Hey, Humans. How's it going. Susan Ruth here.
Thanks for to another episode of, hey, human
podcast.
This is episode 412,
and my guest is Heather Bloomberg.
Heather is an interior designer and renovate. She
and her family moved into an abandoned hundred
and 50 year old gothic style of funeral
home in dresden in Ontario, and
Its renovation is the subject of their discovery
plus show. We bought a funeral home. It
showcases the incredible life that has been breathe
into the house, but also it stirred up
a bev of ghostly roommates in the process,
not the show, but just they're being there
in the renovation. The haunting are the subject
of a new book by Richard A step
called a grave undertaking, which comes out August
20 24
Heather is delightful. I was following Heather...
She has a tiktok, the Bloomberg, and
she's been documenting a lot of the home
renovations, and her design style, everything which is
impeccable, so beautiful.
And her family and all that, and it
was on the Tiktok and Instagram, And then
1 day, my friend Nick posted about being
at the house,
and
it turned out they're related. So so wild,
and her husband and Nick. And
so, Nick, my friend was on episode 3
86 if you wanna check that out, and
Nick. He's an incredible drummer in place with
Kenny C also a great episode. I'm so
keen tal. Fast I'm talking.
So excited about this episode with Heather,
such an interesting woman, super open. We talked
about many of the happenings going on in
the house.
The book, of course, will go into much
further detail. That's the 1 that's coming out
in August.
Of all the people and all the families
that could have moved into this home,
they're the perfect family. I'm so glad that
it's them, and listen carefully at 15 30
and at 25 14,
noises that are neither the dog nor a
door.
I'm telling you what.
I'm so excited for you to hear this
episode.
It's
wild.
And,
yeah, right at my alley. I wanna go
stay in this house immediately. That's a tail
for another day. Alright. General stuff. I'm on
Patreon at Susan Ruth
and
check out hey human podcast dot com for
links and learn more about my guests in
the show. Check out susan root dot com
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And, yeah, thanks for listening. Be well. Be
kind,
love,
be open because this is a wild ride.
Here we go.
Heather Bloomberg Welcome to hey human.
Hi. Thank you very much for having me.
I'm super excited to have you on the
show.
For lots of reasons,
but we had to give it shout out
to Nick,
who connected us.
I know. Nick is just the best human.
He's he's amazing. He's a good guy. He
had a great episode on the show too.
He's he's lovely. I've known him for a
long time. Yeah. He's giving you a tough
act to follow. I'm not gonna lie. You'll
be fine. It'll be good.
How I went to jump in with you
just to give people a little bit of
background on you where you were raised.
And
your...
What led you on the trajectory of who
you are and what you do, which then
sets the stage for what we're gonna talk
about.
Sure. Absolutely.
So my background is totally bizarre. There are
no street parts involved. Obviously, British grew up
in Cambridge.
Met South African and got married at sort
of a tender age of about 23,
subsequently had 2 children and
In that time, we were working in a
very corporate world for,
1 of the big fours consulting firms.
And they posted us all over the world.
So it was great. We got to experience
actually pretty much every continent we got to
live and work on.
And eventually, that led us to Canada, which
is where we reside now. We've been here
13 years. And this is where it all
sounds perfectly normal to begin with. This is
where it starts to get weird. At this
point, I'm a partner from a consulting firm.
So little miss super corporate,
and the pandemic hits.
And a month before the pandemic hits, I
decide now a really great time to quit
my job and find myself something in the
arts because corporate is not for me. It
took me a long time to figure that
out. And so during the pandemic, during the
lockdown, my husband and I saw a picture
of a house online,
with an article saying, you know, cash out
of your city home and go live in
a mansion in the country. And it was
at that point, which will probably we get
into more that we we ended up in
a very small town in Canada called Dresden,
living in a
hundred and 50 year old funeral home. It
looks like the Adams family mansion,
and we had a random approach by a
production company. Who said, hey, we think he'd
make a good Tv show fancy.
And that's how I've ended up here today.
They approached you just because you bought this
hundred 50 year old home or because you
in the... While you were living in this
home, you started
to hear things that go bump in the
night.
So the former, the house that we we
saw was in a news article. That's how
we saw it. And once we bought it,
we we literally... We drove out not having
any intention of moving out of Toronto.
Walked in the backdoor door. Were here 3
minutes, and we were, like,
crap. We're buying this house aren't we. And
it happened that quickly. And literally on the
way home, drive home. We told the kids
by the way, we're moving to small town,
ancient told old funeral home and we're gonna
bring it back to life.
The news article did a follow ups saying,
oh, we heard 1 of the houses features
sold. They named me and the production company
tracked me down through Linkedin
and said,
you know, do you want to do
at a Tv show. Can we talk to
you?
So we're like this is so bizarre. This
doesn't happen in real life. Of course, we're
gonna take this call.
And
we initially thought from the conversation that it
was going to be, like, an episode of
someone else's show. And
it it turned into our own show. And
at that point,
I'll view what was we're buying a funeral
home.
Everyone arrives dead, it's gonna be so peaceful.
Let's gonna be so lovely, and we love
very quickly that that's not the case. Is
it still an active funeral home then we're
at this point when you're... When you purchased
it?
No. It had closed a funeral home and,
I think 20 15, and it sat on
the market for 6 years, so we bought
it in 20 21. So it being d
decommissioned. And it was it was originally built
by a a lumber baron, and it was
built as a family
home mansion.
And about 60 years after it was built.
