After 30 years of marriage, Anita Eagle was devastated when her husband Ken confessed there was another woman in his life. But he wasn’t having an affair. Ken, once a total skeptic about the supernatural, told Anita that the rival for her love had actually died almost 100 years ago and was haunting him.
Plagued by strange happenings for months, both Anita (54) and Ken (63) are completely convinced something spooky is making their married life a misery. They have even sought the help of a priest to have the spiteful entity exorcised. The trouble began when Anita – who admits she was more open to the idea of ghosts than Ken – saw an apparition one night six months ago.
“I saw a sphere floating in the corner of the room. The next morning, I said to Ken that we might have a ghost in the house.” At first Ken scorned the idea but then began suffering a ringing sound in his ears and severe migraines.
one night Ken got up to make a cup of tea and swears he felt a spirit take him over as he stood in the kitchen. “All of a sudden I felt this surge of energy push me. I started to talk like a Nordic European and I had tears streaming down my face,” he says.
The woman’s ghost almost drove Ken crazy with what appeared to be intense jealousy about his marriage to Anita. “I would be doubled over in pain if I ever looked at another woman in the supermarket and she hated me getting close to Anita,” says Ken. “If I went to kiss Anita, I could feel this thing digging her fi ngernails into the back of my neck.”
There was no physical explanation for the sensations and Anita was horrified when Ken told her he feared his body was being taken over by the mysterious woman. Talking through Ken, the spirit revealed a name and the couple were astonished when they tracked her grave down to a cemetery in Northland and discovered she had been a new immigrant to New Zealand who died in 1916.
Terrified that he might be possessed, a desperate Ken sought the help of a local priest in an effort to exorcise it. “I don’t think he believed us,” Anita whispers. “But he did try to help me,” says Ken. “He gave me a blessing, but it didn’t work. He tried everything.”
The couple fled their Whangarei house, hoping the ghost would not follow them to their new home in Katikati. But although the encounters with the jealous female spirit ceased, the terror was far from over – Ken says he sensed the spirit had now become that of a young man.
This time the entity told Ken his name about his difficult upbringing that led him into crime and of his tragic death in a car crash in the 1970s. Ken and Anita sought the advice of several clairvoyants and mediums, with no luck, and are now sharing their bizarre story in the hope someone will know how to help them – and save their marriage.
“I’ve tried everything. Herbal potions, garlic, light therapy – you name it. I saw one medium who said the ghost had gone to the light, but it hadn’t,” says Ken. “It seems like he’s chosen me because I’m a father fi gure. He wants to go into the light and there’s nobody to take him.”
Anita is thankful the spirit is not trying to come between her and her husband like before, but fears that might change. “I just want my husband back,” she says. She finds it hard to sleep at night and has to tolerate Ken’s extreme mood swings as he struggles to cope with the unwelcome guest.
Ken admits the ghost is taking a huge toll on their once-happy relationship. “We never used to fight but now we argue all the time,” says Ken. “I want to get rid of it. I can’t go around like this any longer.” Now their only hope is that someone can help the ghostly visitor rest in peace – so they can find some peace of their own.
