Only those who are lucky have been blessed not to hear the story and wails of La Llorona. Known as The Weeping Woman, her story is the stuff of literal nightmares. This story often comes as a warning to children who refuse to go to sleep on time.

Most versions of her story paint her as a woman scorned by a rich man with whom she had two children.

After Maria found her husband with another woman, she drowned their children and killed herself. La Llorona was subsequently left to haunt the world as a ghost in search of her children’s replacements.

While the stories might differ, the details of La Llorona’s appearance always see her in a white dress, wailing, and by water. Many claim to see her, and just about every child who’s heard about her story says she has appeared in their dreams.

In honor of the spooky queen, we scavenged Reddit for haunting stories from users who claim to have actually seen her

Check them out below:

“So this is one of the many stories my mother has passed down to my siblings and me when we were very young”

“I’m gonna say I was about 9-10 years old, and they took place in Central America, El Salvador to be precise. My grandma one day was supposed to meet up with a friend to go to another friend’s wake (back then, people would stay all night mourning at the wake of the deceased).

My grandma was waiting for her friend where they had agreed to meet, which happened to be near a little river/creek. She sees this woman from far away, all in white, and my grandma says it looked just like her friend. Her name was Mary. So she starts following this woman calling out for her thinking it’s her friend. She followed her by the river and then kept calling out for her but no answer.

It started getting creepy when this woman was going towards these trees away and away, and my grandmother started catching up, but as she was getting closer to her, she started to feel her shoulders were big, her head felt big, and she couldn’t move anymore. She was close enough to see this woman’s face that was covered by a veil and she said the woman’s face was a skull. My grandma somehow came out of her shock and ran as fast as she could. She said she felt as if she was running slow and wasn’t getting away fast enough.

These stories always gave me the chills but have always been fascinating. She states it was the llorona or the weeping woman because she was walking by the river. They passed it and headed towards some trees… Please let me know if you wanna read more stories like these… I’ll be glad to write some more.” –u/dreams562

“This happened to me when I was about 11 years old in the 90’s”

“I have lived my whole life in El Paso, Texas. The culture is rich in folklore and religious beliefs. Many Hispanic families have stories of the paranormal. One legend popular is the legend of the “Weeping Woman,” aka La Llorona.  The legend of La Llorona (pronounced “LAH yoh ROH nah”), Spanish for the Weeping Woman, has been a part of Hispanic culture in the southwest since the days of the conquistadores.

The tall, thin spirit is said to be blessed with natural beauty and long flowing black hair. Wearing a white gown, she roams the rivers and creeks, wailing into the night and searching for children to drag, screaming to a watery grave.

No one really knows when the legend of La Llorona began or from where it originated. Though the tales vary from source to source, the one common thread is that she is the spirit of a doomed mother who drowned her children and now spends eternity searching for them in rivers and lakes.

One night just like any other night, I lived in a trailer with my mom and dad. My youngest brother was staying with my aunt that night. I fell asleep watching Jay Leno as usual, and when I woke up, I was on the sofa in my living room. The time was 4:00 am which illuminated from the stove in the kitchen. The television was off, and normally I had a light on, but this time it was pitch black. I woke up, and I heard a horrible screaming that was coming from far in the distance.

The screaming was coming from a ditch that was a few feet away from my home. I heard it, and I thought I was hearing things. I asked myself, “Am I dreaming”? Then I started to hear the animals outside howling and whimpering. These animals that I speak of are cats and dogs. As the screaming got closer, the animals continued to cry. The screaming was something I had never experienced before. It sounded like I was in a big hallway, and a woman was screaming her guts out down that hallway. Then in all the screaming, I started to make out words. These words being said by whoever this was at 4 a.m. screaming their guts out, shocked me. The woman said, ‘¡Ay, mis hijos!’ (Oh, my children!).

