This ghost story was told to me by my mother, Radha, who lives in Northern California and is a family therapist for a living.  It was told to her by her father, who claims it all to be completely true.

“It was a dark night, and three men, including my dad, were driving back home from a business meeting,” she starts.  “They had a flat tire and it delayed them, so when they did start to drive, the only road they could take back was very dark and desolate. They only had their headlights to see ahead.  There was not one soul out there.”  “They were concerned another tire would go flat, so they wanted to get home as quickly as possible.  However, as they started driving down the road, they saw a narrow bridge in the distance, one they would have to cross.  On that narrow bridge, they saw a white figure standing near the side.  Their hearts pounded as they drove closer to the white figure, and as they approached the bridge, they saw it was a crazy woman, in all white clothing, with crazy eyes and flowing black hair.  She stared at each one of them through the car with a deranged smile, and even touched the car.”  “They screamed and sped through the bridge, and when they looked back to the bridge moments after seeing her, she vanished.”

My mom wanted to tell this story because it was an interesting family anecdote for her, and also partly to scare me as a child.  She heard it from her father, and remember him being too terrified to tell the story than to have any motive to scare my mom.

This story has all the classic elements of a ghost story: dark night, lonely road, and “white” ghost.  The stark contrast of the white woman in the dark of the night makes this story all the more scary.   The men were already weary of danger, because of a flat tire that caused them to delay and want to rush home through the darkness.  They almost subconsciously anticipated danger, because of their surroundings and unstable car. My mother also claimed that my grandfather found out there was a mental asylum near the road.  They figured the ghost had come from there to haunt anyone who passed.  The deranged smile the woman had led the men to believe she was in fact insane, and intent on them driving off the road.  The fact that she allegedly touched the car made the horror real for the men.  My mother used to replicate the deranged face of the woman in order to scare me and my brother even further when she told us this story.  This ghost story could serve as a warning to be weary when you drive on dark roads, cause there may be dangers ahead.