My Journey with Spiritualism – Part 2.
Of course there was nothing Evil about what my Grandmother believed or how she practiced it. Over the next 2 years she talked at great length to us about it and gave us examples of what she could do and showed us how she used her gifts. She answered a lot of questions for us and told us many stories about her experiences, we also saw her work. She talked about the people she knew in Spiritualism, Mediums like Doris Stokes and Jessie Nassen she knew well. Each Summer she spent a week at the Arthur Findlay College, Stansted Hall. Persuading her to talk to us was the best thing ever, we learnt so much from her, she was a well respected Medium throughout Essex and East London, and had actually served Thundersley Christian Spiritualist Church when it was a wooden building further down the hill from where it is now. I also learnt that my Grandmother was also a well known Spiritual Healer and had shared the platform at The Royal Festival Hall, London with the Healer Harry Edwards. There is now a Healing Sanctuary near Guildford in Surrey to his memory, I really would like to visit that some time.
So nothing to be afraid of, quite to the contrary, so why would my Parents want to keep this from me, when my Grandmother was such a loving and caring Lady, who loved me very much and would never have done anything to harm me? Maybe it was my Parents who feared it, brought about by ignorance of the facts. Unfortunately my Grandmother Passed to Spirit in September 1970, she had a Spiritualist Funeral and is buried in a Paupers Grave in Manor Park Cemetery, East London. It is unlikely that there is anyone who would remember her now, but in case it does jog a memory with someone or her name crops up in records somewhere, she was Marian Charlotte Jose, but she was always known as Josie, many thought that was her real name.
In 1971, Mavis and I got married and with a new home and later a child to look after, plus work commitments. I didn’t pursue Spiritualism any further for many years, although I did witness things from time to time I couldn’t always explain. In 1996 I had an accident at work and suffered a fractured skull. I was in hospital for several weeks and I knew that I was not recovering at all well and I knew there were doubts as to what extent I might fully recover, if in fact I did recover. I had constant headaches and I was on heavy painkillers, I felt the future wasn’t looking good for me. Then one morning in the early hours, around 2am actually, I awoke in my hospital bed and I felt and saw a ladies hand on my shoulder and I heard my Grandmother’s voice say ‘YOU’LL BE OK NOW’ and in that moment the headaches stopped. Next morning the nurse brought my painkillers and I said to her ‘I don’t need those, my head is fine, the headaches have gone’. The Neuro-Surgeon came to examine me, he stood back, looked at me and said ‘You are nothing short of a miracle, I can’t find anything wrong with you, you can go home and I’ll see you in outpatients in 2 weeks’. Well apart from a slight memory problem which I have learnt to cope with by keeping detailed records and a very good diary, I have suffered no further side effects. When I told Mavis what had happened, she said ‘last night before I left you, I said, come on Nan if ever he needed you it’s now, please help him’. Then Mavis said ‘I’ve got back the man I married and love, I thought I’d lost you forever’. If ever I needed proof of the Afterlife and the existence of Spirit and their ability to contact us and help and heal us, that was it. I remember thinking to myself and yes saying ‘Someone has given me a second chance, I’m not going to waste it, I’m living it to the full and doing all I can to help others’.
Find the rest of Frank’s Journey Here –
