for REAL LIFE
Setting up her business led Carolyn Creel to embrace the apparitions she was seeing, and bring comfort to others…
Rubber gloves at the ready, I got to work cleaning the office in Leeds. I was making my way around, when I noticed a woman still working at her desk. I did a double take as I spotted an old lady standing next to her, lovingly stroking her hair. I swallowed hard.
Even though I was pretty used to seeing spirits by now, it always took me a back.
I didn’t know what to do. Should I tell the woman and risk sounding bonkers? Or keep my mouth shut? Suddenly, I had a strong feeling that I needed to speak up…
‘This is going to sound weird, but there’s an elderly lady standing behind you, stroking your hair,’ I said. ‘She’s tall with glasses, grey hair, carrying a walking stick and is wearing an overall.’
The woman looked up at me with sadness in her eyes. ‘You’ve just described my grandma, she died a week ago.’
I really felt for her. ‘She wants to let you know that she’s okay,’ I said gently, and I could see relief wash over her face.
Since childhood, I’d been able to see, hear, and sense spirits. It came so naturally to me that I assumed everyone could do it. My grandad died when I was 15, and not long after he appeared to me one night at the foot of my bed.
‘We didn’t know where you’d gone,’ I said sleepily. ‘Let me get Dad.’
‘Just tell him I’m okay,’ he replied, and then disappeared.
My parents were open to the idea of life after death, so they didn’t think it was strange when I passed on Grandpa’s message. It brought them comfort.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned
‘We all have natural psychic abilities, anyone can develop their intuition. Declutter and cleanse your living space, too – you never know what it might start...’
As I grew up, I switched off from otherworldly things. Life happened, I got married and had my daughter, Chloe, now 29.
In my late 30s, my marriage ended. I’d been working for a national cleaning company as an area manager – and my boss, Adam, and I decided to set up on our own. The early days were tough, I was getting to grips with life as a single mum, and we were doing the cleaning ourselves because we didn’t have any staff then. During that very challenging time, my intuition seemed to grow stronger.
I’d sense if something wasn’t right with a client. Once we turned up to clean an office and I had a strange feeling wash over me.
‘They’re not going to pay us, we need to get out of here now,’ I said to Adam.
So, we did. The next day the company went bust a
