REAL GHOST STORIES

Lady in White

Later on in the trip, we visited my uncle who lived a few towns over. There, he lived with his family where he ran a very lucrative farming business. On the way there we passed a long bridge that went over a steep ravine with a river below. As our car rode along the bridge, I couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu. It made sense, since I'd traveled over this bridge many times before when I visited my uncle and cousins. However, underneath that feeling was a sense of unadulterated fear and dread. Like something bad had happened here and it somehow directly affected me. A distant memory, screaming to be remembered.

As if on cue, my dad pointed out that this bridge was infamous to the surrounding towns and cities because of the White Lady.

Now, like the Kapre or the Tikbalang, the White Lady is another one of the ubiquitous ghost stories told all around the country. She is perhaps the most well known, since different countries also have their own version. In America she's usually called the Lady in White. In Spanish culture she's La Llorona. The basic idea remains the same: a ghostly looking woman dressed in a long white dress and long dark hair stands on the side of isolated roads, waiting to hitch a ride. The scenarios vary, but in the Philippines if you stopped and gave her a ride, she would quietly enter your back seat. If you don't interact with her, she'll leave you alone, until she disappears from your car some distance later. If you see her on the road and keep driving, she will suddenly appear in your car and attack you. Moral is, it's better to give her a ride than not.

When we arrived at my uncle's large house, I couldn't shake the feeling that the bridge had somehow directly affected me. After a delicious dinner and a round of video games with my cousins, I found my uncle out in the balcony having a drink. He offered me a beer, since I was finally old enough, and I took a seat next to him.

"Hey Tito, do you remember anything about that bridge right outside of town?"

He put his drink down and regarded me for a few moments. He cut straight to the chase.

"You were really young when it happened. I suppose you didn't remember it much."

Now I was fully intrigued. I had to know.

"What exactly happened?"

His warm smile faded and he told his tale. As the story went on, the memories began to flood my mind. Memories that I had long since repressed as a defense mechanism. All the details came to me in excruciating clarity, as if it happened just yesterday. By the time he had finished the story, there was no denying it. I had encountered a ghost all those years ago.

It was the mid 90's and I was still living in the Philippines. I was a plucky six year old that was all about adventure and exploring. Once or twice a week, I would spend the night at my uncle's farm, back then a small budding business. The town it was in was smaller then, and fairly remote. I loved that place because there was so many areas to explore, but only in the daytime.

One particular night I was over at his place, just watching TV. My uncle got a call of a new delivery of chicken feed that needed to be picked up in the next town. At the time, he only had a few farm hands and they all had the night off. Usually he wouldn't make a supply run this late at night, but he was behind schedule and needed to pick up the supplies or risk losing profit.

As he headed out, he asked me if I wanted to tag along. Ever the restless child, I immediately agreed. My uncle had an old Toyota SUV that he used for all his delivery pickups. I sat in the second row, my usual spot, while my uncle slid into the driver's seat.

Most of the voyage was uneventful. It was nearly 11 pm at night so there was hardly any other vehicles on the road. Upon crossing the bridge the first time, nothing happened. During that time the bridge was newly constructed. It was put up the year before after the original bridge was ravaged by the last typhoon. The city even put street lights on the new bridge for better visibility. That was a huge deal since none of the other surrounding roads had streetlights.