"The Mourning Room" - (Conversations)

Other - Nanna lived in an old funeral home.

Interviewer - There was a room in the home that scared you, wasn’t there? The Mourning Room?

Other - Yeah, Nanna used the Mourning Room to store her huge doll collection – they were all laid out around the walls. And in the very centre of the room there was a small children’s bed set up.

Interviewer - Tell me about the time that you and Toby went to stay.

Other - Sure. Well he slept in slept in the Mourning Room. Better him than me I remember thinking – Nanna’s dolls were really creepy and the room felt sad and full of bad feelings.

Interviewer - So Toby was only a little boy at the time wasn’t he? He woke in the middle of the night. What happened?

Other - Toby came out to the veranda where I was sleeping. I remember, his face was all red and blown up into an oval shape, like a doll. He could barely see out of his eyes. Wouldn’t talk for three days, not until we left Nanna’s.

Interviewer - And what did Toby tell you when he eventually spoke?

Other - He said … he saw a tall lady with no eyes holding hands with all the dolls in the room and they all danced around his bed. He said they all … touched him … on the head … and the tall lady asked him for his eyes.

Interviewer – Did you and Toby ever go back to Nanna’s again?

Other – No. The funeral home burnt down. Nanna’s body was found in the Morning Room on the small children’s bed. And all her porcelain dolls were piled up on top of her.

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