Some People Claim The 'Pollock Sisters' May Be Proof Of Reincarnation
What if death isn't actually the end? Reincarnation is a belief taught by many different cultures throughout history, including the Vikings, early Christians, and modern-day Buddhists. It holds that once a living thing reaches the end of its physical existence, the being receives new life in a different corporeal form. Although it's easy to dismiss this idea, one case from the 1950s has even the fiercest reincarnation skeptics raising an eyebrow. Perhaps no story is as tragic or mysterious than that of the Pollock sisters, the twin girls who may provide "proof" of reincarnation.
Happy Families Are All The Same...
Living in the quiet English town of Hexham, Florence Pollock and her husband John were parents to two beautiful young girls: 11-year-old Joanna and 6-year-old Jacqueline. If they'd known just how drastically their luck would soon change, they might have held their daughters a little closer.
Weekend Vibes
May 5th, 1957, started out like any other lazy Sunday for the brood. After chowing down on some breakfast, the girls made their way to church, as the Pollocks were practicing Christians. It was while crossing the street that tragedy struck.
Nightmare On Main Street
An out-of-control driver swerved into the intersection, striking the sisters and killing both almost instantly. The driver had been intoxicated, and was attempting to kill herself after losing custody of her own children. Florence and John were devastated.
Picking Up The Pieces
The parents wept and grieved, trapped in a state of intense mourning. Their home felt so empty without their girls laughing and playing together. Eventually they decided to try for another baby; the couple simply needed kids in their lives. Soon, they’d end up getting even more than they’d bargained for…
New Beginnings
On October 4th, 1958, a little over a year after their daughters’ passing, Florence gave birth to identical twin girls, whom they named Gillian and Jennifer. The babies were beautiful and healthy infants. It didn’t take long, however, for the parents to notice some strange coincidences.
Serendipity Or Something More?
Jennifer had two birthmarks: one on her waist and the other on her forehead. They were at exactly the same locations as where the late Jacqueline had had a birthmark and a scar, respectively.
Mounting Suspicions
The parents were a little taken aback by the similarities but, not being very superstitious people, they shrugged it off as being merely a slightly strange coincidence. As the girls got older and began to speak, however, the commonalities became more and more difficult to ignore.
Packing Up Shop
Soon after their birth, the family would make a big change. Wanting a fresh start away from the place where the horrible accident had taken place only a couple years prior, the Pollocks decided to move from Hexham, to a place called Bexley Bay on England’s northeast coast.
A Chilling Request
It was in Bexley Bay that the freaky occurrences started to mount, fueling Florence and John’s suspicions. The girls simply knew things they shouldn’t have. Almost as soon as they were capable of forming complete sentences, they began asking for their “old toys." Confused, the parents asked them to elaborate.
Playtime Gets A Morbid Makeover
As clear as day, the twins responded. Their old toys, they repeated, and reportedly asked for dolls that had belonged to Joanna and Jacky — dolls they’d never seen or heard of. A chill ran down the parents’ spines. This was too much; how on Earth could the girls have known about this?
Shifting Tides
From there, the similarities only intensified. Even though they’d wanted a fresh start, after only a short time in Bexley Bay the family grew homesick and moved back to Hexham. They had no idea what “coincidences” awaited them there.
Uncanny Observations
First off, the girls recognized landmarks in Hexham. Although they’d been born there, the move had occurred when they were only babies, and it would have been virtually impossible for them to have this information. Even weirder, they could identify the spots around town that had been their sisters’ favorites.
Things Get Real
Some of the girls' knowledge was of a far darker nature. Although their parents had spared them the gory details of their sisters’ deaths, the young twins also appeared to be familiar with everything about that. One day, Gillian turned to Jennifer and told the girl she could see blood coming from her eyes.
Sister Sister
Aside from recalling facts that confounded John and Florence (and even scared them a little), the girls also expressed tastes and preferences that were virtually identical to those held by their late sisters. They shared proclivities for the same foods, clothing, and even songs.
A Good Guess...Or A Memory
As if this preponderance of evidence weren’t enough to convince the Pollocks that Gillian and Jennifer were Joanna and Jacqueline reincarnated, the uncanniness doesn’t end there. They correctly identified Joanna and Jacqueline's school as well as various friends they’d had. And one of the most unsettling parts?
The Similarities Continue
The girls had a seemingly unexplainable phobia of cars — the very mechanism that killed their older siblings. Although their parents were understandably spooked out by the notion that their deceased children had come back to life, they appreciated being able to spend more precious time with the girls...
The Attention-Getting Pair
Another person would soon take interest in the twins’ bizarre story: a child psychologist by the name of Dr. Ian Stevenson. He was penning a book on reincarnation and included Gillian and Jennifer as one case study out of 14. He had some interesting theories on the situation.
The Bottom Line
He concluded that children weren’t as likely as adults to make things up, and that parents who thought reincarnation wasn’t real were likely to discourage children from expressing details about their past lives. After the girls’ fifth birthday, however, everything would be turned on its head.
