was not unusual in this place of business to answer the phone and find no one was on the line; or to have heard the knocker on the front door go bang, bang, bang. One of the ghosts even enjoyed whistling and could be heard in the dining room. The music of choice is classical. Just ask anyone who works in the restaurant and they will attest to the fact that the radio sometimes changes to a classical station, apparently on its own.
Returning to The Jester’s Court years later I discovered that Deena Vallieres, who was working as the manager back in 1998 is now the owner of the restaurant. I was excited to discover that Debbie Burton, the waitress I had interviewed years ago, was still employed at the restaurant. I spoke with Debbie to see if she would grant me an interview. She agreed and added that she had quite a few new experiences to share.
The restaurant has been physically altered over the years. The small bar area on your left as you enter the building has been enlarged. The kitchen that was adjacent to the bar is now located in a new back wing of the structure. Some tables and chairs have been replaced with booths. Overall, the dining establishment has maintained its cozy and homey atmosphere. The restaurant specialties that continue to draw diners from far and wide are prime rib, slow roasted and served au jus with Yorkshire pudding and liver and onions, baby beef liver, pan-seared and served in red wine gravy with bacon and onions.
I met Debbie Burton on a Thursday evening. Still very animated and willing to share her stories, she immediately launched into a ghostly situation that occurred a few years ago when a film crew arrived in Port Perry to shoot Welcome to Mooseport, featuring Gene Hackman. Debbie told me, “It was Friday afternoon around 12:30 p.m. when three film crew members arrived for lunch. One man in the group was a short Scottish gentleman. During lunch the Scottish gent got up from the table and proceeded to go up the stairs to the washroom located on the second floor. A short time later I saw him come down the stairs. Suddenly he stopped. He was having a fit. He began to stammer and shake and I could see beads of perspiration on his bald head.
“I asked him, ‘Are you having a heart attack?’ He couldn’t talk. Then he pointed up and muttered, ‘Ghost Lady upstairs.’
“I said to him, ‘relax, this spirit likes you.’ Then I proceeded to give him a brandy to calm his nerves.
“Then he told me that he was upstairs in the washroom, washing his hands, when he looked in the mirror and an elderly female spirit was looking back at him. She was laughing at him.
“The Scotsman and his companions did manage to eat their lunch; but the group were not filming that afternoon and decided to go to the casino on Scugog Island after lunch.”
Guess who went with them?
Debbie added, “I knew our female spirit had gone with them.
“A few hours later the film crew returned. The Scottish man had won three jackpots! He had this huge roll of money. I knew his good luck was a result of our kind female spirit. Then he said to me. ‘I just wanted to come back and thank her (the female ghost) for my good luck.’
“So he went back upstairs to the washroom to say his thanks. He also gave me a generous tip,” stated Debbie.
More people have reported seeing the spirit of a little girl in the restaurant. Often children who visit the establishment see her standing on the staircase landing that leads to the second floor. Debbie never saw her, not until the year 2000.
That night Debbie and some other staff members were alone in the bar area at closing time. One of the staff had Debbie’s digital camera and decided to take a photograph of the group.
At home later that night Debbie and her husband, who is the chef at the Jester’s Court, decided to take a closer look at the group picture that had been taken earlier.
Debbie described what happened next, “There we were looking at the photograph. We couldn’t believe it. There was the little girl spirit in the corner of the photograph. I was astounded. She was wearing a white Victorian night gown. She had blond hair with bangs. She also had a large piggy turned up nose with deep set eyes and full cheeks.”
Debbie explained what happened to the photograph. “We had a friend who owned a good graphic computer and quality printer. We decided to have him make some prints of the picture. Unfortunately, before he could complete the task someone broke into his house and stole his computer equipment along with our ghostly picture. It has been lost forever.”
How unfortunate! What are the chances of that happening? Debbie still had more stories to share involving this young girl spirit.
“One time we had two families from England who had daughters, aged eight to ten. Both families had come for dinner. During the dinner the two little girls left the table to go to the washroom upstairs. Who do you suppose they saw? The little girl spirit appeared on the landing in front of the girls. I caught sight of the two girls standing on the landing. They seemed quite animated and appeared to be having a conversation with someone that I could not see. I knew then that the girls were talking to our young female ghost.
“The girls eventually returned to the table and told their parents about seeing and talking to a little girl.
“The parents called me over to the table and said, ‘Our daughters tell us they have found a friend.’ I told them that they had encountered our little girl spirit.”
Every time the two English families arrived for dinner the daughters would return to the landing to talk to the young girl.
For years now Debbie has maintained a close relationship with the elderly female spirit who wears her grey hair up in a bun and appears throughout the building. Debbie explained, “One night I saw her. It was Friday night and no one was seated in the dining room. I was behind the bar with a group of customers, seated and standing, in front of me. Then I caught a glimpse of her. She appeared in the dining room window located in our enclosed porch area. She was looking right at me and motioned with her arms to come and see her. I excused myself from the bar and went out to the porch to see what she wanted. By the time I got there she was gone. She was just playing with me.
“Another night at closing time two chefs and I heard something. Most of the lights were already turned off. We could hear our female ghost walking down the second-storey stairs. We could not see her, but certainly her footsteps were loud and clear. Down the stairs she came and then back up the stairs.”
There is another spirit seen at the Jester’s Court. It is a man. Debbie has never encountered him, but a couple seated at table 15 did, one Saturday afternoon.
Debbie explained, “The couple at table 15 called me over. They said, ‘You know there’s a male ghost here.’ They continued on to describe him. ‘He looks like Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. He is quite handsome and has a handlebar mustache.’ One staff member has also seen him standing by the bookshelf in the dining area. They said he looks like Captain Highliner.”
Occasionally spirit activity occurs in the bar area. One of the spirits enjoys throwing glasses behind the bar. Just last month Debbie was the victim of a ghostly physical assault. “I was standing behind the bar, the wine rack was behind me and some other bottles of wine were standing on the counter near the rack. The bar area was full of customers at the time. Suddenly a full wine bottle flew off the shelf and struck me in the back and then crashed to the floor and shattered. The customers at the bar watched the whole thing happen in disbelief.”
Debbie continued with tales of ghostly activity, “Two chefs, the dishwasher and I had just closed the restaurant for the night. We had shut all the lights off and the radio. We all decided to go out on the back porch to have a