It was turned into a funeral home. So
it operated as a funeral home for a
hundred years.
Did the Tv show
want to know the red the reno aspect
and the design aspect, and that's why they
approached you or did they go in knowing
that things were going on?
No. At the time, it was purely runner.
It was just 1 of those sort of
well this is a be weird 1 And,
you know, if everyone's obsessed with home renovation
shows,
So it it seemed like a sort of
good unique angle, and we filmed it just
to release it for
Ghost to.
And that's when it came out. And my
understanding is your family is halloween obsessed.
We are.
We all that family on the street that
we go all out for for Halloween, and
maybe not entirely kid friendly. We had an
escape from the asylum where the patients murdered
the doctors
when we were in Toronto that got equal
parts complaints and had all the local people
from the hospital, the doctors,
paramedics,
cops coming up and ask him to take
pictures on the lawn with it. But yeah.
It definitely caused to stir.
Was it a hard sell to the kids?
To say you're moving to this small town
and you're buying a funeral home?
No. It really wasn't, and this is where
people think car family is really odd, but
we have literally
opt and moved around the world on a
whim, and our kids have always done it.
We'd actually lived in Toronto far longer than
anywhere that been in their life. So their
viewers...
Yeah okay. It's kind of about time and
we've never done this before. Let's give it
a go. What's dressed like? Tiny tiny agricultural
town. There's about 2000 people that live here.
Median age ages probably
70.
We're not fully integrated.
I think it would be fair to say,
we turned up this younger family dressed in
black covered in tattoos, buying an old funeral
home
with a dog that's called Satan
And I think the poor neighbors were like,
what.
And then the next thing they know they're
invaded by this huge Tv crew, and, yeah.
No. I think
we made a splash.
Let's talk
renovation. How does 1 take on? How many
square footage?
14000
square feet how does 1 take on that
kind of undertaking you had no pun intended.
You'd never done that before. Right?
So we'd renovated our own homes I've done
a little bit of work for sort of
family and neighbors and things. But of this
magnitude no never. We weren't, you know, honestly,
we're completely naive. We we walked in the
door. We fell in love
we did not for 1 minute think through
price per square foot for renovation. And it
was a commercial building, although people had lived
up says in the apartments,
you know, the the ground floor or sorry,
North American first floor,
nothing. We had to do everything from Hvac
to plumbing to electrical
install kitchens, bathrooms,
the whole thing. So I I think that
all translates to stupid.
Money pit for sure.
Money pet. Beautiful money pet. We love it.
I'm sitting in the library at the moment.
It's stunning.
Thank you.
Yeah. We we
we definitely
didn't think it was the way through.
When did things start to occur to you
as far as there might be other people
living in this house that we can't see.
Probably
about
6 6 to 8 weeks into it. So
I'm a terrible insomnia yet. So I was
up 1 night at around 3AM and I
was painting
and a lady shouted hello.
And I froze in my spot,
and it come from the parlor,
just next door.
And it honestly, I was terrified. Out, there
was no bravery here. I I sat down
on the couch. I had the dogs with
me. They their hackers had gone up. They
were grow at the door.
And I just sat there until the light
came up and everyone's that started getting up.
And I was like, okay, that... That's weird.
I can't explain it.
But okay.
But then
more and more things
started to happen and it was
it it it was sort of gradual, but
it escalated really quickly if that makes sense.
Like,
we heard more voices.
You would hear music playing from the basement
that would be, you know, footsteps walking around
the house, doors would slam.
The weirdest 1 is this gentleman that was
in the house. So
we didn't even
think anything of it. We had
12 people here from a Tv crew filming.
We had contractors and trades
and deliveries.
You know, for the first year, 18 months
that we lived in this house. We were
never alone, and there was always, you know,
20 people.
So we used to see this gentleman. We
calling him the great jones because he's gray
hair and he had gray trousers on and
just a white shirt.
He was just around. We'd seen walking through
corridors,
up the stairs, and we
we didn't even question it
until production shut down and everything was done,
and
1 day, my husband saw in first,
I was like, what are you doing? And
so I sort of went to see what's
going on and my husband's like,
did you just see? Where did he go?
And I was like, what are you talking
about? He's like that guy that we never
knew who he was working for?
And
you regularly see him? He wander us a
set path
through the parlor, up the stairs into the
main hallway,
back down again, and you see him
every 2, 3 months.
And do you know who he is? Have
you looked up history?
So we have. We did research during the
show, and we've had some investigators come in
and look through the house as well. There's
a book being written about the house available
in August, I think. A grave undertaking?
A grave under undertaking. Yes.
There are so many candidates of who he
could be. We don't know for sure. He
doesn't look like any of the photos. We
we know he's not the original owners or
any of the subs couldn't owners, but
so much goes on this... On in this
house and so much is seen and heard
in this house.
It's almost impossible to keep track. It's the
craziest experience we've ever had. And I know
I sound like a complete utter as I'm
talking about this. But not know. I believe
in all of it. So
you don't sound I'm crazy to me. Or
it's really funny. So I... I... I'm with
you. I always believed, and I had a
few experiences in my life.
Here something happens every day, and it's got
to the point where
we're almost
almost bla about, you know, are regulars as
we call them, like this gentleman, like some
of the women that we, are hear talking
and some of the other things that happened.
But my husband and my my son were
staunch
No. It's not a thing. You're crazy.
