I Kept Seeing the Same Woman in the Gardens

I visited Magnolia Plantation and Gardens by myself a few years ago while I was in Charleston for work. I had an extra afternoon and wanted to spend it somewhere peaceful, so I decided to walk through the gardens with my camera.

It was spring, and there were people scattered throughout the property, but it never felt crowded. Everyone seemed to be wandering at their own pace.

Not long after I started walking, I noticed a woman ahead of me wearing a white dress and a wide-brimmed hat. She wasn’t doing anything unusual. She was just walking slowly along one of the garden paths.

I remember thinking she looked like she belonged there. Almost like she had stepped out of another time.

I didn’t think much of it and continued taking pictures.

A little later I saw her again on a different path. I actually smiled because I thought we just happened to keep ending up in the same parts of the gardens.

The third time I noticed her, I decided I was going to catch up and ask where she had bought her hat. It was beautiful, and I thought my mom would have loved something like it.

I picked up my pace, turned the corner where I’d just seen her walk…

…and there was nobody there.

I remember stopping because there really wasn’t anywhere she could have gone that quickly. The path stretched out in front of me, and there weren’t any side trails nearby.

I laughed to myself and figured I’d somehow missed her.

About twenty minutes later I saw her again.

Same white dress.

Same hat.

Walking away from me.

This time I didn’t bother trying to catch up. I just watched for a few seconds while she rounded another bend in the path.

When I got there, she was gone again.

I’ve gone back and forth over the years trying to explain it. The gardens are large, and maybe she simply knew the paths better than I did. Maybe there were little turnoffs I never noticed.

But I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that I wasn’t just seeing another visitor.

The strange thing is, the experience never felt frightening.

If anything, it made the gardens feel even more timeless.

Sometimes I still look through the photos from that afternoon, half expecting to find her in one of them.

So far, I never have.