Lynda Quirino could talk about things that go bump in the night all day long.
The paranormal investigator and founder of the Georgina Paranormal Society brings her other-worldly investigative team to Newmarket in October to try to find out who or what is haunting the Old Town Hall. It won’t be Quirino’s first time setting up her tools of the trade in the basement of the Old Town Hall, a place notorious for paranormal activity.
“I captured a great, bizarre photo of orbs at the Old Town Hall. Everywhere is haunted in that building,” said Quirino who, since 2016, has provided the existential expertise in the Ghost of Old Town Hall Tours in downtown Newmarket. “There’s lots of activity in the basement, where the old holding cell used to be.”
For almost four decades, Quirino has been tuned in to the activities of the afterlife. She has felt the presence of things not human since childhood. That launched her on a lifelong journey to learn as much as she could about the paranormal and, along the way, became something of an expert on the subject.
She’s a featured paranormal expert on Travel and Escape’s Paranormal Survivor program, which airs Fridays at 9 p.m.
“I have been frightened on occasion, but really more surprised,” Quirino said. “When you do this kind of work you become more sensitive.”
Quirino recalls a time during her freelance days when she was investigating a private home in Mount Albert. She was just packing up her equipment after being at the house all night and the room became extremely cold, she said.
“All of a sudden, I saw a solid figure of a woman at the top of the stairs. She had no feet. She glided down the stairs and went out the front door,” said Quirino.
But what about the critics, who say belief in the paranormal falls in line with that of UFOs and conspiracy theories at best, and at worst, a fearful view of the world that’s detrimental to one’s well-being?
“I say, that’s fine. You can believe what you want,” Quirino said. “Our focus is on helping people. We don’t hunt ghosts, we help people who are haunted. We don’t have to prove that you’ve had an experience.”
If you’re feeling brave, mark your calendar for Oct. 3, 10, 17 and 24, this year’s dates for the Ghost of Old Town Hall Tours, presented by the Town of Newmarket.
Tickets are $20, and include a guided walking tour of Main Street and Old Town Hall. You’ll learn about the many mysterious goings-on in the area since the 1880s. Then, if you dare, you can witness a live paranormal investigation conducted by the Georgina Paranormal Society in the basement of Old Town Hall. The starting and ending location is Old Town Hall, 460 Botsford St.
For tickets and more information, visit here
