The Ghost of Sweet Jenny

Grandma had a yard full of roses and a house full of ghosts. She believed that ghosts are "just in the other room" and when we speak of them, or need them, they will respond. To prove her point, she liked to tell us children the story of Sweet Jenny.

She usually told that story something like this. Long before daddy met mama he was married to a beautiful young girl named Jenny. Shortly after the birth of their child, Jenny came down real sick. Soon the baby was sick too. When the baby died Jenny went mad with grief.

There was nothing anyone could do for her. Poor thing refused to eat. All she did was cry day and night. A week after the baby's burial they found Jenny in the graveyard, dead. With a raging fever, she'd walked out there to be near her child's grave and froze to death. For nearly ten years Daddy was inconsolable. Then he met mama. Eventually the two of them married and had all us kids.

We lived on a farm and all had our chores. Daryl and George, were the oldest, so they were usually sent to gather the wood. One year George broke his arm and Daryl decided he could gather the wood by himself so off he set toward Pinto Lake. When he still hadn't come home for the afternoon meal Mama started to get worried. Back and forth she walked, from the barn to the house. She finally came into the kitchen where we were all still eating.

"Daryl's hurt down by the lake. He's going to need help to get home." She calmly told Daddy. "And just how do you know this?" He teased. She looked him square in the face and said, "Jenny told me." Daddy stared at her. "I'll saddle the horse." Just before nightfall he found Daryl where he'd fallen, near the lake. He was in such pain he could barely move. Somehow he'd stumbled over a tree stump and broken both his ankles.

That night after he'd eaten, Daryl told us, " I thought I was a goner for sure. I started yelling for help and there she was, this pretty woman with long golden hair. She just kept smiling at me and telling me not to worry because help would come soon. " He looked at Daddy, "She disappeared when I heard your horse." Daddy nodded sadly.

The next morning Mama and Daddy sat us all down and told us about Jenny. "As for me," Mama said, "from here on out I'll call her Sweet Jenny because she saved the life of my son."

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