Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 2, 2/14 by Estelle Roberts

The strain of Hugh’s illness, over-work and undernourishment had taken toll of my strength. My health gave out again, and for several months I was unable to do anything in the nature of steady work. I began to despair of ever getting stronger. Necessity, however, is a relentless taskmaster. As soon as I felt I could stand the course, I secured a post as a waitress in the upstairs restaurant at Victoria Station.

All the children were now at school all day, so I was free to leave home, but it was a long and wearisome working day. I started at six each morning busying myself with housework and getting the children ready for school. Then I would leave for work at the restaurant and not return home until nine or ten at night. My eldest daughter and a kind neighbour cared for the younger ones, putting them to bed and watching over them until my return.

This arduous routine went on until the end of 1920, when I married Arthur Roberts. I was then able to give up my work as a waitress and return gratefully to the duties of a housewife, which also happily meant that I could devote more time to the children. My spirit people still came to me regularly and my understanding of them was growing noticeably.

I began to give them much more thought than I had in the past and even went so far as to discuss them with my next-door neighbour, a Mrs. Slade, who invited me to accompany her to a Spiritualist meeting which she was going to attend. I agreed, and we went to a little Spiritualist church at Hampton Hill. This church, I recall, was constructed entirely of tin. We attended three times.

Each meeting was addressed by a different medium, and each medium, it seemed to me, was focusing her entire attention exclusively on me. I began to think it was all part of a conspiracy to convert me to Spiritualism. At the third meeting the psychic demonstrator was Mrs. Elizabeth Cannock, whom I later came to know as a very good medium,

highly respected for her gifts and her integrity. She singled me out at once, saying in unequivocal terms: “You are a medium and have much work to do. Chosen by the Spirit World, you must not ignore the call. Please come and see me after the meeting.”