Saturday, March 17, 2007

Adelina Patti and "The White Lady"


I was sent a copy of this readers letter the other day from Swansea.
It appeared in The South Wales Evening Post on March 2 1993:

“ Here is an anecdote I heard from a relation of a former butler at Craig-y-nos.
Madame Adelina Patti was walking in the surrounding hills and remembered she had to send a telegram.

At a village post office she said what her name was and that she had no money but wanted to send a telegram.
The Postmaster said:” How do I know you are Madame Patti ?” whereupon she stood back and started to sing thus proving who she was.”



Photo: Dorothy
“The White Lady”, the name given to the ghost of Adelina Patti, was a constant mysterious invisible companion in our childhood years in Craig-y-nos.

As children living in her former home we were less impressed with Adelina Patti's singing than her facility to materialise long after her death.

Once I was told by Dorothy, in the next bed to me, that The White Lady always appeared at the foot of the bed of the next girl to die.
Dorothy then announced she had seen her at the foot of my bed and that she had started to walk up to touch me.
I burst out crying.
“I don’t want to die!”.
Whereupon Dorothy had a re-think:” Don’t worry, she went away again.”

Nevertheless for weeks afterwards I would enquire about the exact presence of the White Lady in Ward 2.
Dorothy had as special gift, she told me, which allowed her to see "the other world".

I was 9 years old, and believed her.

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