The Cat Lady of the San Fernando Mission

From: Dave (dtrevdav1@aol.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: San Fernando Mission, Cailif
Source: Form Submission
Date submitted: Wed Aug 29 10:46:38 2007

Having grown up in Sylmar and San Fernando, I have always heard many different tales about ghosts and apparitions at the old mission over the years. One of those tales was about the ghost of a lady with a bunch of ghost cats seen walking the grounds of the mission at night. Well one night about 25 years ago while driving home by the mission, I saw this figure by the side of the road with some smaller figures scurrying about at its feet. As I passed I saw that it was an old lady with a bunch of cats walking. Having remembered the tale I said to myself "Nahh! Can't be!". So I swung my car around for a second look and drove up to this lady and stopped. I was no more than a few feet from her. I looked at her and she looked back at me. Nothing was said for a few seconds until I blurted out "YOU'RE NOT A GHOST!!" and drove away. I remember back then telling about my experience and feeling proud that I de-bunked the tale.

About 15 years later I was shopping at the Kmart in San Fernando and overheard the clerk telling the "Cat Lady" story to a customer. I corrected him and repeated my experience. He still insisted that it was true as his uncles had seen it the week before and that the "apparition" they had seen was floating off the ground!

I don't know if what they saw was real because this lady would be very very old if she was still alive or if they were just drunk, but I do know what I saw. It is funny how some tales if perpetuated long enough and told to an expanding audience can be stretched and modified til it becomes folklore as I still occasionally hear this "Cat Lady" tale to this day.