| May 16, 2018


The night should have been dark and stormy, but it was neither. We had come, the six of us, to an ancient, reputedly haunted, definitely rambling stone structure that some say began its life as a fort.

I arrived barely in time to sip my welcoming drink, before Jeff ushered us in to our assigned tables, though the noise level suggested that many of our fellow diners had been clustered around the bar for a while already, perhaps anxious about what might come to pass in the course of the evening.

This had all started several weeks earlier, one morning when Cam and I had gone for breakfast at the Holiday Country Manor in Battersea, where Core’s home fries are real, his corned beef hash a rare find, and the sides include a bologna option for the truly nostalgic. We noticed that their coming events board listed the opportunity to “Dine with your Spirits”. Thinking that it sounded like a wine or perhaps Scotch tasting event, we asked.

“That’s been sold out for ages, but we’re planning to have one more before summer,” Jeff said. Then he explained that the evening included a three-course meal, and the presence of a local woman who is a medium, and who could bring some people messages from the spirits of departed friends or relatives. “I don’t know what to believe,’ said Jeff, “but some of the things she said were quite amazingly accurate according to the people she was bringing the messages to.”

Jeff and Core have an ornate picture frame hanging on one bare stone wall. They don’t actually say it’s there to accommodate the hotel ghost when she chooses to appear, but neither do they deny it. And they know her name. ‘Charlotte’, I think they said.

Once I had my fortune told by an old woman who grabbed my hand in a marketplace in Marrakesh, but it was altogether predictable: “Ooh, la, la! Amour, beaucoup d’amour!” She was laughing, but as if we were sharing the joke, as she snatched my money. I had never encountered a medium and was immediately curious, as were two other couples we spoke to. Cam insisted he would come along but only as a voice of reason, and for a good meal.

When everyone was seated, we saw that the only men in the room were the three at our table: all the rest were women. Everyone seemed a bit tense and very excited: the noise level was so high it was hard to hear the person beside you. While we were eating our salad, a young woman came in and introduced herself as Jeni Juranics from Elginburg, and briefly explained what a medium was and how she had come to understand that she was able to connect with spirits and bring messages from some of them to their living friends and relatives. This was different, she said, from a clairvoyant, who could see things as they happened in the past, future, or a distant place. She said she would be back, once we had finished our meal.

After the salad we were served our choice of beef bourguignon, stuffed chicken or vegetarian (all superb), followed by lemon meringue pie — real lemon pie, made with fresh lemons.

While we were finishing our pie, Jeni came in, and the room hushed. She closed her eyes, then began tentatively to describe a person whose spirit was trying to reach her. Looking around, she asked if anyone knew who it might be. As her descriptions became more detailed, someone in the room would identify a person they recognized. One was an acquaintance, sending a message to his wife, neighbour of the person in the room. Slowly, as one left, others came into the medium’s mind. Always, there was a message, often bringing comfort or advice. Once, to the medium’s surprise and amusement, a cat contacted her former owner. Sometimes there was laughter, sometimes tears.

The evening came to a close around nine; the medium looked exhausted. Only a few of the thirty people in the room had received messages: no one at our table recognized any of the spirits that were described. However, as we stood around outside afterward, we all agreed that the evening had been interesting, and we were glad we had been there.

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