And my husband now has had so many
experiences. He's the first 1 out of the
door now Like, yep. Houses haunted. Here's the
things that happened. You know? Have you catalog
how many
people are there? So we've tried. We've got
to the point we've we break it down
into 3 categories. So we've got a core
contingent of about 12 to 15 that seemed
to live here full time.
And then we've got another sort of 15
or so that are our regulars by regulars,
We see them or hear them every month
or 2.
And then there's what we call the pass
it throughs, where
you'll see someone or smell something or hear
something or you'll get a voice,
and you hear it once and it never
repeats again.
Interesting.
I always wonder if
some of the
spirits that we,
hear or feel or smell or or sense
that they're on their own timeline because of
whenever the particular thing happened
at the time of their death.
And so it matches with that date or
specific hour
I look honestly, I'm open to any idea
at this point because
I... When I came into the house, I
believed in so much. Now I believe in
a lot less. But what I believe in,
I wouldn't profess to know the reasons for
it or anything like that, but I strongly
believe. And, like the gentleman, the great gentleman
that we see all the time.
What you're describing is exactly that he walks
his path.
It's at certain times of the day, it
is every 2 to 3 months.
He... There's no eye contact. He's not it.
He doesn't even seem to be aware of
us,
and it's...
You know, that residual, I guess is the
the term of what's going on.
But then there there are others. There's a
lady that is 1 of our regulars. Her
name is Poorly, which should be featured in
the book.
She comes in
every month, but she doesn't... She's not here
full time, but she talks to us and
answers and interacts
and
it it's nuts. It's completely nuts. It's,
you know, noah when we first moved into
the house, kept having someone sit on her
bed. And she would get woken up when
the person sat on the bed, and she
could feel the pressure,
and it freaked her out to begin with,
but
nothing happened and she didn't feel
She was freaked out but not scared. And
so when we had the investigators here, we
tried to get into that a lot more.
And it turns out this is a lady
Poorly
she's from Dresden. Her family actually still reside
in Dresden.
Her husband had his funeral hair,
and
she visited this place. It was sort of
a
sort of a a beacon for the neighborhood.
And when Noah moved in, Noah reminded her
of her daughter.
And she says that she really loves noah.
It was... It'll be in the book and
we've got V of it. We were doing
the second session with Poorly.
And there's myself and Noah doing the session.
And then there's 9 investigators.
8 of them are, you know, truly big
bur men, you know, hardened to the paranormal
world, and then Jill was also there who's
a
a sense she's amazing.
And this is the point where we were,
like, why do you keep coming and sitting
on my bed? You know, what is it?
And she just she wrote out love and,
like, with all of us crying sobbing. It
was the most crazy but wonderful thing. That's
lovely. Please tell me someone keeps coming into
that room or am I just hearing a
door open and shut out of nowhere.
So you're hearing 2 things.
There's someone in the... It's so where I
am in the library right now beneath me
is the old balm room and storage.
There's someone wandering around down there and knocking
things around. And then the other 1 was
the the door that creek just then was
my dog coming through, but you're probably good.
Good to know. Nothing was surprise me if
you tell me you can see someone or
hear someone I'm like yeah. Sure. If I
got my eyes open. That's for sure. You
said that there are things that you did
believe in that now you don't believe in.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
So it's
I guess it's a lot of it is
the drama
of it. Do you know when you watch
the shows
when you read some of the books.
It's always
a demon or something
with a desperate message or something trying to
hurt you.
You know, and I was always
it it was always big and dramatic and
that sort of thing. What I have learned
now is that
there's people that haven't moved on that are
here for
hundred and 1 reasons.
And sometimes they just wanna carry on living,
and it's actually
nice
and
almost... Comforting to have people around, and it's
not big dramatic things all the time, you
know, a door opens and closes. Well,
it's just someone coming and going.
You know, someone wants to spend time in
the house because they love my daughter because
she reminds them of their daughter.
You know, it it's it's those things that
I don't think people
talk about
or acknowledge as much. I mean, we have
had a couple of sort of uncomfortable things
happen, but
it's... Yeah. It's the less dramatic
scandalous,
you know,
ghost hunter type things that I think
I think I believe far more and now.
I also think far more happens around all
of us every day than we have any
clue about. I would agree with that. That
we're just not paying attention to or or
not maybe aware you're probably getting more tuned
in all the time living there as our
I think your children have the benefit of
being young, so they haven't
been given the the bricks with which to
wall themselves in, so they could still feel
and hear things.
Yeah. My daughter know her especially always has...
When we moved to here, she was 12
and very open. And she still is very
open. I mean, she has
from the day we moved in, she would
get home from school and she would walk
in the house and she'd walk up to
her floor, which is a silly thing to
say, you know, her floor.
But she walks up her floor. She starts
chatting. She chats to anyone that might be
there that might wanna chat to her and,
you know,
she just... To your point is is open
and it is just...
This is just what things are. Do you
ever feel like someone might watch you all
your having sex or going to the bathroom.
We're taking a shower. I mean that stuff
with K.
I mean, we... With funny Aaron my husband
and I Aaron and I have had that
conversation and friends and Have made the joke
and, you know,
maybe.
And if that's
makes them happy,
going for it. It was their house first
and
I'm shameless this.
I mean, Ma'am, I'm with you. If they
wanna watch that's on them, Not on me.
Just gonna be prepared for whatever they're gonna
see, but, you know,
you said there's been a couple of things.
And obviously, the woman shouting hello to you
was
it was scary because you weren't used to
it yet. But have you felt any kind
of
warnings or
for whom the bell tolls
situations?