In a huge panic, I quickly got up from the sofa and ran to the kitchen, which was right next to where I was asleep. I turned the closest light and looked around. The screaming didn’t stop. In fact, the screaming only got louder and closer.

I questioned my sanity at that moment. Was I going crazy or hearing things? Then I thought to myself, ‘This is real, and the animals are responding to it in a negative way.’ So I did what any other 11-year-old boy would do in a moment like this. I ran to my mom and dad’s room. I reached for my mom and shook her awake wildly. She woke up slowly, and to my amazement, the screaming faded away as she woke awake. I thought to myself, ‘What the heck is going on?’ 

I told my mother, ‘Mom do you hear that screaming and crying lady?’ My mom was half asleep when she said, ‘Go back to sleep it is most likely just your imagination.’ I told her, ‘No, this is real please listen don’t you hear her?’ My mom quickly just said, ‘You are dreaming, so go back to sleep it’s going to be ok.’ By then, the screaming had faded long away, as if whoever was screaming knew that an adult was awake.

I was terrified as I returned to the living room and quickly turned on the television, as I left most of the lights on as well. I didn’t go back to sleep until the sun came up. I couldn’t believe what I heard and witnessed. I was treated like a crazy person whenever I told my story. It got so bad that I kept my experience to myself. To this day, I don’t care what people think of my experience. I know what I heard. A couple of years later, it happened to me again.” –u/djunderdawg85

‘My mother’s family is Hispanic, and we have wonderful family reunions every summer’

“One of these times, my cousin made a lovely trivia game that had several questions about my Grandmother and her siblings. It was all very fun, and I enjoyed learning things about my Great Aunts and Uncles, but one of the questions struck me as odd.

‘When she was young, she had a pet chicken that would speak to her.’ I thought this was a little strange, but the game went on. My mother happened to be the one to answer that question, so I asked her about it later in the day.

I asked about the chicken, and my mother told me that my Great Aunt did indeed have a chicken that she would speak to, and it would speak to her. I laughed a bit about it, but I could tell that my mom was serious. My grandmother was sitting nearby and chimed in. She told me that my Great Aunt had always been very “sensitive” to certain things. My Grandmother never doubted that my Aunt was talking to the chicken, but she was unsure who was talking to my Aunt.

At this point, I was very intrigued and had a small case of the heebie jeebies. Then my Grandmother told me a story that made my blood run cold in the middle of an outdoor July picnic.

She asked me if I knew the legend of La Llorona. It was unfamiliar to me, so a tale was told.

There is a legend of a “weeping woman” called La Llorona. The legend tells of a beautiful woman named Maria who married the most handsome man and had his children. Her husband lost interest in Maria and would only visit to see his children. One day, in a jealous rage, Maria pushed her children into the river, where they were swept away and drowned. Regretting her action, she dove in after them but only drowned herself. Maria wandered the earth after death in search of her children. This legend was often used as a cautionary tale to warn children not to stay out at night or to play near water alone. La Llorona will take them away.

I loved the tale but wasn’t quite sure what it had to do with the chicken. My Grandmother stated that sometimes when you attract spirits, you are born with the ability to perceive them. I was perplexed, but she went on with the story.

She said that when they were children, they lived near water. My Aunt, who spoke to the chicken, was only an infant. My Great-Grandmother had laid my Aunt in her crib, which happened to be near a window that faced the water. After a little while, my Aunt began to cry. My Great-Grandmother walked into the nursery and froze. A black figure was reaching through the window and reaching for my Aunt. My Great-Grandmother, being a devout Catholic, began invoking the name of Christ. The figure recoiled from my Aunt and out of the window. My Great-Grandmother watched the entity walk along the wall and recede into the water. La Llorona had tried to take my Aunt.”- u/imyreld8 years ago

‘I am not as an experienced writer as many as the others on here, but I’ll give it my best. This happened to my ex-wife and me’

“It was during the summer when my family decided that we should all take a trip to Mexico to visit family. I was about to join the Marine Corps (pronounced Core), so my mother wanted me to go see my family just in case something bad were to happen.

