The Lady of the House

Would the Lady of the House be in?

In this case, the answer is a definite yes. She is always in; as many of the Ivy Tea Room employees will attest to (more on this further on in the book). The Ivy Tea Room, housed in a turn of the century home, came complete with its very own resident ghost.

Mary Brockie (Hogg) Pearce was born in 1868 somewhere in Bruce County and married Thomas French Pearce on July 5, 1892. They had four children together: Mary Agnes, Howard, Mable and William who was named after his grandfather, William Walker Hogg. Mr. Hogg was a prominent businessman dabbling in horse-trading, land exchanges and also sold marble monuments in Paisley. He was an avid member of the Paisley Abby Camp Sons of Scotland and served as Paisley's first constable in the 1880's. Before his death in 1904, he served a one year term as Paisley's Reeve.

I remember the strange feeling I first felt in the pit of my stomach when a customer of mine sat waiting for her friend in the tearoom. She was staring at the portrait of Mary that hung carefully on the wall in the would-be parlour long before the tearoom ever existed. As I always did with all of my customers, I entered the room and greeted her warmly. It was good to see Jen's smiling face. She then suddenly turned to me and said that something strange and unexpected happened to her while she was away on a trip to British Columbia. She explained that she had been to a psychic but instead of being told about her own situation, she was told about a friend of hers who owned a tearoom in a rather large house. The psychic stated that the original owner was no longer living but was still in the house. Jen was completely shocked. She was then told to give me a message. She was to let me know that the Lady of the House was here to help me as a friend. She was not to be considered a threat and that she would never leave.

Amazed, I stood there with my mouth agape. My children had already experienced Mary's presence in the house. I myself had heard footsteps downstairs one night, closed my eyes, and asked, Who is there?

This was something I had learned while attending tea leaf reading classes in the little hamlet of Bervie. To my surprise, I could see in my mind's eye a woman wearing a long dark gown with hair drawn up tight in a bun. She walked slowly from the front entrance and through the doorway toward the fireplace in the parlour. When the vision finished, I realized that I had stopped breathing and that all of the hair on my arms was standing straight up. I said Mary's name under my breath and goosebumps ran up my spine and across my shoulders.

I shared this memory with Jen and then we both had the hairs standing up on our arms! I was relieved to hear this bit of news as some visits that had happened in the first couple of years at the house did not seem friendly. Jen leaned in closer with elbows resting on the edge of the table.

Visits? Like what?

She was in for some ghost stories and I had many yet to tell.