Yeah. There's only a few
And I... They're probably more shocking to us
because we're so used to sort of such
a nice comforting
environment when it happens it's like fall. But
there's... So the woman shouts
randomly. She still shouts hello all the time,
which she's caught everybody that's been in this
house. It's quite amusing. But the first night
that we had the investigators here,
Richard a step and his team.
After they left,
and he'd be a long day, and we'd
had some challenging things come up in some
of the readings,
dead left, Aaron and I had just gone
to bed,
and the house started banging. It sounded like
the foundations were cracking. It's huge
thud, thud. Literally the the floor shook.
Kids woke up We, like, the dogs are
going nuts. We were just like, what the
hell is happening.
This house is silent. It doesn't even cr
and settle
you know, it was that was
really unnerving.
And about an hour after that happened, we
were woken up by a howling.
It sounded like a wounded animal,
but it was coming from inside the house.
So we had that on the first night,
which we presume is
people not happy with the investigation.
We've had
1 day. There's a... There's 2 spots in
the house that are
They're uncomfortable.
They're not terrifying
or anything like that. But you definitely don't
feel welcome in them. I was... I've gone
into the habit of doing video or doing
voice recordings and things.
And I'd just walked into the family room.
Again, it was about 4AM.
And I sw blind. I had someone with
through my ear basement.
So I got my phone out. Did the
voice recording, and I was just like,
what's in the basement?
Didn't hear anything. Played it back when it
was light outside because I am a coward.
And there's a man's voice saying I am.
And it was
it it it was not threatening. It was
just... It was horrible. I just hated it.
It just... You know when you go in
your skin cruise and everything
that was really unsettling.
And then sort of the other thing we
have that we we just honestly don't know
what to do with is
we have a mimic.
And
I honestly never believed in mimics. I heard
stories. I know. I'm an idiot.
Heard stories, and I thought it was people
being
silly or wishing that something was there.
And it started off with my husband.
My
my husband was getting a drink, and my
son
supposedly walked past him and so
my husband was just like, oh, I'm making
a,
book ton, Do you want want?
No answer.
And so he went around the corner where
my son had just gone to, when he
wasn't there. So he
sent him a text message saying, where'd you
go? And he was, like,
I in my room. I haven't been out
of my room, what's going on.
And then
after that, it was my daughter and her
friend,
having a sleep over and they came downstairs
about 11:00 at night
to grab food, and they
went through to the kitchen, but then they
could hear me calling their names.
And apparently I was in the room I'm
in now, and they could hear it.
God love my daughter was smart enough not
to answer,
and they just got where on... As they
were coming
through to go back up to the stairs
to go upstairs, They could see somebody standing
there, calling their names in both of them
just ran for their lives.
And then I've had an experience with the
minute mimic where I was again in insomnia
year. So I was down here in the
library with the dogs, and I was watching
Tv.
And my husband, he's got this great solution
for insomnia. He looks at me and he
says just go to sleep. It's like Honey
you're genius. I don't know why I didn't
think of that.
And it happens over the time. You can
imagine how that gets. And so he walked
into the library.
And he said, what are you doing?
And I just turned around and I glare
at him. He's like, why don't you just
go to sleep? And I was like, yeah.
Great. And then I ignored him because I
was angry. So he walked back off. And
it was a few minutes later that I
realized that I hadn't heard the stairs. You
can hear when people come up and down.
So I got up and went upstairs and
he was sound to asleep bed.
And that
to to now, that freaks me out that
I could have a
conversation and not understand that it wasn't my
husband.
That's
bizarre.
That to me, the mimics are probably the
most terrifying.
I now I've experienced it and I understand,
I agree. The fact that,
you know,
if he had said, Oh, look I wanna
show you something in the basement. I would
have gone. It wouldn't have dawned on me
not to go.
And when
the mimic is calling my daughter's name and
her friend's name.
That makes me that
you know,
as nothing has happened,
you know, again, you know, it's not like,
anything awful has happened, but it does leave
the sort of the idea in your mind
of well
why where where are we headed with this?
You know, if we acknowledge
you...
What does that open up? I don't know.
Yeah. I've got no answers. And is that
a recent occurrence?
Yeah. So it's been...
Well, we've sort of now... Now we've realized.
We've been kind going back through all the
different things that happened in like, oh god,
maybe that was the moment maybe that was
that. So it's been going on about a
year, but it's in the last
4 months that it's ramping up.
So it does make me very nervous.
Richard, he did the investigation who's become actually
a really great friend here and his team
being great. There's sort of on hand to
help us if anything should.
Happen and they've offered to come back and
cleanse the house and do things. But
I'm see. I'm I'm...
It makes me very uncomfortable, but I'm also
fascinated.
Yeah. I might be on that. Do you
feel that the other ghosts and or beings
in the house would step in to protect
you from that?
Yeah. We do actually. And that's something that's
come up a lot in
the investigations and the readings and everything that
we do is that
you, it's again, not like the stories is
in the shows and everything. Nobody's trapped here.
You know, we've had no
communication that anyone is bound to this house
or here against their will. It's very much
people want to be here.
And
there's half an idea in my mind that
when we have had
then this sort of uncomfortable things happen. They've
never happened again.
With the exception of the mimic.
And when we talk to the spirits and,
a gentleman called is Stephen, who's
a sensitive and well she's is a medium
and an investigator.
You know, he's had conversations where people are
very clear that they feel protective of us
because we love the house so much and
weird we've put it to a family home
and it's coming back to life, pun intended.
