Dad's Sister
My family used to have the village shop in a tiny farming village in rural Lincolnshire. And because it was so distributed, my dad used to do deliveries in the van. Farmers and their families would phone through their orders, and make a date for delivery. On weekends, as a young Sasquatch, I'd go with my Dad and help him carry boxes and bags. This was great, as I got to go round all the farms, play with all the kids and be shown all the animals.

One day, we were visiting a farm, and the farmer's wife introduced my dad to her mum, who was visiting. She said her mum was the local fortune-teller, at which my dad smiled politely and said "How interesting." or some such. He didn't believe in any of that rubbish. A more mundane and normal setting could not be imagined - a workday farmhouse kitchen, plain wooden table, muddy boots by the door.

Then this woman looks up at my dad and says "I've got a message for you." Her face crumpled, and she was clearly confused. "It's your sister, but it's a man. He's in a greenhouse in the sky, but it's falling and it's on fire. How can a greenhouse be in the sky...? How can a man be your sister?"

To my total surprise, my Dad's face was wet with tears. He thanked her for the message and said he understood perfectly. Things returned to normality; tea was made, drunk, and we left. In the van, I was bursting to know what that had all been about. When my Dad had been a teenager, his best pal was a lad called Peter, and they looked very similar in height and facial features. People used to ask them if they were brothers, and their stock reply was "No, we're sisters!" Peter had gone into the RAF during the war, and had flown in an Anson light bomber, which was nicknamed the Flying Greenhouse. His plane had been lost over the Channel.
(Leo Sasquatch hates being the grown-up, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 9:15, 3 replies)

I like this tale
So it can have my click.

Can't say I'm convinced, but those details are magnificent.
( Thinker, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 9:38, closed)

Was that...
...the whole message? Or was it more like:

Fortune teller: "I see someone who is related to you. A brother, perhaps?"
Dad: "I don't have a brother."
Fortune teller: "A sister?"
Dad: "I don't have a sister."
Fortune teller: "I'm getting that this person has a strong bond with you, and feels a family connection."
Dad: "Well, I did have this friend Peter..."
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 10:15, closed)

Cold reading?
racetraitor - that was kind of my point. Literally within seconds of meeting my Dad, this woman came over all confused and was mentioning things she couldn't have possibly known. She'd have had to have known them as kids, known their secret jokes, and finally, known how Peter died.

Cold reading, it surely wasn't.

I freely acknowledge that this was an event from some 35 years ago, when I was only 7, so I can't swear to the dialogue's complete accuracy. But her confusion and distress were clear and real, as was my Dad's reaction.
(Leo Sasquatch hates being the grown-up, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 19:11, closed)