Is That You Mama? Nana?

It's Theme Thursday and today's theme is ghost.

Now, I've never seen a ghost but heard plenty of true ghost stories from my family when they lived in Mexico, like the old woman that walks through a wall into the kitchen and vanishes. Things have occurred here in the states, too. A dog barking and growling and staring down something that can't be seen while the other dog whimpers and hides her head with her front paws; heavy boots walking out of the kitchen and into the living room in the dead of night when no one is awake; chills that run up and down your entire body forcing all your hairs to stand on end, aunts and uncles being awakened in the middle of the night by a cold presence surrounding them to the point where they can't move, not even breathe, while strange words are being whispered into their ears; shadows that move from one end of the room to the other when no one is around to cast them; strange knockings and the list goes on and on.

Now, I have a huge family, seven uncles and four aunts on my mother's side alone, not counting their spouses, and 30 first cousins plus 4 first cousins, once removed. All my uncles and aunts have experienced things, and a handful of my cousins as well. And me, nothing.

After hearing the strange stories my parents, uncles, aunts and some cousins have told me I desperately wanted to see a ghost or be touched by one. My family said no, you don't want to see it you don't want to be in the same room with one, just the creepy vibe you feel makes them crazy. No one in their right mind wants this. But I do.

A couple of years ago I traveled to Mexico with my mother and my husband (my boyfriend at the time), my grandparents and a couple of aunts and uncles to their family home in the state of Guanajuato. This is the legendary house where a lot of the mysterious stories I heard of my youth. The old woman dressed in dark dressed, apron and veil covering her head that walks into the kitchen from the wall and disappears into the small backyard. Where toes are pulled in the middle of the night, a guardian I was told making sure that everyone is safe in bed, and "la llarona" is supposedly everywhere. (La llarona is Spanish for the crying woman. You know the story, the woman whose children were killed and she cries the night away searching for them. Every culture has a crying woman.) Plus a few other stories of glowing fireballs that appear and vanish into thin air.

So, not being married I sleep in the same bed with my mother while my boyfriend sleeps in the very room the old woman appears out the wall. It also happens to the be the room with the TV so we sit on the bed watching TV late at night. This being a simple home with no indoor doors, my family was comfortable letting us stay up together with the lights on.

My family prepares to go to bed and we stay up watching TV. Things happen late at night, right? Watching TV with the light on I realize that I don't want to turn off the TV. I don't want to turn off the lights as I walk to my mother's bed in the dark. I don't want to go to sleep. I don't want to sense, or feel or see anything. My reaction from "cool this place has ghosts and I want to see it" quickly turns to unrelenting fear and start crying. My boyfriend looks at me with a worried look and tried to comfort me. My mother awoke from my soft crying and comes to me. She laughs and holds me and says the old woman does nothing. "She walks in and walks out. Who she is or where she came from no one knows. My grandfather built the house in the outskirts of town before the city grew."

"And the person who pulls toes?"

"Ah, my grandmother will pull all her children's toes at night to make sure that everyone was in bed. My father believes it's her still watching over them."

"Still not comforting," I reply sadly.

My mother walks me to her bed and hands me her rosary. I wrap the rosary tightly around my hand and put my back directly against my mother. I put my pillow on the other side of me so nothing can whisper in my ear. And my feet, no way am I letting them reach the foot of the bed so I curl up in the fetal position. Nothing is gonna touch me.

The days go by and roll into weeks and no one seen anything, all except for my grandfather. He experienced someone pulling on his toes and will announce it every morning when it did. My eyes will transfix on him and grow wide with fright. My grandmother would smack him on the shoulder and back and scold him for saying such things in front of the girl. Mind you I was 19 years old at the time. But why did I grow full of angst when he announced it? Because my mother and I shared the same bedroom with my grandparents, that's why.

I left Mexico happy to have seen where my mother grew and her siblings grew up before moving to California. Where they went to Mass every Sunday, where they went to school, walking around the plaza after Mass and the evenings eating street food, my boyfriends favorite part of the trip-eating. We traveled from state to state, city to city and I left a little dissatisfied. I didn't get to see the old woman in her apron and veil.

A few months pass when my brother and mother decided to visit my grandparents who were still in Mexico. My brother stayed in the same room my boyfriend slept in. We was watching TV late at night with the lights off when he saw an old woman in a veil walk by. Being half asleep and knowing the story he quickly jumped and said, "Mama, is that you? Mama? Mama? Nana? Are you going to the bathroom Nana?"

The woman didn't reply and kept walking. My brother got out of bed to follow her outside when she disappeared.

Sorry, I have no photos for this story. But here's on of my brother in ghost costume trick-or-treating with our younger cousins last Halloween!