You know, that
that
basically, they sort things out. They'll look after
us.
Yeah. You know? And it's
it's when... I do people whenever they come
to the house. They have this dear, you
know, they look at the outside of it,
which is kind of, you know, it's it's
grand but creepy,
and it's, you know, a funeral home and
everything that comes alongside that they they come
in the door actually nick. You should ask
nick about this, but they come in the
door and they're like, oh,
I've never been anywhere so calm. It's lovely.
It's
you know, it is
so welcoming.
And I think that's a lot to do
with the people that are still here. It
just
You you do feel welcome.
Yeah. You're a design aesthetic also helps a
great deal, I think.
It's quite lovely. I felt... That I mean,
the the funny thing is is I learned
about you because of Tiktok and only after
that did I find out that you were
related to Nick.
Oh really?
As I found you on Tiktok first.
And then when I was thinking, oh, I
wanna talk to these people. This is so
fascinating.
Then I found the connection because I think
he went and visited.
Right then... And did pictures I went, wait
a minute. This is the fan I'm, like,
ledge what are you talking about.
Right. It was funny. How these things play
out.
Yeah. He and Nick and Ashley and the
kids came and stayed with us for a
week over Christmas and New Year.
Did their children experience anything out of the
ordinary? Yeah.
Kids are so open.
So open and I'll let Nick tell story.
I don't know how much you would want
to say, But I think it is fair
to say that Nick walked in a skeptic
and walked out very convinced.
You should talk to Nick about it because,
like,
they had a wild time here with what
they experienced. Yeah, Nick like, literally ran into
somebody
more than once they heard voices. They had
kids running around,
the Ollie
experienced so much. And he actually... What's crazy
mean his what 2 and a half when
they were here.
And
he was talking to dd and ruth, and
we went back and looked at baby names
and children's names and oh, yeah. They were
here. It's just...
Oh, so you have a you have a
a list of the
deceased that came through.
No. We have a list of all of
the families that have lived here and so
all of the people, and then we have,
like, anytime a name comes up we have
to go and investigate.
Because this house saw thousands.
Right? Did anyone ever die in the house?
Yes.
Oh, my god. We're up to, like, 23
that we've tracked so far,
which is crazy. So,
yeah. It it'll come out in the book
But 1 of the families that lived here,
1 of the sons turns out to have
been mentally ill and he killed 2 of
his sisters in the house.
Earlier than that, there was a mother. There
was a woman a young woman, very young
woman that's forced to get married
and forced to have children. She had 11
children of which she killed 5
in the house.
In the house, all in the house. And
then the other thing is that I didn't
understand until we moved here is
funerals and visitation are stressful, so people with
underlying conditions, old people. It's not uncommon for
them to just drop down dead.
Literally, a funeral be going on
with noah and I should told store. Noah
and I were at the post office, and
this woman came up to me,
And noah. I was just like, I have
to tell you story about your house. Were
like, great. And they were like, my mom...
My grandmother died in there at a funeral.
And I was like,
I'm sorry. What? It was literally. So they
were attending a friend's funeral.
Her mother
was
singing
at the funeral,
and out she was singing her mother, so
this woman's grandmother literally dropped dead and fell
out of her chair. She was taken upstairs.
Priest came,
the the doctors came,
declared dead, she was taken downstairs inbound and
3 days later.
There was a service here for her. So...
And there was another 1. This guy. He
didn't know who I was, and I was
in a store, and he was he came
in and he was talking to someone else
and they were gossip about the new people
that had bought the funeral home. He was
like, I wonder if anyone's told them that
that guy hung himself in the 1 of
the bedrooms, hart.
I'm sorry. What's this?
And, yeah, at the sort of,
I think 20 thirties someone can hung himself.
In 1 of the rooms. So,
like, the longer you're here, the more people
come and talk to you and tell you
and then there's more that it
Yeah. It's endless.
Wow.
That is wacky. And not unsurprisingly. I mean,
just as you were talking about the various
things especially with children,
I'm glad as horrible as it is for
kids to be murdered, obviously, or to die
young either way, at least there are other
kids there as well to play with. If
they are going to be stuck in the
house or not... You what I mean? If
you say that they're by choice. But if
they're going to stay, at least they have
play.
This is the thing, and it's funny when
when Nick the kids were here because they've
got young children.
It we occasionally hear the kids, very occasionally,
not that much.
Well Nick and Ashley were here.
It was every day. Running around laughing, sometimes
crying,
we've got an E of a 1 of
the children saying mummy,
it just... Yeah. Because the other kids, the
live kids were in the house that probably
got them all excited and wanting to play.
Yeah. Because they wouldn't have seen them. I
mean, there weren't any children living in this
house since the forties.
Yeah. So it... I mean, this must have
been incredible to suddenly have
live play, new play, whatever you want to
That looked like them. I mean
representation matters.
It does.
Does.
Even in this spirit world, I'm sure.
Oh yeah.
So interesting. Your Tiktok is great
for those listening
talk a little bit about that and your
decision to make that and are you surprised
by how it blew up. I mean, everyone's
obsessed a little bit with haunting and
things around supernatural.
I think that goes without saying, but yours
in particular
got very popular.
I honestly was surprised. And
Yeah. I I actually... I've been terrible in
the last couple of months, I need to
get back to posting again, I'm rubbish.
Lot work. It took Yeah. Well I had
no idea when we when we did the
Tv show,
we had to do social media, so I
had to learn it. It was a hard
lesson.
