Did Ghostly Guest Crash Wedding?
The Hamilton Spectator - August 17, 2000
By: Paul Wilson

This is a ghost story and it begins on a Saturday afternoon in August, one year ago. A wedding is under way.

Carol and Jim Forrest exchange rings at Pioneer Memorial United Church. They know what to expect. They have been together 11 years and there are already three kids and a house.

It's the second marriage for Carol, 31-year-old nursing assistant. It's the first for Jim, 38, machine operator at a plumbing supply company. They have invited about 70 family members and close friends. The day will cost $13,000.

After the ceremony, they climb into a white Lincoln limo and head for Dundurn Castle. Carol's hired two photographers. And she has been to city hall and paid $50 for the permit to allow her wedding party to pose on the castle grounds.

Over two hours, about 200 photos are taken. Then the party moves to the Trocadero for roast beef and dancing.

Two weeks later, the photo proofs arrive. Carol orders 30 eight-by-tens, which will all end up on her living room walls.

When the pictures arrive, Carol's cousin stops by to pick up the photos she's ordered, then takes them home.

That night, the cousin calls. "Carol, there's a ghost over Lloyd's head."

Lloyd is Carol's brother. And the photo in question was taken at the back of Dundurn, by the dining room of Sir Allan MacNab's 40-room house. The photo was of the men and boys, all in their new -- not rented -- tuxedos.

Carol gets out her magnifying glass. "O my God. That's a face." A pale grey face. It seems to be in profile. Then again, perhaps it's looking right at you.

Carol calls Jim into the room. The groom sees that face too.

Carol then begins a campaign to validate the apparition. She takes a glossy around to Black's, Japan Camera, Photo Depot, Split Image. She has the picture made larger, lighter, darker.

She takes copies to Dundurn. The staff there are kind enough to take her into the dining room and look for any portraits on the wall that might have shown up in that wedding photo. That theory is ruled out.

She goes to Ways of Wisdom, an occult shop on Barton East. The man there puts a pendulum over the photo and says, "You've caught something. I would say it's a young female spirit. She will return."

Many months pass. Carol gets worried. "Is this haunting me? Is there something I did that I'm going to be punished for?"

Then Carol saw Caledonia psychic Bettee Giles on TV and decided she would send her the photo. This week, Giles wrote back with good news:

"You definitely had an extra guest at your wedding. Her name is Sophia. She felt such spiritual energy from your brother and felt comfortable to be there.

"I believe she's a lonely spirit and missed being part of many gala events that took place at Dundurn Castle when she was very young. I feel it's a good luck omen to have this spirit present and will probably bring great protective energy to the whole family."

Sophia (pronounced So-fie-a) was Sir Allan MacNab's favourite daughter. She got considerable attention in our paper last month when the diary she wrote as a teenager became the centrepiece for one of the shows of the Boris Brott Summer Music Festival.

Anyway, at last notice Bettee Giles was charging $60 for a five-minute consultation.

But Carol says she got her report free and believes all of it. She is relieved to hear that having a ghost at your wedding is a good thing.

Ron Albertson has viewed the photo. He is not a psychic, but he is the Spectator's photo chief.

He wants to agree with the psychic's findings. And if he looks hard enough, he can nearly see a face. But it is, he says, nothing more than a reflection -- an image formed by the trees and the sky on that day at Dundurn.

For the final word, we turn to T. Melville Bailey, 87, minister and historian, who knows as much about Dundurn as any man.

"Because it's a castle," he says, "people think there must be ghosts." However he is not aware of even one.

But could Sophia be a good candidate for a ghost? Could she be a lonely, restless soul, driven to roam the halls of her old home?

Bailey doesn't think so. Sophia snared a prize, Lord Bury, and married him at Dundurn on Nov. 15, 1855. She wore white-glacé silk, trimmed with wreaths of orange blossoms. From The Spec's coverage of the day: "Her extreme beauty was the theme of every tongue."

Then she and her husband moved to England. She had 10 children and lived in luxury for the rest of her days.

"She had a wonderful life, complete happiness," says Bailey. And to the best of his knowledge, she never returned to North America, in life or in death.