All Those Who Live Alone

[Kathyw]

I have lived alone when I was younger and the only times I was not afraid late at night was when I had my niece staying or one of my friends children.

The rest of the time - although I loved living alone - I dreaded the night time. when it was time for bed I would double checked everything and then lay there terrified by every noise.

Part of the reason was before losing my hearing totally in my left ear, I slept very deeply and it would be hard to wake me up so once I wa alseep I wouldn't hear anyone breaking in.

A factory blew up a mile from where I live with my parents and my bedroom window blew in, glass covered my bed and as it was raining the bed and my face was wet yet when Mum came up to see if I was alright, I was snoring my head off.

 

When Grip started to lose her hearing I made Ray put a bolt on the bedroom door. I was so afraid someone would get in and Grip wouldn't hear them and warn us, even though before he became sick Ray could have a row and feared no-one.

I have never slept with the bedroom door open - my Mum did and it amazed me.

 

Once Ray started to be in hospital regularly I gradually got used to it and exccept for the moron terrorising us, I was ok.

 

Most of my friends who have lived alone are not like that and never thought of it as scary.

 

Many of you live alone - do you worry about it?

[celeste]

I don't live alone but since Ed's started his new job he works away quite a bit for a week at a time, and I love it , not scared or nuffink, I do live in a wee village so perhaps thats why, I never lock the doors and have a lot of the windows open, mainly so I can hear the owls hooting.

[Helly]

Ive lived alone in various places for the last 10 years. the last 6 hav been in this place. spooky, very old, creaks and bumps in the night (thats the house not me). Im aware of things like security lights going on when the foxes come out to play but otherwise i enjoy the peace and quiet and lack of company.

 

my bedroom door is wedged opne coz its accutely balanced on one hinge, but then upstairs here is effectively the rafters so the walls and door frame of my room dont go all the way to the ceiling anyway.

 

I have no doubts my rotties would make a commotion if anyone came in, but they have learned to ignore the milkman at 6am and the wild life through the night. I have a baseball bat under my bed though and wouldnt be waiting for them to protect me

[snow]

I have spent a fair bit of the past 4 months on my own here at night - I have to say I am very compulsive about making sure that before I need to put the lights on in the house at night my curtains must be closed with no gaps in them. I just feel more secure knowing no one outside can see in and know that I'm on my own.

 

I've had one or two spooky moments in the garden late at night giving Nog his last wee - mainly because of Nog fixating on something in the tree at the end of the garden - it's either a squirrel cos I've seen one run up it many times, or it's an owl cos I've heard one in there at night - or maybe even a cat - but Nog will become transfixed by the tree which is big and imposing and looms over me at night and he will stand on the path just staring at the tree and not move an inch - when he does wee he will continuously look up over his shoulder into the tree making me convinced that there IS something there and that doesn't half freak me out some nights.

 

Despite not being a dog who makes much noise and is more often than not a big wuss Nog is very protective of me and there have been 2 occasions when I've been here on my own when he has barked - this is such a rare event I know there really is something that he doesn't like the sound of - so when thats happened I have been on edge.

 

I do use the safety chain on the front door in the evening if I need to open it for any reason, which I don't use when Nick or hubby are here.

 

I've also taken to encouraging Nog to sleep on the bed with me at night - tho thats more down to needing the body warmth LOL but I do sleep sounder when he's on the bed next to me than I do if he's in his bed on the floor at the end of the bed.

[celeste]

I've had one or two spooky moments in the garden late at night giving Nog his last wee - mainly because of Nog fixating on something in the tree at the end of the garden - it's either a squirrel cos I've seen one run up it many times, or it's an owl cos I've heard one in there at night - or maybe even a cat - but Nog will become transfixed by the tree which is big and imposing and looms over me at night and he will stand on the path just staring at the tree and not move an inch - when he does wee he will continuously look up over his shoulder into the tree making me convinced that there IS something there and that doesn't half freak me out some nights.

 

Oh great, now she's given us all the willies

[Helly]

Oh great, now she's given us all the willies

 

thats one thing that those of us living alone probably dont get

[Phoenyx]

Oh great, now she's given us all the willies

 

Yep, me too

 

We do have a spooky thing at the bottom of the garden though. If I have to check on the Refuge lot late at night it sometimes creeps up and scares the cr*p out of me

 

I enjoyed living alone but when Steve's away I do prefer having the hounds here, they'd all kick off if something was happening.

 

thats one thing that those of us living alone probably dont get

 

[greyhound pal]

I live alone - well apart from 5 hounds and cat and two kids and occasionally OH stays over. But even when they're not here and OH is at his own place, I never get scared. In fact there is occasions where I forget to lock my front door before bed. I'm not sure why given I live in a house built in the 1700's and I suppose its a bit spooky. I suspect I feel safe because I'm in the centre of a small town and live over from a taxi office where they come and go all night (and I know they watch out for me). If I was in the middle of nowhere I think that would worry me more but even walking at night, I get more spooked from the thought of dead people than alive ones

 

But I might just be weird

Edited August 21, 2008 by greyhound pal

[Kathyw]

I am a natural scardy cat when it's dark.

