| abstract | - The Medium conducted spiritualist sessions at Weatherfield Spiritualist Church. Using his "gift" of relaying messages from the spirit world to members of his congregation, the medium briefly counted Ivy Brennan among his herd in 1990. Ivy was compelled to attend a service at the church when Vera Duckworth, dragged there by her work friend Brenda Thornton for a laugh, told her that the medium had made contact with a spirit called "Brian". Having lost her son Brian Tilsley the year before, Ivy went along with Vera to hear the medium's words herself. "Brian" wasn't mentioned, but Ivy immediately bought into the medium's spiel about the dead trying to make contact, and was impressed when he gave a woman a message from her late father Jim, and knew all about her despite not knowing her personally. Ivy became convinced that the medium was genuine and kept attending the services until he spoke to her. Her moment came nearly a week after her first visit, when she was in attendance with her workmate Laura Collins. His words were not what Ivy expected; there was no mention of a Brian, but a Martin and Elizabeth, with the impression of a young man in a uniform, a busy hospital and a car crash. Ivy interpreted the message as being a warning from Brian that Martin Platt was going to have a road accident, and dashed out of the service to check that Martin was okay. After upsetting her family and Don with her "warning", Ivy discovered that Bet Gilroy (Elizabeth) once had a son, Martin Downes, who had been killed in a car crash while serving in the army, and decided that the message was for her. As she had given Martin up for adoption and never known him, Bet refused to pursue the matter further. Shortly afterwards, Ivy decided to give up the spiritualism and return to the Catholic church.
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