SPEAKER_02 0:29

Didn't the last one. Now remind me, it's called What Breeze?

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Bay Breeze.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Bay Breeze. Which is very ideal because mine is that's not so much the bay, it's an island. And there is definitely some breezes happening in my story. Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

I'm excited. Oh. It's very cranberry. Mmm. So we get to battle UTIs and be drunk at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Multi-purposed. I love it. Okay, this definitely tastes different than last week's drink.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Really?

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Mm-hmm. I still taste the rum and a little bit of pineapple, but not so much coconut.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

It might not be coconut.

unknown 1:06

Mm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

I have found in my older days that I do enjoy cranberry juice. I was never really a fan. I only drank it if I had a UTI, which never really happened for me. When you're young, it's not as much of an issue. Yeah. But now I find that like I like the tartness of it. It's really weird. I don't know if it's something as you get older that you don't yeah, it'll taste just a little bit of coconut. It tastes like.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

I get the pineapple and the cranberry. That's not bad. No, it's pretty good. It's I mean, last week's was better. But this is good. You like the house value.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

I liked it a lot. Yeah. Boomer makes a good drink. Is it does it like remind you of going someplace? Is that why you like that one more than this one?

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Because No, it's a flavor thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

Really? It's just my taste bud was really happy. Are you you're so I assume you like you really like coconut? I like boat drinks. I like pina coladas. And it was drinks very pin colada records and boat drinks. Now I'm not I guess I'm not quite maybe you a drink with an umbrella on it. What your boat drink would be for you would be like what we call vacation drinks. Okay. Same same idea. Same idea. Where, okay. It's more of a fruity.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Okay. Yeah. So sometimes I have an episode where I say, look, it's a drinking game. I'm gonna say this word over and over again. And every time I do you drink. Like once it was mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, because I have a habit of saying that. What do you think I'm gonna repeat over and over again this time?

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Uh what word do I think you're going to say over and over and over again?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

We're talking filler words. This is this is an innocent question. It could be anything. It could be uh-huh, it could be right, it could be anything. You don't use you know a lot. My uncle used to. Yeah?

SPEAKER_03 2:50

My mom my mom uses you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

You know? Let's see if I can make it happen.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Oh, you're gonna try?

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Let's let's just see if I can organically make it happen, like subconsciously affect my speech. Why though? I say you know, you drink.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

You know? You drink, you know.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

You know? All right. So today we are gonna talk about two episodes ago. We talked three episodes ago? We talked about one that you had a connection to, a personal connection to. Yeah, you know? Yep, you know. Stay sober, my friends.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Good luck. Yeah. With these drinks, never.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Nope. So today we get to one that I have a personal connection to. Awesome. Now, I also know that last time, last week you were complaining a little bit about the fact that I brought up facts that kind of ruin the ghost story for you, right? I don't say ruined. Like facts got in the way of the fun story, right? I like that though.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

I like learning something that I've been told for most of my life, to be like, oh, because when I go and I spill the beans of somebody else, I can say, hey. You know? So did you know that it's all malarky?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Malarky. Yeah. Yeah. Well, guess what? You're gonna do more of that? Nope. This time the facts all support the story. Oh wow. Yes, so you're gonna be so happy, and there's a bug on my face. There's a bug on my face.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

I don't know where it is. Oh there's a bug done in my head. What is it?

SPEAKER_03 4:26

It looks like a gnat.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

This is what happens when you party outdoors and you bring it inside.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

It's my little spotties.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Oh, you and your Club Outshine.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