At the time, I was with my pregnant girlfriend, who would later become my wife and then ex-wife. Since she was pregnant, I didn’t want to leave her alone, so I bought her a ticket so she could come with me as well.  Her being caucasian with blonde hair and hazel eyes made everyone around my grandma’s house curious, and a lot of our extended family came by to see the beautiful American girl.

After greeting everyone, we all started to talk about what had been going on since we had left.  My girlfriend was sitting next to me, having me translate parts of the conversation. One of my aunts, who knew I was into the paranormal, brought up the subject of “La Llorona,” aka, The wailing woman. My mom quickly told my aunt to shut up since she knew that it would get me both interested and scared regarding it. But I was able to push my aunt to keep on going; I mean, I was going to be a Marine after all, and I couldn’t let a silly myth scare me.

She proceeded to tell us about how whenever she would sleep over at my grandma’s house at which we were currently at if she stayed up late enough, she would be able to hear her wails, the wails of ‘La Llorona.’  My mom rolled her eyes and jokingly pushed my aunt. The subject died from there since one of my other aunts started to talk about her son and whatnot.

Seeing how serious everyone had gotten for a brief moment, my girlfriend nudged me and asked what we were talking about. I told her the myth of the wailing woman, about how “she” drowned her children in a river and was destined to walk along all the rivers of Mexico looking for her dead children. She, of course, laughed, not really buying any of my paranormal stories.

That night, my parents decided that my girlfriend and I should stay at our old house where I had grown up since we were both adults and needed our own space. The house was currently being worked on, so the bedrooms had no doors or working lights. The only doors the house had were the ones that led into the outside. They were fairly new, but they were your standard metal flimsy doors that a kick or a punch could make it rattle throughout the house. Inside, we had to use a candle and a flashlight for our light source. I remember we even used a bedsheet as a temporary door to give our room a little bit more privacy, even though it was only us two in the house.

 As the night went on, my girlfriend and I stayed up talking, and eventually, we both fell asleep. I don’t know at what time exactly, but something woke me up. I didn’t have a cellphone, and my watch at the time was really cheap, so I wasn’t able to tell what time it was. Looking down, I realized that my girlfriend had stolen the covers, so I slowly tried to steal some back. As I was debating on closing the window that was located right above our heads, I heard a long wail.

It was a long distorted wail.

I could hear the old raspiness in her voice as if she had been yelling for such a long time that her throat was getting ready to give out. But what confused me was that her wail sounded as if it was being played through an old gramophone. I don’t know if it was the scratchiness of her voice or what exactly, but it sounded like an old creepy record playing over and over.

She was wailing her trademark, ‘Ay mis hijos’ or ‘Oh my children.’ That wail was what made her infamous not just in the paranormal community but with most people living in the rural parts of Mexico.

My girlfriend started to stir and woke up. I don’t remember if I woke her up on purpose, but either way, it was a dick move of me to do since she would also get to hear the wails. I was both excited and scared shitless at the same time. A cold chill traveling down my spine just reinforced my fear.  The wails grew louder, making it seem as if she was slowly heading towards us.

Side note: There is a myth that if you hear the wails close, she’s actually far away, but if you hear them far, she might be somewhere near you.

My girlfriend asked me with a half smile, ‘What the hell is that?’ Thinking I had asked my aunts to scare us. I just motioned for her to be quiet and listen. Hearing my tone of voice, she knew that something was wrong.

Another loud wail passed by, echoing inside the house. My girlfriend started shaking, terrified of what could be outside our house. I had my left arm under her head, and I could feel tears running down her face to my arm. Each time the wail came, she would shake a little, and at the same time, I would hold her close. The wails eventually came to a peak where it sounded as if she was outside our window. Doing the only brave thing I knew, I pulled the covers over us and tried to remain as still as we could.

