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We're dead happy!

Lianne's family all have a ghostly gift...


Published by: Emma Sheppard
Published on: 7th July 2010

There was a funny ringing noise in my dream… where was it coming from? Oh, hang on… it was my phone! I grabbed it, fighting to open my gritty eyes. It was 3am.
‘Hello?’ I croaked.
‘Mum, it’s me,’ whispered my eldest daughter Stacey, 20.
She’d just moved into her new flat that day, and was spending her first night away from home.
‘What is it, love?’ I yawned.
‘I think the building’s on fire,’ she sobbed. ‘I can see smoke coming under the bedroom door.’
Immediately I was up, heart racing. ‘I’m on my way,’ I told her, pulling on my clothes. ‘Can you get out through the window?’ 
‘Yes, I think so – there’s a wall underneath,’ she stammered.
‘Ok, wait outside, I’m on my way,’ I cried. Racing over, though, the building was deadly still and there was no sign of a fire.
Weirdly, inside the shower was running and thick steam poured out of the bathroom. ‘You just left the shower on!’ I laughed.
‘No, I didn’t – and I didn’t do that, either,’ Stacey said, pointing to a line of paired socks running along the hall wall.
Suddenly, I realised what was happening and burst out laughing.
‘I think you’ve had a spooky visitor,’ I grinned. ‘Looks like a spirit decided to help you out with your washing, that’s all!’
It sounds ridiculous, but things like this happen to my family all the time. Why? Because me and my five children are all psychics.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been able to see spirits.
When I was much younger, my spirit guides said I would meet a wonderful man. ‘His name is Darren,’ they told me.
I never forgot what they said, but it seemed life had chosen a different path for me. I did get married, but his name was Barry.
We had five children together, but our marriage wasn’t a happy one. I never felt I could be myself, and didn’t tell him about my gift. 
It was after we  got divorced that I started using my skill to work as a professional psychic.
I loved it, but it was hard work – I saw spirits all the time.
I’d also realised that my kids shared my gift. In particular, my daughter Alexandria, 13, who ghosts would visit so she could help them to pass over.
Then, four years ago, I met a man in a hotel bar. ‘Hi, I’m Darren,’ he smiled.
No way! That was the name of the man I’d end up with! Panicking, I walked away. I couldn’t handle that sort of commitment.
Darren didn’t give up, though. We kept bumping into each other – those spirits seemed determined to engineer our relationship.
I was performing all over the UK – every bar and hotel I went into, Darren seemed to be there. He travelled with work, too.
Every time we met, he’d ask me out.
Eventually, I gave in. ‘I know better than to argue with the spirits,’ I sighed, before smiling.
‘I just don’t believe in all that,’ he said. But we still went out.
Four months later, he came to dinner to meet the kids. Halfway through, my eldest son Shane, 22, grinned at him. ‘There’s a dead man next to you!’ he blurted out.
The kids all giggled, but you should’ve seen Darren’s face! ‘Prove it,’ he said.
At that, they eagerly started listing people and places from his past that they had no way of knowing about. ‘It’s amazing,’ he gawped.
Rather than being put off, he’s now desperate to be like us. He loves coming to psychic events, and has given up his job in construction to manage me. ‘Can’t you predict the lottery numbers?’ he jokes every week.
Unfortunately not!
Stacey wishes her helpful ghost would do the washing every week, too. But although the spirits have helped me find love, they draw the line at housework!

Lianne Lockyear , 39, Wigan, Manchester