BUSINESS IS STRONG IN THE DARK LAND OF BEYOND
“You won’t find me in a graveyard. Ghosts are where they lived, loved, passed away.”
WHEN I LAST SPOKE to Stephanie Dumbreck, 17 years ago, I got her fired.
No worries this time. Stephanie’s in charge now, the boss and brains of a surprisingly successful enterprise called Haunted Hamilton.
It had just been born when I interviewed her in October of 2000. Haunted Hamilton was a hobby then, and Stephanie paid the rent by doing contract work for a web designer.
She was fresh off an all-nighter back then, bringing Mayor Bob Morrow’s website into the new millennium. “The old one had a really dumpy look,” she told me, and I quoted her.
Upon reading that, her employer said, “You can’t say dumpy.” That was the end of that relationship. Sorry, Stephanie.
She had nothing against Bob Morrow. She was for whichever candidate could save Hamilton’s history — the buildings, and the spirits that dwelled within them.
I wrote about Stephanie, age 21 then, because Halloween was coming. I wouldn’t have bet that Haunted Hamilton had any kind of staying power.
But here we are again, Stephanie 38 now. And the Haunted Hamilton brand is going strong. It is her full-time job, and business is good.
On Friday night, at LIUNA Station, she hosted the 16th annual HH Halloween Costume Ball for some 500 partiers. On Saturday night, she pulled together a sold-out investigation of Harry Stinson’s spooky old Cannon Knitting Mills building.
A couple of weeks ago, she held a haunted walk for McMaster staff that sold out in a flash. And Haunted Hamilton partnered for a murder mystery at the Hamilton Fall Garden and Mum Show.
Earlier this fall, she staged two haunted events at Dundurn Castle. There was a time when the city was not open to such affairs. Haunted Hamilton has made ghosts nearly respectable. The Facebook page now has 11,000 followers.
Stephanie runs bus tours, here and in the U.S. She does downtown walking tours. It’s always been about the history for her.
She says you don’t track down spirits by prowling past tombstones. “You won’t find me in a graveyard. Ghosts
STEPHANIE DUMBRECK
are where they lived, loved, passed away.” Places like Auchmar, or Century Manor, or the Custom House.
Life is good for Stephanie now. A few months ago she married millwright Scott Dumbreck, who she met through Haunted Hamilton. And his 18-year-old daughter BellaDonna Bailey has become an important part of the business.
But for some years, things were hard in the house of haunting.
Stephanie experienced great heartache in trying to have children. Nothing worked. And there was a struggle over Haunted Hamilton with Stephanie’s ex-husband. She eventually won the right to the name. (He has an operation called Ghost Walks. Never let it be said we’re underserved in the paranormal department.)
But the stress was taking a toll. Stephanie put on a hundred pounds.
She finally shed that. But then, a diagnosis of melanoma. Stephanie remembers the night, spring of last year, when she knelt by the fireplace in tears, and reached out to her beloved late grandmother.
“Baba, I want to live. I want a sign.” And with that, she heard something on the back patio. There on a Muskoka chair sat the strangest little creature, a head like a gargoyle. It turned out to be a hairless kitten.
“My grandmother used to call me ‘my kitten,’” Stephanie says.
They never found where wee Newt had come from, and that curious cat now brings comfort to Stephanie each day. For her, it is not so much about apparitions and ghost meters and screams in the night. Spirits come in quiet ways.
Stephanie will not be handing out candy tonight. She and her husband head to cottage country. They will be at a remote place, one you need a boat to get to.
“Halloween is when the veil is thinnest,” she says. “I’ll just sit there, lights off. I’ll be listening, hoping somebody has something to say.”
Paul Wilson’s column appears Tuesdays in the GO section. PaulWilson.Hamilton@gmail.com @PaulWilsonInHam Special to The Hamilton Spectator