The wails eventually faded out, and just as we thought that she had gone, we heard two wild dogs viciously fighting and slamming against our outside door. My girlfriend had grown attached to this stray dog that used to walk around my grandma’s farm. So while we were staying there, he would always sleep on the outside door to wait for us and greet us whenever we would come out. The dogs, or at least what we thought were dogs, fought for a good minute slamming against the door, snarling and barking at one another. Then, as suddenly as the fight started, it stopped. We attempted to stay up for a while longer to see if we heard anything else, but eventually, sleep took over us.

The following morning we talked about what had happened, we walked outside to meet our stray dog, but he was gone. All that was left was stirred-up dirt from the fight that had happened the night before. We never got to see that dog the rest of the trip, he would usually come around, but we just told ourselves that maybe he found a place with better owners who could feed him better.

This all happened around 2008, and still, today, whenever I pick up my daughter, I would ask my ex about what happened in Mexico.

I haven’t been to Mexico ever since. And I don’t want to start anything political, but California was part of Mexico, and there have been rumors that some people around Tijuana and Southern California have heard the wails of a woman.”- Cheeriomartinez

‘Alright, so this story has been told to me by my mom a few times. And every single time, I still get that creepy eerie feeling that someone is watching me’

“My mom is from a small town in Mexico located in Zacatecas. When she was around 14, she had the habit of waking her mom up to go to the restroom since it was an older home and the restroom was located outside.

My mom told me that it was around 3 AM when she woke up and felt the need to use the restroom urgently. So she began calling out for her mom. After a while of her mom not responding, she began getting agitated and started screaming. At this point, my mom turns around, and at the foot of her bed, she sees her mom standing there. She was wearing a white robe but had a very bleak expression on her face & both of her arms were extended.

My mom said that she suddenly felt extremely cold and had a huge sense of dread. She had never seen her mom wear a white robe.. that’s when she looked down and saw her “mom’s” feet weren’t touching the floor. At that moment, she screamed and quickly threw the covers over her head. Her mom wearing something completely different, runs in to find my mom shaking in her bed. Nobody believed my mom; everyone told her it was a dream. Until a few days later, there was a power outage. During this, my mom and a few of her siblings with her parents all decided to sleep in the living room. At around the same time @ 3 AM, they heard the same undeniable wails of La Llorona down their street. None of them slept that night.”- u/delacurls

‘So, if you know Mexican/Hispanic folklore, you know about La Llorona. If not, I suggest you look into her story’

“My mom was 10 years old and lived next to a small ditch next to a highway. She stayed at her friend’s house, which was a little closer to the ditch. The day went normal- riding bikes, playing, typical girl stuff.

Then night came, and they knew it was time to get home once the street lights came on. They were sitting in the friend’s bedroom, radio on, listening to music and playing a card game. It was already dark out, and the music from the stereo filled the room. Now, my mom’s friend lived with her mom and grandma, who both spoke fluent Spanish. My mom understood it but could not speak it.

My mom developed this overwhelming sense of anxiety and terror. Then it started crying. The girls both heard it but brushed it off as a cat or a drunken neighbor. Soon, the crying began to become louder and more obnoxious, like it wanted to be heard. The girls paused what they were doing, staring at the window. Once they looked that way, the crying became ear-splitting, so loud it resonated over the stereo. Both girls had hands over their ears, fearful of what was happening. The grandma burst into the room, holy water in one hand and a rosary in the other. She was screaming over the crying, praying in Spanish.

My mom says that when she did this, the radio started to static, and the lights began to flicker. Both the crying and the praying booming extremely loud until it went quiet. It all stopped. The grandma said a prayer over my mom and her granddaughter and made them go into the living room – instructing them not to return to that room for the night and not to look out the window.

My mom returned home in the morning, not speaking of what had happened. Even when she tells the story now, an overwhelming sense of fear takes over, and she gets goosebumps.”- u/NMNurse1 year ago

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