Haunted Ontario 4. Terry Boyle

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СКАЧАТЬ me out: just as I entered the kitchen the coffee percolator started to drip. I stood there in shock.”

      On yet another occasion Cathryn was astounded by the generosity of the spirits. “I always know how much money I have in my wallet. On this particular day I was going out for lunch with some friends. I knew I had two five-dollar bills in my wallet. Before reaching the restaurant I gave one five-dollar bill to my son before dropping him off. I then stopped at a convenience store and spent the other five dollars. During lunch a musical group entertained us. I decided to have the waiter deliver five dollars and a request to one of the players. I pulled my wallet out and to my amazement discovered the five dollars was gone. I made a fuss about missing this money. I couldn’t believe it. Then I realized on the way home, after picking up my son, that I had spent the money at the variety store. Feeling quite foolish with myself I drove home. There at the top of the basement stairs was a soaking-wet five-dollar bill. I then remembered the psychics saying the spirits were there to help me.”

      Cathryn and Ian renovated the north wing at the back of the house into an apartment that they rent out. A previous tenant once borrowed two books from Cathryn. After she had read the books they were returned. Cathryn remembers placing them on her desk. One day she noticed that one book had disappeared. A short time later her tenant discovered the missing book back in her apartment standing upright on the floor.

      The same tenant often complained about missing her clip-on sunglasses. Each time she would have to go out and buy another pair. Then one day the missing sunglasses appeared. Three pairs of sunglasses, all clipped together, were discovered on a shelf.

      MacKechnie House hosts many celebrations. One evening Cathryn catered for a woman who wanted to celebrate her fiftieth birthday by holding a séance in the house. She hired a psychic and invited eighteen people to attend.

      According to Cathryn, “It was a strange experience. They held the séance in the library and dining room. Holding hands they waited and waited. Then someone spoke, ‘There is something in the basement.’”

      Cathryn said, “I believe this. I have seen a pink light or beam travel by me. I can also feel someone standing behind me. At the top of the basement stairs you often get the feeling that someone is walking by.” This is the same place where the $5.00 bill mysteriously appeared.

      When it comes to spirits one never knows what will happen next. This was true for Cathryn one day last year when she went shopping for antiques in Port Hope. “I was in Port Hope visiting an antique shop on the main street. The woman who owns the store said to me, ‘Have you seen the ghost?’

      “I replied, ‘No, but we understand we have three ghosts. One of them is a little girl, another an elderly woman, and there is a bagpiper.

      “I then said to the woman, ‘I wonder if the elderly woman is Mrs. Burgis?’

      “Then the lady said to me, ‘My dead grandmother is with me.’ I said, ‘Oh yes, I feel that way about my grandmother, too.’

      “The woman was looking at me with tears in her eyes. ‘You don’t understand. My grandmother is talking to me right now. And Mrs. Burgis has asked my grandmother to ask you to give her permission to leave this plane.’

      “I was at a loss for words. I said, ‘All right.’

      “I came home and went to the room where Mrs. Burgis had died. I then addressed her. I said ‘You are more than welcome to stay but if you want to go, please do so.’”

      It would seem she didn’t go. Just a week later a guest staying in the Rose Room was hugged. During the night the guest felt a coldness around her shoulders and neck. It felt as though someone was embracing her. Was it Mrs. Burgis?

      When did Elizabeth arrive and why did she stay? How did the bagpiper die? Why did Mrs. Burgis not leave with the male figure at her bedside? Who or what is the presence in the basement?

      Elizabeth and Mrs. Burgis seem to have a friendship, or at least communication with one another. Is this common phenomenon in the spirit dimension? Other ghosts at other sites seem oblivious to one another. Does this mean they were connected in life or is this just another coincidence?

      At least Elizabeth has someone to talk to! Maybe you should pay her a visit.

      The Orchards

      ~ Prince Albert ~

      In Haunted Ontario I alluded to the haunting of my previous home. This is the full story:

      The Orchards is a beautiful house in Prince Albert, Ontario, built by James McBrien in 1870 for his bride. McBrien was the first inspector of public schools for the province of Ontario under Egerton Ryerson. He built his home in the Cape-Cod tradition of white clapboard with green shutters and trim. It had a magnificent cabriole veranda and two-storey summer kitchen with servants’ quarters upstairs.

      The McBrien family was a well-educated, artistic, musical, and spiritually active family. There was one “black sheep,” a troublesome son named Sydney who did things like sell the family chickens for money to buy himself a drink or two.

      All in all they were an upstanding family, well-respected in the community; folks smiled when Major-General James H. McBrien Junior rode his horse to town to get the mail. James McBrien Junior spent some years in the North West Mounted Police and saw service in the South African War. From there he went to Australia on military service and the

      Heartland, or the Orchards, the former home of the McBriens.

      Military College at Cambridge, England, where he studied military technique. During the First World War he was appointed to the general staff. He was later made chief of staff at Ottawa, becoming the head of affairs in the Department of Militia and Defence. He retired as the head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. His sister Julia McBrien was a concert pianist who travelled to Persia and California. Another sister, Elizabeth, produced art that hangs in the National Art Gallery.

      The Orchards remained in the family for a hundred years. In 1970 the two remaining McBrien sisters sold it to Joe and Dolores Victor, who sought a place to hold Gurdjieffan group-work intensives. The Victors shared a toast and sealed a deal with the elderly McBrien sisters. The spiritual history of the home was to continue.

      When the Victors moved in they discovered that the house had been left completely as they had first seen it. No furniture had been removed; even the clothes were hanging in the closet. The pictures on the walls and the sherry glasses the McBrien sisters had used were still on the coffee table. It was incredible.

      There was a hundred years of family history — a penny-farthing bicycle, a beautiful harp, decades of period furniture and valuables, a three-holer outhouse in the back, and an elaborate old cookstove in the summer kitchen. Dolores made herself right at home and it wasn’t too long before she discovered they were not “alone.” The elderly sisters had moved to a nursing home, but someone was still there.

      Among the things that happened was the constant slamming of the hall door that joined the house to the summer kitchen. It would slam in Dolores’s face, it would slam her in the back. Her bed would shake as if it was trying to fall apart. She was a strong woman, a spiritualist and not easily intimidated — ever! She told her unseen housemates “This is my house now. You live here if you like but leave me alone. Stop slamming doors and shaking beds. I’ve had enough!”

      Surprisingly, the СКАЧАТЬ