What Was Then - The Nun

The Nun
by KC Stapleton
Updated 01/19/03 21:14 GMT

La Llorona Texas - La Llorona was a young widow...
Haunted Radio Austin, Texas - ...he noticed a reflection in the plexi-glass stand.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS - Most ghost stories are dramatic scary tales detailing some hapless person caught momentarily in a situation that cannot be easily explained. Some tales like this one just leave one wondering if there is not much about this world we do not understand.

World War II saw young people traveling great distances far from their homes and their love ones. Over and over and the orders would come to pack and be at a destination with no word of what would be expected of them once they got there. Army, Navy, and Army Air Corp. personnel would arrive in towns to find not one friendly or familiar face to pick from the crowd of strangers surrounding them. Not only would these men and woman face danger at times, but also the constant threat of loneliness and isolation that could shake their resolve.

Such a group of tired, discouraged sailors made their way by bus from Houston to Corpus Christi. As they neared a bus stop in one of the many small towns they had to pass through the bus driver was surprised to see the figure of a tiny nun standing alone suitcase in hand. Taking her seat aboard the bus the Catholic sister turned to her new companions and quickly began a conversation. She asked about the families they were leaving behind, their hometowns, and what their hopes were for after the war. She expressed her belief that the conflict would soon be over and the young men would be able to return to the business of their own lives.

As the bus wound it’s way toward Corpus Christi the sailors dozed off, and when they woke they realized that the diminutive nun was nowhere to be found. The driver insisted that as he had made no stops she had to be on board, but a quick search located neither the missing woman nor her suitcase. Concerned, once they had reached the town they located the convent that the nun had spoken of and the entire group went inside to make inquires. The sisters there had no explanation. They were expecting no one to arrive that day, but at the driver’s insistence listened to the story of the amazing disappearance. One sister had an idea and approached the group with photos taken of the sisters connected with the convent. Quickly the men spotted a picture of the missing passenger. “It can’t be,” they were told, “that sister has been dead for several years.”

We often hear stories of soldiers who never really leave the battlefield on which they fell. Is it any less likely that someone who felt a responsibility to encourage and inspire those desperately needing a kind word would not return to perform that duty one last time?

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The Nun

What Was Then recommends "GHOST ALONG THE TEXAS COAST" by Docia Schultz Williams