I received this story by mail. It is not first hand and I don’t know the writer – but I thought it was fascinating enough to merit inclusion.

“My grandmother was the daughter of a successful businessman who owned many of the large houses in Pietà. At that time, people used to marry at a much younger age than they do nowadays, at 15 or 16, and though my grandma did not have a fair complexion, nevertheless, she was her father’s ‘blue-eyed baby’.

Her mother, who tried to minimise the sacrifice of being separated from her only daughter, encouraged her (not to say forced her) to occupy one of their large houses, some of which were vacant.

The young couple decided on a large one, if not the largest available, which had a yard and a garden, and in no time they got married. They lived happily in the house and after some 12 or 15 months, their first baby was born.

It was a healthy boy with blue eyes and fair hair, which made them very happy. Grandma’s conversation with whoever she met was always about the ‘baby with the blue eyes’.

Two other young mums had had the same experience in that house

Even the old milkman, with his herd of some 20 goats following him, heard the daily morning bulletin about the baby and the weather day in, day out, as early as 6.30am.

One day grandma experienced the biggest fright of her life: she spotted an extraordinarily large, black snake crawling in the centre of her yard. She was really scared and did not know what to do. Grandpa had just left on foot to go to work in the Grand Harbour area. There were no buses or cars in those days. The milkman was the first caller. Needless to say, the daily greeting was totally different to the normal ones. Very excitedly and at the top of her voice, she told the milkman what she had seen.

But the milkman, in a very low tone, said: “Madam, yesterday you told me that your healthy boy is about three months old. I don’t have the courage to tell you what’s going to happen within three days of the snake’s appearance...” and he quietly walked away.

Exactly three days later, the young healthy baby was a stiff corpse. Unbelievable.

Grandma insisted on going to the funeral and that was the last time she walked down the large doorsteps of her house.

After a time, she came to know that years previously, two other young mums had had the same experience in that house! Who knows if the black snake has ever made a reappearance?

This episode took place around 1870. It was personally recounted to by my grandma before she died in 1932.”

A ghostly parade of souls

Gina was a devout Roman Catholic. Every night before she went to sleep, she knelt by her bed and recited a litany of prayers. But it had been a very busy day and her eyes seemed heavier than normal. Her prayers for the dead trailed off into nothing and she decided to give in to her fatigue.

She had not been asleep for very long when she awoke to find her room flooded with light. She looked at her clock but, no, it was the middle of the night.

And then she heard it. The sound of voices raised in prayer.

A man’s voice would start the prayer and the chant would be taken up by the murmurs of a crowd. The sound seemed to be getting closer and closer.

She got out of bed, pulling a shawl around her shoulders as she shivered, partly from the cold air night, partly from fear. He crept to the window and looked out.

The road was filled with a ghostly parade of souls, all carrying candles. The procession stretched all the way down the road to the Addolorata Cemetery and was moving, slowly, down her road.

Terrified by the chanting spirits, she ran back into her bed, pulling the covers her head: “Dear Lord! Give them eternal rest,” she whispered breathlessly, over and over again.

And all of a sudden, it was dark and silent again.

The souls had been granted another night of peace.

These are the 47th and 48th in a series of short stories The Sunday Times of Malta is running every Sunday. It is taken from The Unexplained Plus (Allied Publications) by Vanessa Macdonald. The first edition was published in 2001 and reprinted twice. It was republished, with added stories, as The Unexplained Plus. The Maltese version of the book, Ta’ Barra Minn Hawn (Klabb Kotba Maltin), is available from all leading bookstores and stationers and from www.bdlbooks.com.