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The Grandfather Clock

So frequent are cases of timepieces that seem to have a special significance with respect to the deaths of their owners that they are often known as ‘stopping-clock’ hauntings. And so it is appropriate to include at least one in this collection. However, this particular case is a little different since it involves not just a ‘stopping’ but also a ‘starting’ clock.

Stephen lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada and for as long as anyone could remember had made a special effort to maintain the grandfather clock in the house. Every Saturday afternoon he would clean and lubricate the mechanism of the clock and ensure that it was properly wound every evening, claiming that such loving care would maintain its accuracy. Stephen died at the age of 72 and the grandfather clock stopped at exactly the same moment; the hands were fixed at the time of his death and refused to move.

The family decided that it would be somehow inappropriate to have the clock fixed and they left it as it was as a tribute to Stephen. Stephen left no son and there were no grandsons either which was unfortunate since traditionally the male line would have inherited the clock. Stephen’s wife Molly decided to keep the clock since there was no obvious person to pass it on to and, in any case, it gave her a feeling of her husband’s presence around her which she did not want to change. Approximately a year after Stephen’s death Molly was shocked to discover that the grandfather clock was now ticking; it appears that it had started when the house was empty and indeed on inspection the hands had moved just ten minutes from the position that they had been fixed in for so many months.

Molly and her neighbour Frank sat down to discuss the mystery of the starting clock. The telephone rang and the husband of Molly’s youngest daughter, Lori, told them that Lori had given birth to a son just fifteen minutes previously. Molly and Frank both checked the clock and discovered that since it had started fifteen minutes had elapsed. It appeared that the clock had started working by itself at the exact moment of the first male heir’s birth.

Perhaps those investigators with an inclination towards a belief in reincarnation will be keeping a close eye on the characteristics of Stephen’s grandson as he grows older. Northampton | South London | Surrey | USA | USA | USA |