The Lady with the Lamp
A Canadian Ghost Story
In 1980, a man and his family were camping out on some land they owned in the area near Senkiw, Manitoba. They had a cloth-topped camper trailer, which they parked on a flat mound of land. This mound had once been the foundation for the local schoolmaster’s house.
It was mid-October, and the weather had been mild. The family had enjoyed the beautiful Indian summer day. After they had cooked their evening meal over the campfire, they went to bed.
A Tapping Sound
Sometime during the night, the man was awakened by a tapping sound coming from the metal part of the trailer. He also noticed the sound of the wind whistling outside. He unzipped the zipper and saw a dark-haired woman carrying an old-fashioned lamp. The woman was dressed in a heavy coat, scarf, and hat. She was quite upset and seemed to be asking for something.
Change in the Weather
The man put on his coat and boots and followed her. During the time the family had been asleep, the weather had apparently changed drastically. It was snowing heavily, and he noticed that approximately 10 inches of snow had accumulated on the ground. The snow was drifting and blowing.
He followed the dark-haired woman along a path and through a field. Finally, they came to wooded area. There, he saw a horse and carriage that had become stuck in the snow. The woman got into the carriage to encourage the horse to try pulling again. At the same time, the man pushed the carriage from behind. He was able to free the carriage, and the woman drove away.
Looking for Something
He noticed that as she was driving, she was calling out in a Slavic language. She was looking along both sides of the road, as if she were looking for something. The man then went back the way he had come, taking care to shake the snow from his coat and boots before he went back to bed in the trailer.
Imagine his surprise the following morning when he awoke to a beautiful Indian summer day with not a flake of snow in sight! He assumed that what he had experienced had been a particularly vivid dream until he had lunch at the home of a local farmer the following day.
The farmer mentioned in passing that the weather looked exactly as it had been before the Great Storm and that the Lady with the Lamp would be out looking for her son.
The Story of the Lady with the Lamp
The farmer went on to explain that back in 1912, it had started snowing around noon on a mid-October day. The schoolmaster sent all the students home early so they would have a chance to arrive before the snow blocked the roads.
Late in the afternoon, a woman came to the schoolmaster’s home looking for her young son. The little boy had left early with the other students. His mother went off to look for him and asked the schoolmaster to get help. The weather conditions continued to deteriorate and neither the woman nor her son was ever seen again.
It is said that local residents still see her from time to time, frantically looking for her missing son.
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