And I now feel really mean about all
the things that I said about influencers over
the years and,
you know, easy money? No. It's not. It's
hard work.
Thank you. 1 job. It's a full time
job for sure. That's what... Yes. That's very
much what I learned.
And, yeah. Anyway, No. It was it was
really surprising. It's I
doing the show and then keeping up with
social media afterwards,
we really thought that when the show came
out, there would be either, with 1, we
first believe we thought people were nuts for
making this that Discovery plus was out of
their minds. Nobody was ever gonna watch to
show about our family. You know, Like, we
thought it was stupid.
And then, not only did people watch it,
but it had such a huge reaction, and
we found
we've we've found other people like us, you
know, the...
Have the family life have the experiences,
that really embrace it, that are happy to
fly the freak flag and
be weirdo those and we are all 4
of us are. We know that. And it's
it's been
far more rewarding than we ever thought. And
then when I got in the habit and
study posting on tiktok the response to that.
You know, so many people being fascinated by
the paranormal and by the renovations we're doing
in the house because, you know, it's
it's not your typical
white everything or beat you something. You know,
It's got a lot of personality.
Yeah. It's been it it's been lovely. I
gotta be honest.
You talked about in 1 of the videos
I watched.
I think it's an upstairs room that has
the welcoming.
Is an unblock feeling? I'm assuming the basement
also feels welcoming.
What was it about that room that
major hack fries.
So that's a room. Yes. It's actually... It's
sort of off 1 of the wings and
it's above
the garages now.
And it's... We call it the overflow room.
So when they were em birmingham or if
they had too many casket or too many
services or the... It would get overflow up
to this room.
And it's
it's literally... I...
You go into the corridor and stand at
the bottom of the stairs,
And even if the lights on the room
is dark, and it just...
It feels like pressure coming at you, like
you are just not welcome. It's like do
not come.
As so when you do go up there
and you get in there like your ears,
pop, you feel a weight on your chest,
you are very, very watched, and it feels
borderline aggressive.
And again, we had a, a
someone come through who's also an investigator,
Danielle.
And, you know, she called it a lurk,
someone that is
just lurking and watching and unhealthy,
not violent,
but just
creates that
nasty atmosphere. And so I even now, I'll
turn all the lights on, but I make
the dogs go up there with me. It's
it's the last room. I've got 2 rooms
left to renovate. It's gonna be the last
1.
I'm really not looking forward it. Can you
clear the space? Over do you feel like
that's crossing a line, kicking someone out?
That... That's exactly how I feel because lots
of people who come in and say, oh,
you could do cleanse and do staging and
everything. I'm not gonna do that. This wasn't
really just the most recent caretaker of the
space. There's people that have lived here for
decades centuries in fact, it was their home
first. I'm not gonna do anything that makes
them feel unwelcome even if they make me
feel uncomfortable.
Mh.
I once
So I have all sorts of interesting stories
myself, but I was once called to a
house where there was drawers being open, plants
being knocked off,
lit candles being knocked off of counters, this
sort of thing. What felt like a true
haunting.
And what it turned out to be was
a woman and her son
this... She knew they were passed on or
that they were not
in corpus.
The child did not, and she was adamant,
she did not want the child to know.
And the child was acting out because there
were these people
in his house.
And it was sort of an intention thing
and also a Brat thing. Yeah. And and
it got him attention, and so it got
he he kept to it. We ended up
in a nice little agreement. They left candy
for him and the cupboards
and in exchange for him not behaving that
way. Was really fascinating is that he was
obsessed with the red... Or there... No. He
said the red... What did he say? The
red
it's a vehicle, but he called it something
because from whenever they died,
there wasn't such a thing as like a
pickup truck. He called it something specific. The
red something. And it turned out that the
boyfriend of 1 of the women that lived
in the house had the shiny red brand
new Gmc
truck that he loved and he was obsessed
with, and so we worked out sort of
a negotiation that he was allowed to, you
know, be part of, you know, play with
truck and things like that as long as
it didn't hurt or hurt anything or anybody.
But It was wild to have these
negotiations with
the energy that
very much is aware of itself.
That's... It... See that's exactly it. That's what
happens here.
And it is it is completely well because
that's...
I I don't even know how to put
the thoughts together, the the words together. Just
you can have a conversation. You can have
a negotiation
you can see the results of it
with
a spirit, of ghost, I call them energy
because I don't know what the right thing
is.
It was swallowed
completely long. It's so wild.
It's so wild.
I believe in it a hundred percent And
the thing that... That's so interesting and you've
probably come across this and especially because the
Internet creates trolls, but the idea that
you don't have to convince anyone because you've
experienced it. Just like, I feel like I
have no need to to convince anyone of
anything I've experience. It's my experience, and it
doesn't matter to me whether you believe me
or not because I know. Yeah. I'm not
gonna fight you on it. I'm not gonna
argue. I'm not gonna scream yell. Because it
doesn't matter. You know? Do you find that
you have gotten more grounded that way?
Yeah.
Really really have you know, when we first
moved in and things started to happen, especially
the show wanted to
bring it up, we pushed back a lot
on some of the things that we would
talk about on the show because we didn't
want it to be that jump
sensational thing because that's not a true representation
of what was have sitting here. And so
when we first started experiencing and talking about
it, my husband especially had and that's the
dogs and the, okay. I'm much to get
jumped on by dog down.
I say.
That is that satan who's just come in.
