Imaginary friends

When Samantha was under 4 she had an imaginary friend, but the strange thing is I did not know about this imaginary friend. I only found out years later. This friend disappeared after Joanne was born.
Sam told me her friends name was Mary and she had a brother. She played with Samantha mostly when she went to Oumies house. Oumie remembered her. She told me how Samantha insisted that place be left for Mary and her brother in the car. They went on holiday when She took Samantha on holiday with her.

I feel a little guilty about not knowing about Mary, because this means I probably was not aware of what was going on with Samantha at the time. I was probably too preoccupied with cleaning my house, looking after children and being pregnant.

I only found out about the imaginary friend because I had been reading a book about a medium who had said that children who have imaginary friends are more aware of the spirit world. I remember looking up from the book and saying to Samantha “you didn’t have an imaginary friend did you.” To my surprise she answered that she had had an imaginary friend. She told me Oumie knew about her. I asked Oumie and she remembered Mary and her brother.
Samantha then told me that Mary had told her she was going to have a sister. When I was pregnant with Joanne Samantha would get very emotional if anyone said she was having a brother. She would angrily say “no I am having a sister and her name is Joanne” Ronnie Loved teasing her about this and every time he saw her he said you are going to have a brother.

While I was pregnant with Joanne I was planning to have Joanne at the Flora Clinic. One day I was driving past the hospital and said to Samantha that that was the hospital where her sister would be born. She started to cry. I asked her why she was crying she told me that if I go to that hospital I would die. This shocked me and I decided to look for another alternative. I was feeling a little uncomfortable with the Gynaecologist that I had been seeing so I looked for a mid wife and gave birth to Joanne at the Garden City hospital with the help of 2 wonderful midwives. It was beautiful experience, but it was a difficult delivery and if I had stayed with a gynaecologist I don’t think things would have gone so smoothly.

The reason I am relating this is because when we discussed the imaginary friend, Samantha told me that Mary had told her that I would die if I went to that hospital.
Samantha describes Mary as being about 8 years old. She was very pale, had long black hair that she wore in two plates and always wore an old fashioned dress.