 

Once when my Dad was in hospital I had been out for the evening and when I came home in the early hours, the house was in darkness.

As I went up the stairs I called out to Mum and just heard a grunt - I thought tht could have been anyone. I flew in my bedroom and dragged a chest of drawers in front of the door and laid there for a long time terrified.

In the morning Mum went potty trying to get in to wake me for work.

 

The best time of living alone was when I worked shifts one winter in a telex bureau, I loved the 10 - 6am shift.

Dad dropped me at work and I came home on buses filled with cleaners and went to bed safe with daylight flooding the bedroom.

It did play havoc with my social life but at least I slept well.

[greyhound pal]

 

Funny thing is Kathy is although I never get scared being alone, thats only with the lights on. I have to sleep with the light on. I just can't sleep in darkness cos I see shadows and my imagination normally turns it into a ghost who's coming to get me Makes me wonder how I'd cope if I was alone and there was a powercut

[cycas]

Mark is away on business quite often, and it doesn't bother me at all. I consider myself one of the scarier things that might be lurking *out there*

[Maria]

I've never lived on my own, and hate being the only human in the house. My fear mainly comes from a childhood experience where my Dad was working away and my Mum was convinced that someone had broken in downstairs - I'll never forget the pure fear in her that night as she herded us all into her bedroom and all of us crying.

The first time I spent a night alone I actually barricaded myself in the bedroom, wedging a chair under the door handle, and then other obstacles beyond that, so it couldn't be opened without my knowledge. When asleep, I sleep very, very deeply, I can sleep through loud alarms, teasmaids etc, and OH can come home late, have a shower in our ensuite, and generally make a lot of noise and I sleep through it all. I now have to have a lock on the bedroom door. I've found having dogs is worse, as they hear things we don't.

When I used to have to stay away for work I insisted in a hotel room at least one floor up - one time they only had a ground floor room, and when I checked in they couldn't find the key so gave me a duplicate. It was only later I pondered who might have the real key and again a chair was wedged under the door that night, and I wouldn't open the window either so it was very hot.

I can't get to sleep when alone without a light on and the noise of a TV blocking out the darkness and sounds of creaking stairs etc. In our last house when alone I had a dream that someone was coming up the stairs - I sat up and stared at the door handle which was being turned! I froze in fear,and then really woke up, sat up and stared at the door.....but before I could settle I had to go and open the door to make sure no-one was there. It was after that that locks went on the bedroom door.

[celeste]

thats one thing that those of us living alone probably dont get

 

, only on the Refuge

 

My friend tells a really scary story about when she and her son were babysitting for a mutual friend, the house is an old three story georgian pile in a posh part of Edinburgh, it has two living rooms one on top of another, Susan and Chris (her, then 14yr old son) were in the downstairs livingroom, it was about ten at night and all was quiet, baby was in his bawbaw, and they were watching the telly, when.................creeeeak..........they heard a noise upstairs, they put the sound down on the telly, and then they heard, the very definate, tread, of someone walking across the floor of the upstairs livingroom, the steps walked along the floor to where the window would be, paused, then walked back again. Susan, being the brave selfless soul she is, was too scared to even go and check on the baby, who was on the same floor as the haunted livingroom

[mooandboo]

I've sort of lived alone for the last 6 years with OH working away Mon-Fri. In this house I love it, especially with the dogs but the last house was haunted and I slept for no more than three hours a night, only when exhausted and usually after sitting terrified in the dark with mobile in hand wondering whether there actually was someone in the room (I heard them come up the stairs and felt a presence in the room almost every night) and if I should phone the Police - 18 months of that was enough

 

I always double, sometimes triple check doors, windows etc and unplug everything (double check that too ) but I've done that since I can remember whether living alone or not.

 

No willies for me thanks - there are too many in this house already

[Kathyw]

Ray was working on the Ruth Rendells and was in Southampton he was working ghosters.

Friday afternoon he phoned and said that they would be wrapping at around midnight but he wouldnt drive home until the morning - he would have a sleep and then start for home as dawn came up.

 

I went to bed and had Grip and Raffles on the bed with me (never allowed that normally) I went to bed around midnight and laid there terrified.

I started to doze off when I felt Grip stiffen, I tensed, Grip sat up. I froze with terror. Grip started a growl low in her throat.

I was beside myself with fear.

Grip jumped off the bed and went to the door growling - she started to sniff under the door and her tail started to wag and then she started barking. Daddy was home. I said he was very lucky just turning up like that I did have a basebal bat by the side of the bed.

 

Raffles snored through my terror at the foot of the bed but when Grip started barking, he woke up and went round in circles barking at he knew not what.

 

My fear I think started with a teacher telling us a ghost story from the civil war, I was scared and Dad had to check my room for ghosts for me. Once I was in bed and parents were downstairs my brother was making ghost noises to scare me.

Edited August 21, 2008 by Kathyw