I can’t say for sure
that I saw a ghost back in 1992 at a restaurant
called The Buttery (now called Corks),
but while I was using the washroom in the basement,
I could hear someone shuffling around on the floor behind me.
There was no one there.
This restaurant was built on the original foundation
of the home of Lloyd and Kate Burn,
who lived here in 1850.
Kate agreed to marry Lloyd Burn under the condition
that her brother Philip,
who was ill with a mental disorder,
live with them.
Lloyd agreed, as long as Philip stayed in the basement
under lock and key,
since he was prone to outbursts and seizures.
The arrangement worked for a while,
but Philip hated it.
Infrequently, he was let out of the basement to visit with the family,
but this only made him want his freedom even more.
One day, in a rage,
Philip managed to get out of the basement
and lashed out at his pregnant sister on the stairwell.
She spilled hot soup on herself,
scalding her legs and abdomen.
Her screams of pain caused Philip to panic,
so, he pushed her away.
Kate fell to the bottom of the stairs,
where she later died.
The baby was lost.
Philip must have blamed his brother-in-law for everything.
Philip grabbed a knife and headed upstairs.
After hearing his wife’s screams,
Lloyd had barricaded himself in his room
by pushing a heavy dresser up against the door.
But this didn’t stop Philip,
who gained entrance
and stabbed Lloyd relentlessly until he was lifeless.
Afterward, Philip ripped up some floorboards in the basement
and buried his sister and her husband.
He sat there for two days and then
either killed himself or died from a massive schizophrenic seizure.
Not long afterward,
the neighbours began hearing noises from the house.
More than a century later,
when the building was bought and turned into The Buttery,
the ghost stories became more prominent.
Often were heard sounds of moaning
and of someone falling down the stairs.
Ghostly apparitions were seen,
and there was poltergeist activity – moving chairs,
trays being knocked out of servers’ hands,
and even a slap on the back of a worker
who was folding napkins.
Soup spills and burns are more common here.
Even the owner of The Buttery badly scalded her legs from a soup spill.
In the early 1980s, an exorcism was performed.
It seems that Kate has found her peace.
But what about Philip?