.

had met him on that Sunday evening. Again, she wondered whether he’d really died at all.

      Karen was having sessions with a psychotherapist at this time, for issues related to post-traumatic stress. She explained the situation to her therapist, who advised her to visit the register office at Brighton town hall. By now it was March 2007. Karen visited the register office towards the end of the month and when she came away there was no escaping that something strange had happened.

      Dave’s date of death was officially registered as 28th January, 2006. When Karen explained to the receptionist that she had seen and spoken with Dave in October of that same year, the receptionist looked doubtful and explained that the date of death is verified by two people: firstly by a doctor, who writes out the death certificate; and secondly by another witness, who formally registers the death. Because of the circumstances surrounding Dave’s death, the second witness was the city coroner. If the date were wrong then two professionals had both made a very unusual mistake.

      “The same day, I talked again with my therapist,” said Karen. “We went over the conversation I’d had with Dave. My therapist commented on how it had no fantastic content. There were no fantasy themes in it. It was simply a conversation; not the kind you’d make up as a memory to someone who had died, and it was consistent with events at the time I remembered it to have taken place.

      “My therapist told me that she had done some research and had uncovered other cases in which people had seen people who had died, with no pathological indications.”