When I was born, in the midst of a wild snowstorm, my grandma took one look at the caul over my face and turned to my mother, saying, “Yes, you have a gifted child here.” Grandma Mac was a seer, the local Wise Woman, and all the local people would come to her for advice; she could talk to spirits and angels but wasn’t allowed to develop her gifts because of the family’s Catholic faith. Nevertheless, as I grew up in the small Yorkshire mining town of Maltby, she taught me all she knew about natural remedies and opening the mind to the world of spirit.
At an early age it became clear that I had inherited her gifts of mediumship. I could see people’s auras and know if they were unwell or unhappy, I could read tealeaves and I always knew if there was danger ahead on our walks in the countryside. When my Grandad died, I saw a mist rise from his body, the silver cord breaking, and then heard him speak seriously to me in my mind saying, “You need to look after your Mam.” A few days later my father left us for another woman and Mam had a nervous breakdown; I suppose that caring for her and for my younger sisters was my first experience of nursing.
All the same, I had no ambitions for that kind of career. I wanted to be a circus acrobat or a mechanic in the Women’s RAF like my Mam, but I had no qualifications. It seems that the universe had a plan, though. There was a definite ‘presence’ beside me at the Job Centre and the first post I saw advertised was for a Nursing Auxiliary at the local hospital; perhaps they were short-staffed because I was offered the job immediately.
And so began the most extraordinary career…
For more than thirty years I worked in hospitals, especially the A&E departments, and in the community, rising to Senior Nurse and even gaining a Bachelor of Medical Science degree in Professional Nursing practice. I specialised in wound care, teaching doctors and other nurses. But every day, I was having to hold my tongue and not let on about the spirits, ghosts and angelic beings that I could see and communicate with in the hospital wards, resuscitation rooms and theatres! It would not have been appropriate to talk of these things because you never knew how others would take it.
For example, one day the Red Emergency Phone rang to tell us that people involved in a road traffic accident were coming in, one of them a lady who was eight months pregnant with internal injuries. She was losing a lot of blood and the doctor warned me that she may lose the baby. Indeed, he examined her and wrote down ‘No foetal heartbeat’ on her notes. Then I clearly saw a Chinese spirit, a man wearing a white coat and a gold earring, put his hand on her abdomen. The baby moved. The doctor and I were both stunned (for different reasons) and she had a healthy baby boy an hour later by Caesarean Section. Well, I couldn’t tell the doctor what had happened, could I?
Actually, though, I came to realise that many other nurses were quite aware of spirit visitors, especially the Grey Lady in a World War I nursing uniform, who often appeared to comfort a patient just before they passed over. My ‘secret’ was soon out and I would be plagued by requests for psychic readings during our lunch breaks.
Sadly, though, one day I hurt my back badly while helping a patient and had to retire early from the work I loved. I even then suffered a brain haemorrhage and was very ill for three years. But it turned out that I was just being prepared for a new career as a psychic medium and writer! I took a mediumship development course and began to develop an even closer relationship with the worlds of spirit. Before long, I met my principal guide Black Feather, a Native American, and realised why I could always smell burning wood when I did a reading. During a deep meditation, I clearly saw this craggy-faced man with one black feather sticking out of a headband, sitting beside a camp fire.
At one psychic event, a spirit lady with red hair and wearing a silver dress met me as I walked in. “My name is Lynne – with an E,” she stressed. “My friend is coming to see you today so please tell her I’m here.” As I started my eleventh reading that day, the lady reappeared and said, “This is my friend, we were school friends. Please say thank you to her.” My client gasped with delight when I described the spirit lady and passed on the message.
“Don’t you know who it is?” she said. “It’s Marti Caine, the singer and comedian. We grew up together and were best friends.” It turned out that the famous performer’s real name was Lynn Shepherd. But why she was so persistent about an E at the end of her first name? Her friend replied, “She thought it was posh so she used to add it to her real name.” So that was pretty good evidence of the afterlife!
I have now given hundreds of private psychic readings and have many regular clients. And in my area I have even developed a particular reputation for finding lost animals; normally I use a pendulum over a map for this but I am also often guided by Black Feather or other spirit people. In fact, I am a great animal lover and pets will also often appear during personal readings.
You could even say that my devotion to animals led to my third career, as an author, rather unexpectedly in my late sixties. Story-telling was always part of my family’s culture and of course by now I had so many ghost and spirit stories to tell, especially of my time as a hospital nurse. At first, I wrote several articles on the paranormal for national magazines and then had the idea of putting all my untold stories together in a book, to help and encourage others in their spiritual lives. But which publisher to approach? I asked my spirit guides for a ‘sign’ and when I then walked into my local animal charity shop, two Local Legend books practically jumped out at me…
My own book, Ghosts of the NHS, was accepted straight away and, to my amazement, became a number one bestseller on Amazon. This has been followed up by The Angels Beside Us, more stories from the NHS front line, and Furry Spirits, communications with spirit pet animals and accounts of the incredible psychic talents of animals.
I am happy that this wonderful life has given me so many opportunities to help others with my gifts and bring knowledge of the spirit worlds to the public. These days, you will often find me at our caravan in Whitby, writing and working at my hobby of making dolls. Then I may be people-watching at the harbour or sitting outside Whitby Abbey, waiting for the ghosts to introduce themselves!
Glynis Amy Allen’s bestselling books are published by Local Legend as paperbacks and eBooks. They are available worldwide at any book store and in all digital formats.
