Edna’s Blog 3: The Resolution

March 15, 2016

Edna Dargie was the Head Researcher for every episode of Rescue Mediums. As a retired school principal, she brought her professionalism and love for historic accuracy and detail to the show. Edna’s blog is about her experiences behind-the-scenes researching for the show.

In her previous post, she revealed the tricky and emotional work that goes into each rescue. Now they wrap up and bring final revelations for the families.

Day 3 was an additional day given to me as we worked through the series. I needed an additional research day to continue figuring it all out and to pull the pertinent information together. I eventually had an assistant on-call who would run to local libraries or archives to pull visuals if they existed.

For everyone else on the crew, it was usually a day off. The ladies, though, were great at keeping in communication to help in the search for our rescued person. You can understand the need to do most of the tentative research in the days prior to the episode!

There were a couple of episodes when panic almost sets in, because the day is passing and we are still not certain of the identity of the rescued spirit. But somehow, miraculously, even on Day 4 in the eleventh hour, it becomes clear… Doris, our research spirit guide, always saves the day!

Day 4

This is the morning that the ladies arrive early to my house and I give them all the information they need to share with the homeowners later that day to wrap up. The maps, family trees, local history, death certificates, newspaper clippings and other documents all come out to be sorted and sifted. Once this has been shared, the ladies begin their huge job of writing their notes of pertinent information to share with the homeowners on camera.

This can take a few hours, and we always hope that we have enough time before we have to appear at the home. Typically we may need to be on camera early in the afternoon. Each lady has their information and documents organized in a portfolio to share with the homeowners and we are ready to go. This is always interesting as the homeowners have no idea of what has transpired in their home while we were there. They are usually anxious and excited to hear what happened. They will often tell us that there is a palpable change in their home: a change in the energy and atmosphere. It can be like a ripple effect, though, and take some time for it to truly clear.

The ladies recount their walkabouts and the rescue, and then reveal the information about the home and the spirit(s) with the additional supportive research. This can take a couple of hours. It is amazing how much is edited out for the actual show! With this shared, it is time to say goodbye to the homeowners on camera. This is always a difficult moment for everyone. For days there has been an intense and intimate connection and now we part ways.

The final closure to the episode: the cheers with an accompanying pun! The director, Michael, is usually responsible for the pun, but there have been some memorable entries from the ladies and the crew, all competing for the most groans. Clinking glasses, the cheers are filmed, and the focus must be redirected to the next episode, which could be just a day away!

-Edna