"She sees visions of the departed, unfortunately too often of the people she most disliked." James Lees-Milne, New Year's Day, 1947

Doreen telephoned and I went to her at six o’clock. She told me she has a medium who regularly visits her; that she sees visions of the departed, unfortunately too often of the people she most disliked when they were alive; that, notwithstanding, she was eagerly looking forward to death, which her medium tells her takes the form of life being gently drawn through the fingers. She is not in the least melancholy and enjoys her life, which is not life as enjoyed by most people. From true life she is too divorced to care whether she exists any longer in this alien world. We all feel like this, but most of us cannot withdraw from it in the way she manages to do, shut up in her bedroom and adjoining sitting room, with curtains tightly drawn, for days on end.

From James Lees-Milne: Diaries, 1942-1954 (US link) p. 269