It came on Halloween
Lillian Manning was at a hospital in labor with her son, Dale, on Halloween in 1968, where her doctor rushed to deliver Dale while still in his pajamas and robe.
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"The Haunted Well"
When my parents first bought this house, they found an extremely old picture of these two boys.
We noticed that at midnight we would hear the door of the hallway open, and the backdoor, and the ...
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"The Haunted Well"
When my parents first bought this house, they found an extremely old picture of these two boys.
We noticed that at midnight we would hear the door of the hallway open, and the backdoor, and the alarm would go off. My dad would wake up and get his gun, but no one was there. Then the lights flickered on in the kitchen and, on the counter, the peanut butter jar would be placed. My mom would put the jar away in the cabinet and turn the light off.
Later, my 13 dogs started barking with fear, anger and hostility. The chickens and guineas then squawked with the fear of death while my horse, Lady, bucked in panic not knowing where to go or what to do.
We went outside and heard laughter of children and the laughter would only stop near the well. We ran inside and locked the door.
The next day, my mom decided to ask the people who used to live here what had happened in this house. The Joneses told us that a family had two boys. They were inseparable. Their love for each other was so great that it was a true friendship, even through their death. One day, the boys were playing by the well and the youngest brother's toy soldier fell in the well. The youngest brother tried to reach for the toy and fell in the well.
Their parents were not there, so the older brother tried to reach for his brother's hand but he failed. He cried for help but no one was in sight. "Please!" he pleaded. "God, help me!," he pleaded with God to spare his little brother. But when he could not see his younger brother anymore, he jumped in the well.
Never were they found. When their parents returned home, they looked for their boys. They reported them missing but still never to be found, lying deep at the bottom of the well. Their parents were so devastated with sadness that they moved away and were never heard from again.
It is also told that at midnight, when the moon is just right, the boys awaken to look for their long-lost parents.
- Gabrielle Ashley Leos Sierra
Victoria
"The stolen shoes"
During the late 1960s, when times were not as scary as they are now, my two younger sisters had gone trick-or-treating for many hours and had their bags full to the brim with candy. They were happily on their way home with their stash.
My youngest sister had taken off her brand new shoes and put them in her bag on top of her candy. She did this even though our mother had told her "Do not take your shoes off!"
They were a half block from our house when two high school boys ran by them and grabbed their bags. The oldest sister held on to her bag with all her might and was able to keep her candy. These boys did not know they would have to drag her to their house before she would let go of her stash. The younger sister was knocked down, and the boys ran off with her bag and shoes.
Besides being devastated about her hard-earned candy being stolen, she was now also in trouble with Mom for losing her shoes!
These sisters are now in their 40s and 50s, and to this day, we always remember this story of when they were almost home and their candy and shoes were stolen. As my younger sister has always said, "If it's gonna happen - it will happen to me."
- Diana Vianes
Victoria
Coming
We've enjoyed each month during the past year telling your stories as part of Your Life, Your Stories series. This Halloween package will be the final installment of that series. But, we have a surprise for you: a new series involving photos. Stay tuned for more details on Sunday.
On a cool, clear Halloween evening in 1968, Lillian Manning started to show signs of labor.
But she wasn't due for another month.
Manning picked up the phone and dialed her doctor, who told her to come into the hospital immediately.
"Dr. Robert, I'm just not in the mood to have a baby tonight. Can't I stay at home?" she said.
"You'd better come in," said her doctor, Robert Wagner, who Manning called "a friend and a doctor."
Manning and her husband James left their two daughters with Manning's mother, hopped in their blue '66 Ford pickup and drove 10 miles from Moulton to hospital in Shiner.
She was admitted at the now-defunct Dr. Frank Wagner Hospital and was told she wouldn't have the baby that night.
Manning recently retold the story as her favorite Halloween memory as part of the Advocate's Your Life, Your story series.
But Manning's baby had a different idea.
"This baby is going to be born," Manning said to a nurse, who quickly dismissed her claim, Manning said.
"Did you ever have a baby?" Manning asked the nurse.
"No, I haven't," the nurse said.
"Well, I have, and I'm having one," Manning said.
Wagner, who had left for home, was called back in.
Nurses rushed Manning to the delivery room. They were weaving her down the hall when Wagner arrived, rushing toward her in his house shoes, pajamas and robe.
"He was running toward me because they thought I would have the baby in the hall," she said, recalling that she feared she would have to give birth in the hallway.
But she made it to the delivery room, where she was given an anesthetic.
Manning woke up three hours after delivery and found that she had given birth to her only son, Dale.
"I just couldn't believe it because we already had two girls," she said. "And so that was my family."
Manning, now 69, lives in a nursing home in Schulenburg. She was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease five years ago.
She still can talk, though it is slower and a bit slurred.
Her hand is ridden with arthritis. She can no longer write or sew, but she remembers well the costumes she made for Dale.
Dale, who turns 41 Saturday, said he always had to work his birthday party around Halloween.
"(My mom) always gave me a good birthday party when I was a kid because I never really liked my birthday being on Halloween," he said, though his mother said he always liked to dress up on the holiday.
One year, Manning dressed Dale up as George Washington and made a prop from a branch with artificial leaves and cherries. That was her favorite costume she made for him.
"Good memories," she said. "They keep me going."
