Who Wants A Ghost Story?

It's cold outside, it's late at night, I'm lying in bed and thinking of a story I was told today.

Today, my aunt recalled a ghost story she was told when she was training to be a nurse in the 1960's by a colleague. 

While training, my aunt and her fellow nurses used to have all night shifts, their break would be in the middle of the night when all the children on the ward were asleep. It was already dark, quiet and only dimly lit due to all the children needing uninterrupted sleep. 

While in the break room, as the children slept and the tired nurses downed coffee to stay awake, they began to tell each other ghost stories; this is one that was told to my aunt by a woman who was from a remote location in the Scottish Highlands. Her mother told her this true story from her own experience as a nurse in the 1930's..,

"My mother in her younger days was hired as a private nurse for a man who didn't have long left to live. The man did not have any family, no children, no siblings, only one housekeeper that hired her.

He was living on a very isolated island off the coast of Scotland, his house was in the middle of nowhere, only accessible by boat. 

Upon starting work for the man, the housekeeper informed her that her patient had lived a "very evil life". My mother would never elaborate on the details of this "evil life" but it was so extreme he was now living alone on this desolate island to escape his past.

My mother nursed him for weeks, he was barely conscious most of the time and she knew his time was coming to an end. She realized that this one particular night would be his last so decided to stay with him throughout. 

There was no one left in the house, just my mother holding the hand of the dying man. While staying by his side, knowing there were mere moments left, the bedroom door swung open and a jet black dog entered and skulked under the bed. That moment the man took his last breath. Shocked at the invasion of this unknown dog, my mother looked under the bed to remove it from the room. The dog had vanished from under the bed, was nowhere in the room and was never seen again. 

It is a common belief in the Scottish Highlands that the devil disguises itself as a black dog to enter the room of the dying to take the soul to hell."

Simple, short and bloody terrifying...I'm now going to attempt to sleep....night night Birdies....x