'I'm a funeral director and I've had several chilling experiences at work' (2025)

A funeral director from the East Riding of Yorkshire has opened up on the supernatural encounters he has experienced in his workplace - but it's not something that scares him

If there's any profession you'd expect might have come across a ghostly encounter, it would be a funeral director, right? That hasn't strictly been the case, according to one man in the profession. However, social media's Yorkshire Funeral Director, Jacob Walsh, who is based in Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire, took to TikTok to open up on his experiences with the paranormal at his workplace.

"Ghosts - have I seen them? Have I experienced them?" he asked rhetorically in a video. "I've felt a presence - usually in the mortuary, which is completely understandable as it's where people in my care are resting."

Jacob admitted that initially he put his chilling experiences down to the fact he works late into the day by which point he's tired, but over time "more and more things have happened" prompting him to have a rethink.

"I have definitely felt people tapping me on the back," he confessed. "Or just strange things that I just can't put my finger on. But, as I've always said - don't worry about the dead - it's the living that will hurt you."

But why would a spirit tap him on the shoulder? Jacob explained his belief: "I think it must mean it's a reassurance that I'm doing right by them and that's all that matters. We always talk to the people in my care - we wish them 'good morning' and every night I say 'goodnight' to them."

He added that even when he's "doing personal care" such as shaving deceased gentlemen he tells them what he's doing out of respect.

Jacob summarised: "So if they are watching over us, that's fine - we just don't know what's in the afterlife and I'm not here to tell you what I think there is or isn't."

Writing in response, another funeral director revealed: "I have heard footsteps in our mortuary early hours of the morning." And a second shared: "Having worked alone in different branches of our funeral homes I have definitely heard walking upstairs when I’m on my own! Never been scared though."

A third person detailed their experience: "My dad passed last Saturday and I’ve come to my mum's house as she needed me and my sister. I could feel my dad's presence, this is my first experience with it. He died suddenly so it’s a shock."

And a fourth TikTok user recalled: "My mum blew a lightbulb in the funeral parlour and when the funeral director got up to change it, it came back on and she said that’s strange. But l said my mum was a medium and has sent me messages."

Many others praised Jacob for showing such dignity in his profession, one of whom said: "You are an amazing man with so much empathy. That's why they say thank you by tapping you."