The Donkey Lady

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”  An excellent quote by Philip Pullman, one with which I happen to agree with.  Stories are dynamic.  They are told to entertain, to relate, to teach, to inspire, even to scare.  Although the stories told by different cultures vary, they are all meant to instill and reflect the values (some good, some bad) of each individual culture.  Today I feel like sharing a story that was told to me, and many other children from San Antonio, at some point in my childhood, that instilled interest, and that has stuck with me up to this point in my life.  It is the story of The Donkey Lady, and yes...it is meant to scare...children at least.  Here we go!

A long time ago, when San Antonio was only beginning to become what it is today, there lived in the rural country-side, an old lady.  While she was a sweet old lady, she kept to herself.  She had no friends, and any relatives she had left, if any, had stopped coming to visit years ago.  Her only companion in life was her pet donkey.  For many years they lived in solitude.  Everyday the lady would take her donkey over the bridge that spanned an old creek, so that the donkey could graze in the fields on the other side.  It was a peaceful existence.

As the years passed more and more people moved to the countryside and the lady and her donkey got neighbors.  The children of those neighbors would go across the bridge everyday as well and play in the fields where the donkey would graze.  One day two young boys got into a fight and one of them got a big bruise on his arm because of the scuffle.  The boy who caused the bruise didn't want to get in trouble, so he told the other boy to tell his father that it was the old lady's donkey that caused the bruise instead of him.

When the little boys father heard that the donkey had bruised the boy he was very angry.  He gathered up the other fathers and went to the bridge the next morning to wait for the old lady and her donkey.  As soon as the two arrived in the very middle of the bridge, all of the men jumped out and grabbed the lady and threw her poor donkey over the edge of the bridge.  Seeing as the donkey could not swim, it was swept away by the current and drowned.  The old lady began to weep and the men began to make braying sounds, taunting and making fun of the old lady.  As the men started to walk away, the old lady threw rocks at them, in order to cause them pain just as they caused her donkey pain.  This angered the men once again, so they went back to the bridge and threw the old lady over the edge as well.  She was never seen again.

Rumor has it that to this day, if you go to the bridge on Old Applewhite Road, past the Toyota plant, at night, and if you wait long enough...you will hear the old lady crying for her dead donkey, and if you start braying just as the men did...the ghost of the old lady will come to throw stones at you, and that donkey hooves will slam against the hood of your car.