Alternate Perceptions Magazine, March 2024
Virginia Death Omen – Lady in Black
by: Susan Demeter
This strange encounter was shared with me in the hopes of reaching others who may have had a similar experience.
“An event that took place in 1990 has had myself, and 2 friends curious for many years now. August 1990, three of us went to Atlantic City. On the way home, my passenger side control arm snapped. I recovered from the skid and safely made it off the highway.
After hours spent waiting for a wrecker that never came, another friend came and got us, sometime after dark. We dropped off the first of our group in Fairfax, VA, then began the trip to our second stop. We were on a divided highway in Manassas VA, no roadside lights, and tree lined. We noticed a female walking down the shoulder of the road. She was in a long black formal dress, kind of old style. She was weaving from side to side as she walked, so we figured we ought to stop and help. A curious note is that despite the side to side movement, there was no vertical movement or bounce to her step. In the instant between her leaving our headlights, and when she should have been next to us, she was gone.
The next day, I was in a car wreck that had me in the emergency room for 5 hours, and the paramedics and firemen agreed that I should have been dead given the severity of the crash. Two years later, in August, the guy that lived in Manassas, and was in the car when we saw the girl was killed in a car wreck.
Another two years following that, the driver was in a car wreck that left him legally dead for 2 minutes, and has walked with a cane ever since.
Nothing bad has happened to the guy we dropped off before we saw the girl. I am curious as to whether there is some example in some folklore that would match this experience. It could be ruled as a sad coincidence, but there are enough details in this story that seem to resemble a kind of death omen, so that I am curious as to if there is some tradition that would fit this episode?” Apparitions dressed in black are a sinister motif in folklore. The above account reminded me of Susan Hill’s classic ghost story A Woman in Black, and the famous Cheltenham haunting which I gave some fresh analysis on my website. I could not help but feel uneasy after reading this witness account of events on that stretch of highway and the tragedies that followed. I would love to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience. You can reach me online via my website susandemeter.com
