Family Room

The Family Room is a versatile space as the twin beds can be made into a king sized bed. A double-bed size futon is also in the room.

“Family Room” is an appropriate name for this setting. Very popular for grandparents or parents traveling with young folk. One three generation family from Doaktown likes to visit during Christmas in the Village which is the last weekend in November (The same time as the American Thanksgiving). Marian loves to decorate for them using Christmas table settings and linens.

Two brothers, both retired pilots, have come to the Village every year for now over thirty years to go canoeing for three days starting the Tuesday after Labor Day. The elder brother is from Ottawa and the younger is from Riverview, NB. They have made friends in the village over time and have a routine (including what they want for lunch). Their well-practiced stories, teasing, and good humor are a joy that marks the beginning of the fall season here at Lang House.

The room overlooks the wharf and Front Street. The owner of our home after Captain Weston was Jean Rubidge who was a nurse and mid-wife (more about her and her daughter, Joan, when we talk about the Queen Room). Her two daughters would talk to boys down on the street and tease them from the window. Joan has been back to visit Lang House during open houses and loves to relive some of her stories with her daughter and her family. They have been helpful in telling us how the house used to look before the new wing was added in 2006.

In our first winter of being BnB owners, we were fortunate to have guests from New England, the man was a state senator and his wife, a most gracious, educated woman. They were here in the village to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a woman living at Orchard View Care Home. The party was well attended and a woman asked where they were staying. When they answered, “Step-A-Side” (the name “Lang House” was not yet established), the woman was aghast and said that she would never stay there again! Our guests listened to her story and upon their return told us that they took it upon themselves to have this woman over to tell us herself what had happened in the Family Room.

When she arrived, we went directly upstairs, I sat on the futon and she and our guests stood. Bruce was not there for some reason. As the story goes, this woman and her brother (both in their 60s) were asleep, each in their twin bed. She was awakened by what seemed to be a man, but not a in-the-flesh man but nonetheless a man-like spirit on top of her. She said that she told him in a firm manner to go away and he did. She had stayed the previous night and continued to stay for a third night without another encounter.

Being new to the business of hosting people let alone ghosts, I was not happy. I was afraid that if I did have a ghost or ghosts, our business would be ruined. I remembered hearing a neighbor, Cindy, say how she and her husband wanted a ghost in their house. They had one of the oldest homes in the village and it only seemed right that they had a ghost. So, a few days later, we sat on the futon and walked around the room and hall and addressed the ghost. Me telling him that he would be bad for business and Cindy saying how they lived nearby (gave the address) and made a most welcoming invitation. This all happened around 11 o’clock in the morning. Around 4 that afternoon, their old dog, a massif, took to coughing and coughed up flem and blood, rare for a dog. By 7pm that night their dog, who had not been in good health, died. Were these events connected?

As time went on, my friends experienced a mischievous ghost who would remove things and then put them back. Like special kitchen tools and small items. They have their own stories to tell.

Stories to tell, that’s what these are. I think that ghosts come to those who want them or who are, at least, open to them. Each room in the “Ghost Wing” can be used as a setting to tell a story about different types of ghosts. Why is there only one story per room when hundreds of people have stayed here?