Mok O'Keeffe, 56, once lost everything—his brother and father died within days, his mother lost mental capacity, he lost his job and home—but now lives in a haunted castle in Wales where he bosses around the resident ghosts. After a psychic told him to take a firm hand, he set rules: no spirits upstairs after 9:30 PM.
From Tragedy to Turret
In 2010, Mok lived in London when his world collapsed. “I lost my entire family within two years,” he said. “My brother Andrew died at age 44, my father died the day after his funeral. My mother lost her full mental capacity, I'd lost my job and couldn't afford my house, so I sold it under duress. I was living on £20 a week. It was awful.”
Andrew had asked Mok to help raise his three nieces, so he threw himself into family life. “My mother went into a care facility around the corner. I was doing school runs, seeing my mother in the morning and evening, and trying to start a business. I was in a terrible way,” he said.
Meeting Joe and Finding a Castle
Using savings, Mok bought a small cottage in Gloucestershire, where he unexpectedly met Joe. “Life is a journey. If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have met Joe. Or Gladys,” Mok said. “I met Joe in a little village just near Highgrove, where King Charles lives. I thought I was the only gay in the village. What was the likelihood I would meet a man, fall in love and marry him?”
The couple moved to Wales five years ago so Joe could be nearer his family. For £900,000, they bought “a baby castle”—a five-bedroom home with Elizabethan roots, a turret and a title near Abergavenny. Now the baronial Lord of Glenbach, Mok posts about his experiences on YouTube and Instagram as @Lifewithmok.
Denial to Belief in Ghosts
The previous owner warned him: “This house is haunted.” She said she’d been lifted and carried down the stairs. Mok replied, “I don't believe in that nonsense. But I do now.” He initially told the ghosts he was happy to share the house but they must leave him alone. They did, for a few months, then started visitations—moving figures and flickering lights.
Delving into the castle’s past, Mok discovered a sinister history. Hundreds of years ago, people were taken to what is now Wales' most haunted pub—the Skirrid Mountain Inn—for execution. The night before hanging, they would sleep in what is now Mok's bedroom. He dismissed this until, a year after moving in, he heard loud footsteps on the stairs that woke him. His yoga mat would be rolled up and tucked away, shadowy figures crossed his path, and his schnoodle Chaucer barked at invisible spirits.
Gladys and the Psychic
“I learned that a lady called Gladys, the youngest of nine children, lived here into her nineties and had her ashes scattered on the cherry tree in the garden.” Neighbors have seen Gladys' ghostly figure roaming the grounds, though Mok hasn't. He invited local psychic Lisa to examine the house. She confirmed forces were at work, feeling pressure around her neck in Mok's bedroom. She told him about Gladys and instructed him to take a firm hand.
“When I told her that I had seen a figure going up the stairs, Lisa said that I had experienced a time slip, and that I had potentially seen the executioner going up the stairs to collect one of the prisoners to take them up the road,” Mok said. “Through Lisa, Gladys said I had to take control of the ghosts. They were misbehaving. So I had to stand in my room and say: ‘You can't come upstairs after 9:30pm.’ After that it went really quiet and they rarely bother me.”
Living with Spirits
One night, Mok walked up the stairs and saw two eyes peering at him through the door of the snug. “I just said to them: ‘You know you're not allowed to come upstairs. Stay down there.’ And I went to bed.” Now a firm believer, Mok isn't frightened. If ghosts act up, he tells them to “go into the light.”
“There is definitely a feel when you come in. This house has a feeling of history. There's nothing sinister. It has a beautiful energy. It's incredibly calm. It envelops you with real love,” he said. “I love being here, and I think of it almost like it's another character in my family. It's like Diana, with three of us in this marriage, and this house is a support to us. I love this house. I will be carried out of here in a box. I will have some of my ashes sprinkled on top of Gladys' in the old cherry tree that she planted as a child.”
