through the park. She reached a hill. \u201cAnd I looked up and Anna was stood on that hill on a pathway near the trees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnna, who you know is ill at home, unable to go out?\u201d I cannot help but interject.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes. You know how you know your loved ones, how they stand, how they walk? Anna didn\u2019t look like anybody else. It was Anna.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I can hear the total conviction in Laura\u2019s voice. When she got home that day, stunned by her strange sighting, her phone rang. It was Anna\u2019s dad calling to let Laura know that Anna had just passed away.<\/p>\n<p>Had Laura witnessed what is often called a \u2018crisis apparition\u2019, the ghost of someone that appears to a loved one at the moment of their death? Paranormal history is littered with such stories, often involving soldiers appearing to their wives or parents at the moment they are killed on a battlefield hundreds of miles away. Or did Laura have a hallucination brought on by her intense grief?<\/p>\n<section class=\"highlight \"> <div class=\"highlight__content editor-content\"> <p><strong>Read other instalments of Danny Robins\u2019 series:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/period\/general-history\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-hmp-shepton-mallet\/\">HMP Shepton Mallet<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/period\/20th-century\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-a-highlands-horror-story\/\">A Highlands horror story<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/period\/20th-century\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-a-walthamstow-folk-demon\/\">A Walthamstow folk demon<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/membership\/paranormal-cold-cases-haunting-behind-the-conjuring-2\/\">The haunting behind <em>The Conjuring 2<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <p>As intriguing as this experience is, it\u2019s only the prelude to the real mystery of this case. Seven years later, Laura has moved on with her life: she has a son, who she\u2019s left with a babysitter so she can enjoy a night out with work colleagues. They go to watch a psychic medium in a local village hall. Laura\u2019s no believer, and even if she was, she thinks this medium is very unimpressive, blustering and guessing throughout the show.<\/p>\n<p>When it\u2019s over, Laura\u2019s friends insist on chatting to the medium. By now, Laura wishes she could escape to the pub, but the medium spots her and says she is glad to have caught Laura before she left. \u201cThere was a woman with red hair here for you,\u201d the medium says. \u201cBut she told me not to reach out to you during the show because you would have rejected it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And then the medium looks straight into Laura\u2019s eyes and tells her the message that this female spirit asked to pass on: \u201cKeep partying, Laura Bear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maybe you can see why this one has never left me and why it can send a shiver down my spine, even now\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>This article was first published in the July 2022 issue of <a href=\"\/bbc-history-revealed-magazine\/\"><em>BBC History Revealed<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<section class=\"highlight \"> <div class=\"highlight__content editor-content\"> <h4>Find out more<\/h4>\n<p>From ghostly phantoms to UFOs, <em>The Battersea Poltergeist\u2019s<\/em> Danny Robins investigates real-life stories of paranormal encounters on his BBC Radio 4 podcast <em>Uncanny<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/brand\/m0010x7c\"><strong>Episodes available now on BBC Sounds<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <div class=\"highlight__image-container\"> <div class=\"highlight__image\"> <div class=\"img-container img-container--highlight-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/Danny-Robins_Image-7-4606383.png?quality=45&amp;resize=556,556\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/Danny-Robins_Image-7-4606383.png?quality=45&amp;resize=820,820 820w, https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/Danny-Robins_Image-7-4606383.png?quality=45&amp;resize=615,615 615w, https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/Danny-Robins_Image-7-4606383.png?quality=45&amp;resize=410,410 410w, https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/10\/Danny-Robins_Image-7-4606383.png?quality=90&amp;resize=205,205 205w, \" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) 615px, (min-width: 768px) 410px, (min-width: 576px) 205px, calc(100vw - 20px)\" width=\"556\" height=\"556\" class=\"img-container__image img-fluid wp-image-189644 alignnone size-highlight_image img-container__image\" alt=\"Danny Robins_Image 7\" title=\"Danny Robins_Image 7\"\/><\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> BBC Radio\u2019s Danny Robins speaks to a woman who saw her bedridden best friend appear to her in a park \u2013 at the exact moment that she passed away <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34486,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/04\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost.jpg",620,412,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/04\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/04\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/04\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost.jpg",620,412,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/04\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost.jpg",620,412,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/04\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost.jpg",620,412,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2024\/04\/danny-robins-paranormal-cold-cases-my-best-friends-ghost.jpg",620,412,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"BBC Radio\u2019s Danny Robins speaks to a woman who saw her bedridden best friend appear to her in a park \u2013 at the exact moment that she passed away","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/34485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}