You know, I
I felt like I always had to defend
my position on it and justify it and
all of these things. And at this point,
you know, I I don't. This is what
happens.
It's what I believe. It's what I experienced.
We've had
20 people through here.
Who've done investigations. We have E vps. We
have videos. We have pictures.
We have,
you know, we've
just the evidence is
absolutely
crazy,
but it's
talk to you or you believe. It's, you
know, and if you wanna be rude about
it, you go ahead and make yourself feel
great about it, but
doesn't bother to me any. Yeah. And even
to go as far as the person that's
in the the spare
overflow room as you described it, It may
be that they're just concerned that you wanna
get rid of them, and so they're fighting
sort of an offense is the best defense
scenario.
Yeah. It could well be. The basement one's
is a little creep and the mimic thing,
pretty creepy.
Yeah. The deb basement is, although
I've not had that voice. I've not had
anything there since.
There is a spotting the very old basement.
There's only 1 spot that gives you that
sense. Yeah. We've we've not seen the... It's
permanent above the the garages the room out
there. It's
day or night, it's they're there all the
time. And we try and we're, you know,
we we're very vocal that everybody is welcome
to stay, you know, when people come in
the house and
suggest cleansing
and
various things. We are, we shut it down
immediately, and we are very clear that that's
never gonna happen. Unless somebody
does something to hurt 1 of us. That's
that's a very different scenario, but
Yeah.
Everybody's is welcome here. Can't wait to watch
this back and see if anything fl by
because I'll tell you when we started this
and we were talking,
the... Everything in the background of my computer
went completely black and then came back on
again, and that's never happened. So I thought
I was like, oh, we will get something
good.
You might. I watch it. You you would...
We we constantly had problems when we're shooting
here, all the screens going out, batteries, like,
the 8 hour batteries
would last 20 minutes. You you name it.
Or, yeah. It was fun.
Yeah. I died twice when I was younger.
And so my veil is quite thin. That's
why Another reason I'm like, oh, I wonder...
Oh, yeah. Because I I swear they recognize
that in you and for some reason and
so they're more willing to talk... It's almost
like
like a social worker so they they're like,
oh, you get what I've gone going through.
I don't know. Weird. No, I think you
I think you are spot on because what
I have noticed that when people come to
the house,
as I say, usually,
it's fairly quiet.
And until sort of day 2 where they've
figured out who's gonna be receptive who's gonna
talk. But like I've had a few people
1 my friends, Vicki,
she is
very much like you, very thin about, very
sensitive see here all of it. And from
the second she walked in, they're making her
themselves known. Like, literally greeting her at the
door.
It's crazy. So I think you would... I
think you'd have a time here. But again,
it's nice.
I mean, it's not threatening. It's
it's fascinating.
Yeah.
Yeah. I think the biggest thing is it's
all about boundaries. You don't scare me, I
won't scare you. Is that a deal? You
know?
I it does. And there's been a couple
of times where I have been scared, And
I you're not guys. This is not cool.
Don't do that. Why would you do that?
Yeah. You know? And
again, probably sound completely crazy, but... Yeah. I
believe it. And often told people that it's
all about boundaries. The universe works
with some some particular laws, and those laws
are boundaries. Now there are those that
that crossed the line, just like there are
in life. Yeah. There's gonna be those that
crossed the line in non life. I don't
even like to call it death because I
don't even know what it is. But because
they seem very much alive. They're just different,
you know?
We... This is why it's, you know, when
Richard and I first met his first question
to me was what do you believe? And
I struggled to answer that because
ghosts spirits,
entities. None of those are right It it
is
energy
that takes forms in the form might be
sound or sight or
smell...
So if it's energy, they're not dead, but
they don't have, you know, a proportional body.
III
don't know. I just don't know.
Is the plan. I read that you do
you considering selling the house? So you're moving?
Is that correct?
Half. Yes. So
my husband's
job needs us to be,
on the other side of Ontario for a
while.
We've got the house on Air airbnb, so
you can rent it.
Oh, yeah. It's it's is
it's it's a little more popular than I
first anticipated.
Yeah. You think.
Okay. I was like, oh, you know, the
show was a year ago, everyone's over it.
No 1 will know us and it's it's
doing quite well. And I'm really excited for
people to experience this place. We love it
so much. I can't wait for other people
to experience it. It is on the market
to sell because we don't know what we're
gonna do. And there's a bit of a
friendly competition between Aaron and I
on, I'm like, well, if I can rent
it, and, you know, while we're away, so
it pays for itself, then we don't need
to sell it, Do it. So that is
that is my thoughts. So I'm just hoping
the rentals keep going. Because I love this
place. It would absolutely devastate me. Yeah. It's
so beautiful. Are you concerned at all? And
I'm, again, thinking beginning of trolls and things.
Are you concerned at all of anyone coming
to stay there that is gonna try and,
get rid of people that live in there
just for kicks?
I am
the...
There's a couple of things to it. There's
there's that side where they are gonna try
and move people on because It happens.
The only thing I would say on that
is most of these people because
because no one's trapped here because everyone is
here by choice because the people coming in
are usually novice that have read how to
do things on the internet, they're probably not
gonna be very successful. They're gonna annoy the
hell out of me, they're gonna annoy the
hell out of people that are here,
but they probably can't do much damage. That's
what I'm telling myself. And then there's the
flip side of it of
just working out enough protection and how I
understand if people are coming here and inviting
anything else in because we are very cautious
about... Thank you. How we communicate and how
we
protect ourselves
and the house.
