There is an old
mexican folktale around
where I live
that has some similarities to
the Donkey Lady,
and in some senses your
story might be
a variation of the Yarona. In
the story no
specific towns are named but,
it was supposed
to happen in the Castroville
and Hondo area.
Well as the story
goes a young woman marries
a man she does
not love. He loves her and he
is rich so she
decides she will marry him to
make her family
happy.
As the years went
on she gave birth to 2
sons that this
man loved dearly. As so it
happened the
woman met a man in a nearby
town. She fell
in love with him and began an
affair.
Well her husband
found out and threatened to
leave her with
the two boys. In a fit of
anger she slipped
out one night with the
children she
went to her lover with the
children.
As the months
went by the lover who was
seeing another
woman as well became annoyed
and fearful the
children would find out
about his other
lovers. So he finally told
her to get rid
of them. Send them to their
father or grandparents.
He was fed up with
their fighting
and breaking things in his
house.
She returns home
to find that her parents
are dead. Her
husband remained at their side
until their deaths
for he still had a
respect and love
for them. After they died
he began to search
for his children. He was
said to have
set off looking for them and
never finding
them he settled down in
another town
in Texas, another version has
him moving to
Mexico.
Another version
has him leaving never to
return because
of the pain he went through
in the town.
His wife is confused
to find her world so
changed. She
had no sisters or brothers to
leave her children
with. She loves her
children and
her lover yet she can't choose
between them.
As it so happened
she stopped to have a
picnic with the
children near a river. This
is the only specific
location, what would
later become
the Regional Park and the
Medina River.
Well as she went over in her
mind what she
could do something snapped.
She smiled and
calmly plucked up one boy,
the youngest.
This boy was said to be 3 or
4. She walked
to the edge of a cliff and
gently tossed
him into the river. This boy
didn't know how
to swim and drowned quickly.
As her other
son rushed over to try to save
his brother she
promptly grabbed him under
his arms and
plopped him into the river as
well.
It was said she
was truly insane at that
moment. She rushed
to her lover and told him
that the children
where with their
grandparents.
A week after the drowning her
lover was bored
with her and dissappeared.
It was at this
point that she realized what
she did to her
children. Screaming she ran
out into the
night howling. It was said that
people saw her
after that as a woman who was
wearing all white,
crying as she wandering
along the river.
If approached she would run
away screaming
"I did it for him! They were
my children!"
Several reports
were made of this woman and
the police began
a search for her. The
bodies of the
children were never found. Two
years passed,
and she somehow made an
amazing journey
around Texas' rivers and
streams, looking
for her murdered children.
She found herself
at the same spot where
they had their
little picnic. She could see
the children
playing about in the sun. She
remembered them
having so much fun that day.
In all her grief
she calmly leapt off the
same cliff she
tossed her children from. 2
years to the
day she killed them.
It was said that
a week later, to the day
that the lover
abanndoned her, her body was
recovered.
People thought
that this was the end to this
tale of great
sorrow. But, to this day
people still
claim to see a woman dressed in
all white dress
that is outdated. She cries
out to the streams
looking for her children.
It is said she
is cursed to walk the rivers
until the bodies
are given a proper burial.
There are various
endings to this tale, one
begining she
came back as a woman dressed in
black a symbol
of her guilt for her crime.
She is in red
to symbolize her adultress
ways and as the
blood of her children soaked
into her dress.
It was also said that she
was very pretty
and as a punishment for her
sins she was
given the face of a white horse
with sunken in
features.
My grandfather
is one of those people who
have seen her.
He was walking home one night
with his brother.
They were tired from a
hard day of work
in the fields of the local
farmers and could
not think of anything else
but, getting
home to sleep. They were headed
to the house
that my grandfather and
grandmother to
this day still live in. This
house is but,
a few blocks from the river.
As they walked
across a field in front of
the house they
realized a woman walked just
ahead of them.
She was wearing all white.
She began to
cry. They both ran up behind
her asking her
what was wrong. She was
headed towards
the river.
Again and again
they asked her but, she only
answered them
back with her cries. As they
got closer to
her my great uncle began to
realize something.
He yelled to my
grandfather to
look at her feet. As he did
so he saw she
was floating two feet off the
ground. Both
ran away to the house locking
it tight and
my grandmother was confused
about it all
until he told her what they
saw. She whispered
to them Yarona?
I believe him
to this day, because I've seen
ghosts myself.
Thanks, Jaime, for this amazing contribution! Jaime will soon have a web site that explores Texas ghosts and even stranger things.
