It was a warm summer night and we
all wanted to stay outside late. One of my
12-year-old brother’s friends was visiting, or perhaps he had run away
from home. Being without a mother and having only a busy working father, he used to do
that every so often.
So my mother decided it was time we all learned about the legend of the Weeping Woman. She told us La Llorona was a female ghost who roamed the banks of rivers or sometimes the banks of ponds, looking for children who were alone or away from their parents. The story she told was that the woman had drowned her own two kids and could not rest until she found them or replaced them. And sometimes if La Llorona found children who were alone and they weren’t hers, she would throw them into the river in anger. And that was why kids shouldn’t be out alone at night.
As a ten year old living near a pond
and with the Arkansas River less than a mile away, I decided I was no longer wandering
around in the dark anymore. That story sure kept me close to home. In time I decided that was just a crazy
legend my mother made up.So my mother decided it was time we all learned about the legend of the Weeping Woman. She told us La Llorona was a female ghost who roamed the banks of rivers or sometimes the banks of ponds, looking for children who were alone or away from their parents. The story she told was that the woman had drowned her own two kids and could not rest until she found them or replaced them. And sometimes if La Llorona found children who were alone and they weren’t hers, she would throw them into the river in anger. And that was why kids shouldn’t be out alone at night.
Fast forward ten years to life in
college in the small southern Colorado town of Trinidad, that sits along the Purgatory
River. My friends (who were from cities back East or Denver) and I spent a
Saturday afternoon with one of our Hispanic friends and we got to talking to
his mother about ghosts. She began to tell us about La LLorona. The story was much the same as my mother had
told, but this woman said she had actually heard her. I’m not sure if I
believed her, but the fact that the Weeping Woman might roam the banks of the Purgatory
(or River of Lost Souls) made perfect sense.
Unlike that ten year old who chose to stay inside
at night, this college freshman decided – along with my friends—that we needed to check out her ghost story and
go down to the banks of the Purgatory,
looking for The Weeping Woman or any other lost souls.
We drove along the roads east of Trinidad, where she said
she’d seen the ghost, in the valley of the Purgatory. The prairie land there is very
dark at night. And very silent. It’s
ranching land. The only light comes from the moon and the only sounds are the
winds blowing through the trees. And those trees are none too friendly looking.
They are short, squat pinon and junipers that are shaped like the monsters of
your dreams. For two nights we wandered,
feeling only a little spooked. The third
night we heard something rustling behind a tree and then we heard a distinct
footstep.
Well, that settled it. The only sound we heard then was not weeping
but all of us running like hell toward the car, which seemed to be parked a lot
farther than we remembered. When we got to the car we turned to look behind us.
A big hulking shadow came around the
tree. And then we heard its
cowbell. We were probably trespassing on
some rancher’s cattle grazing territory.
Since then I’ve never gone searching
for La Llorna again. But when I’ve camped near rivers or streams in the
Southwest, I’m always careful to stay inside after dark. And listen closely at
night. No weeping and no cow bells so far.
I’ve used some of that Southwest experience
in my Dead Man series -- the first book
is Dead Man’s Rules, now available on Amazon and at The Wild Rose Press.
Tomorrow I’ll have more on the
various legends about La Llorona. Don’t forget
to visit the other blogs on our Halloween Blog Tour, and leave a comment to be
entered in the Rafflecopter giveaway.a Rafflecopter giveaway
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I loved this story! Thanks for sharing the legend of La Llorona :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, J. C. It always makes me smile to think about it and that was why I wanted to tell it.
ReplyDeleteNice story
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
Thanks! I really enjoyed the opportunity to tell it.
DeleteNeat post!! Love that you brave college girls went off to find her only to find...a cow LOL But If I were a 10-year-old, I'd have believed the story. I was afraid of the dark, anyway LOL.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Barb. That story and the spooky movies I used to go to really made me frightened of the dark.
DeleteThanks for sharing. Fun story. I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Judy. I am glad you enjoyed it. The thought always makes me smile.
DeleteRebecca,
ReplyDeleteThe idea of looking for a ghost that drowns children just gives me the creeps.
Thanks for the great post. I enjoyed learning more about La Llorona. Thank you also for taking part in the Halloween Hop!
Melissa, thanks for the comment. Isn't it creepy? That was why I never forgot the story and wanted to research it when I got older. I really enjoyed being part of the blog hop and reading the other blogs. Thanks for being a great hostess!
DeleteVery creepy story. Thank you for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteSheryl, thanks for commenting. I agree that it's creepy. It always frightened me.
ReplyDelete