Strange events in Cyprus 2004

By

Mike Coatesworth

The following tale is a true event that happened to my daughter, Lesley and I, though whether you believe it is another matter, but trust me, these events really did take place.

Lesley and I were enjoying a great holiday in Polis, Cyprus in February 2004.  It was a wonderful day, the sun was shining high in the clear blue sky, and there was just a whisper of a breeze.  It was a Sunday morning, and we could hear the parishioners saying prayers in the local Cypriot church.  We decided to take a look around the sleepy backwater village and see the places of interest.  Heading towards the church, we arrived at the front gate just as the congregation came out, some set off towards their home, a few stood around in groups talking, and one old lady dressed from head to toe in black, headed straight for me and Lesley.

As we went slowly along with the sun beating down upon us, the old lady changed direction as though to head us off at the next gate, and as we reached the next gate she stopped just ahead of us and waited.  We stopped to see what she wanted and she gently took my arm and placed “fifty cents Cypriot” into the palm of my hand and closed my fingers over the coin.  I opened my hand and at seeing the coin I was immediately embarrassed as I realised that this lady didn’t appear as though she could afford to give money away, I tried to give her the money back, but she refused, so thinking that she might want me to give her something in return I offered her some money from my wallet, she refused this also, so I said thank you, and she smiled.  I asked my Cypriot friend Chris about the incident and he stated that a few old ladies thought that if they did a good deed, then when they die they would go to heaven, and he once had a £1.00 Cypriot pressed into his hand.

Lesley and I carried on down the road towards the local village Cypriot cemetery, I wanted to see it as I knew that there would be some great monuments to look at, but as we entered through the gates I was totally surprised at the magnificent structures on some of the graves.  As Lesley and I were walking along the main tiled footpath, we both saw a young boy of between seven and nine years of age wearing an orange tee-shirt, he was at the far end of the footpath approximately 20 metres away and he was bent over a grave.  The young lad appeared to be tending the grave as we moved along towards his position, and as we got nearer to him he turned his head and looked at us.  We stopped and watched him as we didn’t want to frighten him, and then he smiled at us, and in front of both of us he completely disappeared!  It’s true , one second he was there, the next he was gone.

I looked at Lesley and she looked at me, ‘did you see that?’ I asked her not really believing what I had just witnessed, and she stated that she had.

Now thinking that the young lad had fallen down a freshly dug grave we raced over to offer assistance, but there was no hole, and he didn’t go left or right as it was open space, and at the end of the graveyard a few yards in front of us was a steep hill, besides which the whole cemetery was completely fenced off, and he didn’t run passed us, so where did he go?

We searched for a while but we found no trace of him, and where he had been bent over there were several small crosses.  Later, we spoke to our Cypriot friend Eva, and she informed us that in the area where we saw the young boy there were several young village children buried, and she stated that it was not the first time that young children had been seen.

The following morning, our friend Chris took us for a drive in the hills, and as we prepared us for a nice drive out, he suddenly stopped his car halfway down a steep hill, he then placed the car in neutral and took off the hand brake, and then instead of the car rolling down the steep hill, it rolled upwards!  I couldn’t believe it, I thought it was a trick, but it wasn’t, and Chris informed us that this was the only place in Cyprus where this happened, and he took us to another hill nearby and did exactly the same thing, but this time the car rolled downhill.

Chris stated that as yet nobody had explained why the cars rolled uphill, and could only put it down to something to do with the gravity?

I was glad that they were the only three strange events that happened to us during our two week stay in Polis otherwise I would have begun to get a little nervous.

Mike Coatesworth

Copyright 2004 Michael Coatesworth All rights reserved.

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