An Abrupt Stop
With no warning or explanation, shortly after their joint party, the girls stopped exhibiting these behaviors. It seemed like they had, out of nowhere, lost all memory of their “past lives." Thankfully, the Pollock twins were able to make it to adulthood without major incident. But for another set of twins, two little boys on board the Titanic, their story was quite a bit more complicated.
Toddlers On A Boat
A three-year-old boy opened his eyes to the bright daylight of the morning. He stirred and looked around. First, he registered the rocking of the boat beneath him, then the memories of the previous hours fluttered back.
Alone And Confused
The next thing he knew, he and his little brother were tossed into a burlap bag and carried onto another big ship. However, this one hadn’t looked familiar like the one he had been on with his dad.
Unaware Of The Situation
There wasn't much time to linger on that, though. As the boy remembered, “I thought it was extremely incorrect to be in a burlap bag!” Only a three-year-old would have such a reaction hours after surviving the sinking of the Titanic.
Who Were They?
No family members were awaiting the boys in arrival New York, though because they spoke French, it was suspected their relatives were overseas. In the meantime, fellow French-speaking first-class passenger Margaret Hays volunteered to care for the boys temporarily.
"Titanic Orphans" Headline
Newspapers published a photo of the boys that circulated rapidly. The response was overwhelming. For many families searching for answers, the boys were a final glimmer of hope that their loved ones had survived the Titanic.
Possible Breakthroughs
Iowa resident Frank Lefebvre went all the way to New York in hopes that the “Titanic Orphans” were two of his children. Ultimately, his arrival only to confirmed the terrible truth: His wife and four children had died on the ship.
A Far Away Miracle
None of the people searching for their loved ones stateside proved to know the little boys. Finally, though, word reached a mother named Marcelle Caretto in France who was frantic over her missing sons, so she boarded a ship to New York at once.
The Deeper Significance Of Their Reunion
On May 16th, 1912, Marcelle hugged her sons at long last. It was a tremendous relief to find them alive, considering the circumstances of their departure. The boys vanished as a result of a kidnapping.
Before Titanic
The boy’s real names were Michel Jr and Edmond Navratil. They lived in Nice, France, with their mother and spent the weekends with their father, Michel Navratil. Leading up the Titanic voyage, the kids had spent the Easter holiday with him.
A Calculated Move
Navratil took the extra time to flee with his sons as an act of revenge against his ex-wife. He'd purchased three 2nd class tickets on the Titanic and escaped with the boys to Monte Carlo, then onto England.
Boarding Titanic
When the holiday ended, and her children and ex-husband were nowhere to be found, Caretto was devastated. Within a few days, Navratil, Michel, and Edmond successfully boarded the ship under false names at Southampton.
Identity Confusion
There's some discrepancy over which fake identities Navratil originally invented for his sons. Some photos are marked Louis and Lola, but there's also mention of a Momon, Loto, and the rather amusing, Lump. All three used the fake surname Hoffman.
Fond Memories
Little Michel was completely unaware of his father's ruse. He was preoccupied with the grand ship, “One morning, my father, my brother, and I were eating eggs in the second-class dining room. The sea was stunning. My feeling was one of a total and utter well-being.”
The Night Of Impact
The magical quality of the ship quickly deteriorated on the night of April 14th. Michel could sense the shift in the tone of the adults around him. Michel remembered his father gently waking him and his brother and tenderly bundling them in layers.
It Dawned On Him Later
“When I think of it now, I am very moved. They knew they were going to die,” Michel recalled. Navratil joined the rest of the panicked passengers on the deck of the ship with his sons, looking for an opportunity to save them.
Last Moments Together
In a desperate final act, Navratil managed to secure his son’s seats together on the very last lifeboat, Collapsible D. Those final moments with his father deeply impacted Michel Jr., just shy of four years old, so that he never forgot his parting words.
Final Message
“When your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that I loved her dearly and still do. Tell her I expected her to follow us so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the New World.”
Grim Contradictions
Through a toddler's lens, the historical tragedy sounds even more surreal. While Navratil's traumatizing final moments unfolded, his sons drifted away in the lifeboat, being fed biscuits by strangers. Michel remembered sitting near a little girl and her dog.
Lasting Trauma
While Michel’s recountings of his time on the Titanic are a mixture of curious bemusement, there’s no doubt the disaster left a profound and serious impact on both his and Edmond’s lives.
Where Life Led Them
The younger of the boys, Edmond, went on to serve in WWII, but passed away young at 43 years old. Michel pursued academics, where he became and doctor and professor of philosophy. Later in life, Michel participated in several Titanic survivor reunions and memorial events.
Father's Fate
As for Mr. Navratri, his body was recovered, but given the false name Hoffman on his ticket, he was misidentified and assumed to be Jewish. That resulted in his burial with the Jewish victims in Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, Halifax in Nova Scotia.
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