Medium - truth or fiction?

My work colleagues booked a medium to come to our office and I was one of the 6 people who consulted her late one afternoon, a week or two ago (it was not one of my days to work there I should say, this was done in my own time, in case you were wondering).

When Michael died I consulted lots of mediums, it is a fairly standard thing for the recently bereaved, and by and large they were all pretty poor, generalising and getting a lot of stuff wrong and asking too many leading questions. But I thought I would give it another go, just out of interest.

Was this one any better? It is hard to tell really. She threw out a lot of names, about half of which I could recognise and half of which meant nothing to me. But some of the things she said were accurate. I wish there was a way of knowing how much of it is guess work. And how much of it is down to my wanting to "own" things she said, or twist them to suit my fact. I think we would all like to think that there is a medium out there who is genuine and effective, but I am still not convinced.

Anyway, I will give you a bit of a taste of some of what she said. She asked me first if I had a partner, and I said no. So she asked me if my partner had died. I conceded that he had and she said a shadow had walked in with me. That was a bit spooky, I was not sure how I felt about shadows following me about. And I was quite impressed that she would know that he had died, I cannot think there are lots of women my age who would have replied in the affirmative to that question.

She then asked me who "Chris" was and I said I didnt know anyone of that name. Although a few minutes later when she had moved on to something else, I suddenly realised that Chris was the name of my beloved Nana, but of course I never called her by her name so it had completely passed me by. We didnt talk about her any further. But that was quite impressive for a first stab actually, in hindsight.

She asked me who was the diabetic (Colin came straight to mind) and who has very sore eyes (Colin again). She asked me three times about someone who had an amputated leg but I told her that no-one in my circle of family or friends had ever had an amputation, I said I would have noticed. I dont know what that was all about and she kept coming back to it.

She asked me who died of a brain tumour (Roger's brother) but did not name him, coincidence?

She asked me who died of liver disease - my ex-husband - and got into quite a lot of detail about him. His name, that he played cards a lot, that he drank a lot (pretty obvious of course for someone with a liver disease), that he had two children, whose names she mentioned during the rest of the session but not immediately at that point, and didnt identify them as his children. Coincidence?

She told me I helped people for a living - I think this is a reasonable explanation of a councillor, which she did not know about and I never told her, but not something she would presumably expect to say to someone who she understood to work in a firm of accountants.

She then named in sequence five of my colleagues in the office, although did not say they worked with me, she just threw their names out. Coincidence? Could she have read the signing in sheet?

She named two of my cousins (and I dont have a huge amount), both on the one side, Anita and Donna. Coincidence?

She asked me who had a bad neck - no-one that I could think of, although Wendy has a very bad neck now, having had a fall while we were out leafletting and really hurt herself, two days later. We have debated whether this was ill-wished upon her. Coincidence?

And then she went into a mass of detail about a man who I am going to have a long lasting relationship with. In fact she told me more or less everything about him bar his address. And apparently I should be well esconced with him within three years. So it will be fairly clear in three years whether there is anything in this or not.

His name is Francis, first name or surname, he is self-employed, possibly to do with cars, he has a blue car, (she asked me if my car was blue too - it is - and said if I didnt mind her saying, his car was rather better than mine!) and that he likes war films. I was not very impressed by this but she said he wouldnt make me watch them. She said he has relatives named Maureen and Ethel and that he was associated with Ireland, which was great, I must say. And his dad might well have been a bin-man. All I can say is, if someone comes forward who fits those credentials I will definitely be a convert!

She told me I needed to go out more, socially, and then asked me who Rachel was. I said she was my mate who had coincidetally invited me out that weekend so she said I had better go in that case!

She also asked me whether my parents came from South Africa. I said no, certainly not, they were from the West Midlands, but she was quite insistent that this was relevant. It was only afterwards that I recalled that my Gran was actually born in South Africa, in Winberg.

Perhaps mediums should ask for better sitters, I am afraid I was rather rubbish really.

And I am to accept with alacrity any offers of a long weekend in Ireland (as if I would refuse!!)

She did not mention Michael at all, not his name or anything associated with him. And she did not say my Grandad was now willing to accept the concept of an after-life, something we occasionally discussed where I said he would know that there was a heaven, which he didn't believe in, once he was there.

And she did not give me any tips about any of my genealogical dead-ends either. I would have loved to have known what happened to Great Great Gran Eliza Lister's first husband for instance.

So as things currently stand it was interesting, but not conclusive.