Kentwood Park residents Norm and Verla Wattam pose with paranormal researcher Lisa Van Meer, who holds a ouija board she brought to a presentation at the Picton long-term care home.
Paranormal presenter helps residents talk about experiences with spiritual world
Kentwood residents discuss long-suppressed ghostly encounters following presentation
Wednesday May 7, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
A recent presentation on paranormal activity in Prince Edward County was an engaging experience for residents at Kentwood Park, says life enrichment co-ordinator Linda Sheppard.

Sheppard adds the program served as a vehicle for residents to speak comfortably about their own brushes with ghosts.

Paranormal researcher Lisa Van Meer provided residents at the Picton long-term care home with insight into some of her experiences tracking ghosts and visiting haunted houses in the area. Van Meer, who is writing a book on her experiences, shared stories and brought along some of the equipment she uses to track ghosts.

Because the Van Meer’s stories are so close to home, residents were intensely focused on the presentation, says Sheppard.

“There were at least six residents in the room who are from the county, so when she talked about homes in the county that were known to have spirits, those residents clued right in,” she says. “I think most residents are of an era where people would quietly say, ‘I believe in ghosts.’”

Her discussion prompted some of the 15 residents attending to open up about their own ghostly experiences, which is exactly what Sheppard says she wanted.

One of these residents is Thomas Munro.

Munro says he has had a lifelong fascination with ghosts, dating back to an unusual experience he had as a youth. Van Meer’s presentation encouraged Munro to tell the group his story.

On a spring day when he was 12, Munro was going spear-fishing in a creek just off Highway 2. As he made his way through a walkway under a bridge over the creek, he fell into the water. The last thing he remembers was floating down the creek.

“The next thing I knew I was sitting on the ledge underneath the bridge, and there was a man there who said, ‘Are you all right, son?’” Munro recalls. “He helped me up. I stood there for a moment and I looked around and there was nobody there.”

Munro says he’s happy the program provided him with the opportunity to share his story with the group. Following this incident, Munro says he kept quiet about what had happened for a long time. At the time, Munro says discussing an encounter with a ghost wasn’t an appropriate conversation topic.

“Back in those days people would have thought you were a kook,” he chuckles.

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