Ok here it is.......
It was back in the early 1990's (about 93) Xmas day was to arrive with in 30 mins as I walked the 2-3 mile route from my parents house back to my bedsit (thoughs awful bedsit days
) It smelt, was slightly damp and the shared shower room was a breeding room for all diseases known to man kind, not one of my most enjoyable abodes.
I had decided to stay longer than usual with my mum chatting about the follow days events and arranging the best time to arrive, open my presents and eat my Xmas dinner. At that stage of my life doing as much as possible in the shortest time available was a must.
The way that I decided to walk home was not my usual way which wouldv'e taken me past Hereford Cathedral and to the end of Castle St to my bedsit. This way took me through what is known as High Town, a small area that was the size of two football pitches, there was no reason for being called High Town because they wasn't a Lower Town and it wasn't as if the city was situated on a large hill with the town center at the highest point.
Through High Town were a selection of well positioned wooden chairs that aided the cities' elderly as they ventured out from their weekly shop from Marks & Spencers. To the left of me as I walked past Marks was a market hall that had a clock on it. The time was just coming up to midnight. My instant thought was "YES!!!!! xmas day" as the clock chimed 12.
A few moments after midnight I noticed that there was very fine snowflakes falling which brought a smile to my face knowing that I had seen snow on christmas day for only the 2nd time in my life.
At this point I could here a noise behind me and a little to the left near the market hall enterance. I turned to see what was making the noise. A bench situated by a telephone box held the figure of a person. This person was sobbing, nothing outragous, only slightly with their head in their hands. I walked over to them, it continued to snow, I asked the figure if they were ok. The figure was sat on the bench and was wearing what looked like an old grey cloak of some sort but this didn't seem out of place in Hereford
. The hood of the cloak was off the head but due to their head being pressed against their hands I couldn't see the face.
"Are you ok"? I asked,
"Im fine" muttered the figure, at this point I knew that the figure was indeed female from the pitch of her voice.
I didn't want to alarm her due to fact that she was alone in the High Town with a strange man, so i kept enough distance to keep her calm.
I continued to say "Hey, you shouldn't cry, its snowing!" looking up at the fine snow.
There was no reply from the woman so my eyes quickly found and escape route away from her whilst I felt uncomfortable with her reluctance to answer me. This would've been about 4 secs. Suddenly the snow came to a hault which forced me to say "Typical, it never lasts" and turning to the woman on the bench............
She had gone!
There was no noise made as she made her exit and the distance for her to become out of sight would have taken her at least 35 seconds. I searched for her with no luck, I was concerned for her and just wanted to know she was ok before making my way back to my bedsit.
It a matter of seconds it dawned on me that this woman was not on the bench as I past it upon the strike of midnight. There was definately no one walking behind me as I came into High Town and no one in front of me. Hereford, at that point in time, had no homeless people sleeping rough in the shelter of the parade of shop doorways so that was not an option for reason.
For the next 6 months or so I would make sure I took the Catherdral route home
Just typing that out has given me a chill, I will remember that moment more than any other similar experiences I've ever had.
Talking fish all the time sometimes does your head in, esp if its your day job as well. Im on here to help members as best I can but would like somewhere to chill in the meantime. I'm old and frail so I don't go out drinking anymore and TV usally bores me stupid so I spend most of the time on my Laptop
