QUESNEL, British Columbia - Curator Ruth Stubbs will never forget how Mandy, the antique doll, arrived at the Quesnel museum in 1991. Mandy's once-pretty porcelain face was cracked, her stuffed body ripped and her clothes dirty.
Stubbs said, "Out of the blue, this woman just comes and practically drops the doll on my desk!"
The donor said she'd wake up at night hearing a baby crying, but no baby existed. The woman was creeped out, and that's why she gave the doll up.
Then, strange things started happening at the museum, too. One photographer heard unexplained footsteps. The photo he took of Mandy never turned out.
Knick knacks and pens would mysteriously disappear. Once, when Mandy was moved without her little stuffed lamb, Stubbs lost all her computer files. A few days later, she says the lamb suddenly reappeared in Mandy's lap and the computer was fine again.
When asked does Mandy not like to be moved? Stubbs said, "I don't know. And, I'm not the kind of person who sees things around every corner. That's not the kind of person I am."
Not easily spooked, Stubbs has nonetheless placed Mandy in her own special case away from other dolls, for fear what would happen to them.
Stubbs said, Whenever it's getting kinda weird around here, and a little unhappy, I take her out of the case, sit her down on a chair in the office as silly as it may sound."
