A haunted long-distance move? Stranger things have happened.

The stories that come out of long-distance relocations can stay the involved movers forever. For Kamloops Two Small Men mover Ron Fill, one long winter move stands out as the most memorable experience, for better or for worse.

Emigrating from England in 2014, Ron quickly adapted to life in Canada and jumped into the moving industry when he began his career with Two Small Men.

“This was my first gig in the moving industry,” he says.

He's since seen it all, from local moves to long-distance relocations, but he says nothing compares to the move he had to deal with in rural British Columbia on a brutal winter's day.

“It was a long haul,” Ron says. “Somewhere south, near the Kootenays. I’d have to look on a map. The address was something-something Service Road, and we were like, ‘That should be fine.’”

But it wasn't fine. Not even a bit.

The two moving trucks crept up the mountains near Rock Creek and as they progressed, conditions got pretty bad.

“We eventually lost cell service while we were driving up,” he says, “and the road just started getting worse.” But there was no going back. “It came to a point where backing up was not a good idea.”

There was the growing sense of complete isolation.

“We were certain we were on the wrong path,” he says. “But we just had to keep pushing because there were no other options.”

Just as the road became seemingly impossible to continue along, they got to their destination... maybe.

“There was only one house number. And we were like, ‘Oh no way. That’s the one.’”

From then on, things only got stranger.

“Once we pulled in, the road actually got worse,” Ron laughs. “It just turned to absolute crap.”

The guys even got video to remember the experience. They couldn't believe they were somehow navigating two fully-loaded trucks in this environment.

“Yeah — two of them,” he says. “It was crazy.”

The property itself was cinematically surreal.

“We were a little bit hesitant to go inside because we thought the thing was going to collapse on us,” Ron explains. Add to that that it was already getting dark when they got there. “It was like five o’clock. It had been a rough, rough day.”

The furniture turned out to be just as old and awakrd.

“Everything was heavy. Everything,” he says. “Imagine real wood desks everywhere. Beds, cabinets — everything that hypothetically could’ve been light just wasn’t. You’d move something and it would just explode with dust,” he says. “Every single footstep, every item — it was all over you.”

Ron says it was right out of a TV show.

“It felt like being in the Upside Down in Stranger Things,” he says. 

And just like the best horror movie, the power kept going on and off.

“There was this little eight-year-old daughter who was constantly fuelling the generator,” Ron says. “She’d be like, ‘Oh no, power’s going out,’ and then all the lights would turn off. They were lighting candles everywhere so we could keep on doing the move.”

The family that lived there, however, was nice enough.

“They were ever so nice — lovely, lovely people.”

There were five young kids and one stressed-out mom.

“All the daughters were homeschooled,” he says. “They’d never really had much human interaction apart from the milkman and the propane man.”

The Adams Family-esque house featured every obstacle known to man. Missing floor boards. An incongruous upstairs loft only accessible by rickety stairs.

“Probably like twenty feet up,” Ron says. “Sketchy. Very sketchy.”

It gave the movers pause.

“I’m pretty sure Logan was like, ‘I do not want to go up those stairs.’”

And while most of the experienced movers soldiered on, it was all too much for brand new mover on his first day of work.

“He was traumatized,” Ron says flatly. “I don’t think he ever came back to work after that.”

Everyone became more stressed as the move dragged on.

“Our geo tabs were yelling at us,” Ron explains. “We had such limited time left and we were so far in the middle of nowhere. So we just pushed the clock."

Crew morale was pretty low.

“Every single person was miserable,” he says. “There wasn’t a smile in sight.”

One mover almost called it quits all together and just wanted to hide in the truck.

“I was like, ‘Dude, just grab whatever you want from my lunchbox. Just keep pushing.’”

Ron sums it up like this: “We genuinely thought we were going to be murdered. That was it.”

They somehow got the trucks out of there and back down the hill. “You just chucked it into low gear,” Ron says. We got to the nearest town with zero minutes left. Literally zero.” And the day wasn't over yet. “There were many reasons we were not staying the night there."

Add to that that only Ron was seemingly comfortable with driving. “We always said it was my truck because I was one of the only ones who could drive stick.”

Despite all that, the drive back was somehow easier. “It actually rolled down the hill really nice.”

The destination home couldn't have been more different.

“They moved into this sweet little yellow heritage house,” Ron remembers. “Right in the centre of town. It was really, really cute.”

The client was in no way concerned about the extra time it had taken.

“They were completely cool about it. They were ever so polite and friendly,” Ron says. “They left a really good tip, too.”

In the end, he says it was “a really interesting job we ended up leaving.”

But every strange tale has an epilogue.

“A week later, the customer called one of us,” Ron says. “Apparently the house they moved out of burned down under mysterious circumstances.” 

The whole thing felt more than a little creepy. “The mysterious death of the husband, everyone being oddly calm about it, and then the house burns down — it was an odd correlation of events.”

Ron credits basic perseverance for how they got through it all.

“It was just that we had to keep going,” he says. “We thought we were lost. We were fishtailing up a service road in winter. Everyone was miserable — but we just kept pushing.”

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