Yeah. Absolutely.
And bring some sigil situations into it or
something. I'm I'm not sure, but there's gotta
be
Yeah.
Again, the team that's... That worked with Richard
on the investigation, a couple of them have
become very, very dear friends.
And so they've been offering help and guidance
on how we can do that. So good.
Yeah. Get it protect them too. It would
just a crazy thought that it's a reality
for you.
It is a no. It's crazy thought, and
it's crazy altogether, but it is a reality
and Honestly, I hadn't really thought about it
until Jill who I mentioned before
was talking about some of the
investigations she's been on where people that have
gone on them with her.
Has suddenly started trying to cleanse and release
spirits and move them on and she's like,
like, yeah. No. This is not the thing
we do. Yeah. It's sort of horton. Here's
a who and Be juice combined as a
cautionary tale.
Yeah. It is
can't.
Well, tell people how they might find you
in on the socials audio
all that stuff and to be able to
learn more about what you've done and and
watch your renovations and such.
Okay. So we have the show we bought
a funeral home, and that's streams on
discovery plus,
H hbo Max and Prime.
And then for both Instagram and
Tiktok, we are the Bloomberg,
and you can find us posting all sorts
of weird things there. We are terrible at
social media. So you get the true story
of our And then the house is
on Air airbnb b, and you can rent
it. I think it's under 06:20 Cross street.
Is the title. So
dresden, Ontario, you'll find it quite quickly. There's
a lot of it out there.
Have you had any
people
showing up on the door, you know, Bob
Dylan fan style that are uni unavailable. Have
you had that that
scenario?
Yes. We have. We have
had people knocking on the door asking to
come and drink in the speak easy.
We've had people,
come to the house and demand to be
shown around because we put it on Tv,
and so they have a right to come
in and see things.
We have people that take pictures through the
windows and then they send them to me
on social media to say, look at the
picture I got. That's a that's a really
weird 1.
That's worse than the mimic.
It is. I... I mean, that's like 1
percent of the the people that do weird
or uncomfortable things. I mean, it has been
an overwhelmingly positive experience so far.
Yeah.
When do you officially move out? And I
I'm assuming the Airbnb things happen
in sections,
you're their part time and away part time?
No. So it's... We
officially launched the Airbnb in July. Our first
guest come on July fifth.
And so we will have a new place
as I say, sort of the other side
of Ontario called Ottawa, and so we'll be
there. What we're the Ab airbnb being. And
just because the house is so big. We've
decided that we'll only rent the whole house.
So you can't do by room or anything
like that. It just
boom we'd have to have a property manager
in here and managing it, and it'd be
more of a traditional B, which
we're not ready for. Yeah. Although what a
cool job that would be to be the
on site caretaker.
I tried talking my son into it, but
he was having none of it. So why
hate did he he just didn't wanna be
tied to the house like that? Yeah. Always
he's 22. He he's looking forward to getting
him back to a city and, you know,
finding a bar
and a social life.
I get that.
Ontario is quite large.
For those who don't know.
Ontario was... Yeah, It's huge.
So it's not like you can get up
in the morning and say, I'm gonna nip
over and check out the house. It's it's
a requires time and effort.
It does... So, Ontario,
to drive across Ontario takes just over 24
hours to give you an idea of how
big goal
we call it a province you'd call it
a state, but it is massive. Yeah.
Yeah. When we first moved it, I had
no idea and you suddenly realize, you know,
much like crossing America, you know, you go
into so many different time zones and Yeah.
Yeah Yeah. Absolutely.
Well, it's still delightful speaking with you.
I
would love to come see the house. I
just put
I too. I'm so curious, and it also
it's just stunning. It's a stunning home. You've
done an incredible job.
Thank you. Yeah. I really appreciate that. And
you should you should... When you can get
here, come, we'll make sure there's no guest
here
and come and stay here. You'll have... The
first night is always quiet. It's like they're
sort of su you out and seeing, you
know, if you're gonna be receptive and goes
of it. And then then it's it's literally
fun in games. It it really is It's
a special place.
Have you set out a chess set to
point chess with anyone? Yes.
Yeah. We have a... Yeah. I know. We
have chess and we have both of the
checkers out. And do they play with you?
A move. They do move. Yep. And we
have put bells in every room because I've
found by accident that there's... I think it's
probably the kids they're like ringing the bells
to let you know what room they're in
and... Yeah.
Oh, wow. That's so so cool.
So goodness.
It's so cool. What a great life you
have.
It has been
completely wild and unexpected,
and it has been it's been magical.
It's been and the the fact that we've
got to do is a family.
You know, is...
We'll have this forever. You know, when Aaron
and I gone and the kids have got
their kids, they'll be able to show them
what we did and this life we had.
I mean,
How cool is that? Oh, and if you
decide not to sell it, it may just
keep passing down through the generations. And then,
maybe you and Aaron will get to haunt
it and the just kick. Yeah. I think
would be far more mischievous than a lot
of the people we've got here, but I
love that.
Thank you so much for your time. I
really appreciate it.
No. My pleasure thank you again for inviting
me on. I really I'm gonna open a
book on this. And if you have a
follow ups questions or get asked anything, just
let me know Happy I, I wanna get
on a plane honestly.
Right now.
God that's
Yes. I have a lovely afternoon. Okay. You
too. And thank you. Alright. Lillian. Thank you
for listening everybody. Bye.
Bye.
Rate review and subscribe to your Hey Human
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