Spooky Stories: The lady in lace

CEDAR CITY – From the time I was a tiny girl one of my earliest memories is of my father singing me to sleep. The sound of his voice coupled with the pluck of each guitar string would carry me to far-off places in my wild imagination.

I don’t remember a single night growing up when there wasn’t live music in my living room.

Some nights I would drift off into slumber quick and easy like. Other nights, I would stay up late and pretend to sleep, hopeful that he wouldn’t carry me off to bed too soon so I could watch the movies he sang in my mind.

spooky story continues below

From Steve Forbert’s tale of the many lives he led as a shepherd boy, a wagon wheel and even a gust of wind, “a brief but mighty gale,” while drinking “One More Glass of Beer,” to the moonlit night over a lone cowboy on the range in James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James,” the story-songs my father shared created the most fabulous adventures.

Still, of all of the songs my father played, the ones I enjoyed the most were the ones he wrote himself. I can still remember being a 5-year-old sitting at the end of the coffee table while he wrote this creepy tale.

Scribbling fervently on the paper with a furrowed brow, he would look up every so often and play a few bars before scribbling some more to make adjustments. After what seemed like an eternity (really it was only one evening) the song was complete – and the hauntingly beautiful results left an impression that I still carry with me today.

The Lady in Lace

In the heat of the summer and the sweat of the night,

When the moon is full enough to give just a little light,

There’s a mist on the marsh that keeps the secrets well hid,

Where the swamp beasts and the gators and the devils bid.

 

When the shadows to the east outlines the top of the trees,

You can hear a woman’s voice calling off of the breeze,

You can see a lantern glowing at the edge of the haze,

And the distant silhouette of The Lady in Lace.

 

A bride soon to be – The Lady in Lace,

And the groom that disappeared that day without any trace,

And she vowed on her life, and she swore on her pride,

If not in body then in spirit she’d be by his side.

 

No one knows the secrets of the marsh and the night,

There’s so many paths to choose, but only one can be right,

Miles into the fog she staggered calling his name,

They say that each year on their wedding day she appears again.

 

Some say she was a widow on her day to be a wife,

Some say she found him with another so she took his life,

Too long ago to be sure what took place,

A secret guarded by the darkness and the lady in lace.

 

A bride soon to be – The Lady in Lace,

And the groom that disappeared that day without any trace,

And she vowed on their love, and she swore on their pride,

If not in body then in spirit she’d be by his side.

 

The evil heart of the swamp bears no regard to wrong or right,

It pulls whatever it pleases into the mist of the night,

She was a true love for better, she was a true love for worse,

More than a hundred years she’s walked through an eternal curse.

 

And the epitaph reads:

“This is the resting place,

Of the lost true love,

And The Lady in Lace.”

 

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Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

 

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