I can't help that. It is a nice club. I love you, Club Outshine. I have gotten drunk there a few times. It was great.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Yeah, it was great. Okay. So they're all gonna support the story. Okay, but it is a sad story. Okay. Okay, as long as you're okay with that, you know? Yeah. All right. All right, all right, all right. So you ready for some backstory? Yes. Okay, the backstory is what's sad. Okay. All right. So we're gonna go back to September 8th, 1900. We're in Galveston. The population is 37,000, making it the fourth largest city in Texas. Remember, 1900. Fourth largest city in Texas.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Was it still was it now? Do you know? Text Google. Google knows. Largest cities in Texas. So right now, obviously, Houston. Uh San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth. Galveston doesn't even make the list. Uh Galveston is not even close. Nope. So how many people are in Galveston today? Galveston is number 72, and there are 53,424 people.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Okay, so more. More. But not so drastically. No, because they all floated away in 1900. Oh, now don't ruin the story. It's a good story. So it was a sad story. Yes. So it was uh 37,000 versus the 50, right? Um, on this night, though, the number dropped drastically, perhaps losing in excess of 12,000 souls in one night. Wow. Yes. But we don't know the exact number of people who died in Galveston on that day because it was just too much for them to handle. Yeah. So they never made a complete list of the dead. Wow. Yeah. There were so many people killed that their bodies exceeded the capacity of conventional burials. Fires were lit in the day and night, trying to discard all the bodies, right? Yeah. It would take months to clear the bodies out because they kept finding more under the demolished buildings or trapped in debris. And the numbers became so great that the residents were permitted to take care of the bodies however they saw fit. Like finders' keepers, you figure it out? You figure it out. You find a body, you figure out how to bury it or how to dispose of it in one way or another. So overwhelmed by the task, many of the bodies were weighed down and buried at sea. Oh no shit. Mm-hmm. That's some Jason Voorhees. Right? Well, try to imagine it, okay? So so many bodies that you can't bury them all. And although the entire town is littered with wood from demolished buildings, there still isn't enough space to keep burning the bodies. So you try to push them out into the ocean. And then you wipe your sleeve across your brow, you're thinking, okay, problem solved. Right? And then, to your horror, the bodies float back. Of course. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:12

Well that should have used heavier bricks.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

That was a storm of 1900, a horrific hurricane that left half the town trying to bury the other half.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Today many people believe that the spirits of these lost souls haunt the town, but there is one group of people who are most recognized, possibly because they were still young, possibly because they were parentless, uh, maybe because the caretakers died trying to save them. You probably know who I'm talking about, right? This is about the school, the girls' school? No, it's the Galveston Orphans. The orphans? The orphans. Okay. Mm-hmm. These small victims haunt two structures today, and we suspect that's because there are two places that the orphans remember living. Okay, so originally St. Mary's Orphanage was kept inside of the hospital. And both the hospital and the orphanage were run by the sisters of, and my mouth is going to try and go really slow over this one, okay? It's one of those special words. The sisters of charity of the incarnate word. Okay. Okay. This location was located on the grounds of what is today the Grand Galvez. Oh neat. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

That's a very beautiful hotel. Why would you want to build on top of something like that? I mean, I guess with Jefferson Davis and the story last week.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

You would just lay concrete down and well, we're talking about a storm that wiped everything out. So now you've got clear ground. Okay. So why not? Where else are you gonna build? Okay. It's clear ground. Yeah, I guess so. Mm-hmm. So the orphanage, this is important because we talked about this last week. The orphanage was filled with children who had survived their parents' death from yellow fever. Yep, yellow fever comes back. It was a huge epidemic in 1867 and it swept through Galveston like a slow, ugly tide for decades, swallowing the parents and leaving the children behind. God damn. Now, for a fun but also relevant fact, okay, it wasn't until 1900 that it was proven that yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes. So before that, they thought that the virus was passed on from person to person. With that misunderstanding, they wanted to keep the children safe, so they moved the children to a new location outside of what they thought would be the reach of the virus. It was away from other people who had it because that's how they thought it spread. And this new location would be about three miles west of town, right next to the edge of the beach, where the Walmart now stands on 69th and the seawall.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Oh, Walmart. How do they know they had yellow fever? Like what were the symptoms?

SPEAKER_02 9:30

So they get jaundice. Okay. What else? What else? Dark colored urine. I'm sure they were checking each other's urine, like here, pee here. Right? It looks like this color.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

Ox blood red.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Ox blood red, yep. Speaking of which, let's take a drink. What was our word?

SPEAKER_03 9:47

You know.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

You know. You know, take a drink. You know. Itchy skin, fatigue, and weakness, confusion, belly pain, nausea, or fever. So in the initial phase. It sounds like it's just like a flu. It really does.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Except you're just jaundice.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Yeah, you've got uh fever, you got chills, you got a headache, you got back pain, body aches. Yes, it sounds like the flu. So how'd they know it was the yellow fever and not the flu? I guess because you died. So two locations. Okay. And the Walmart on 69th Street.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Now what was at the Walmart? Was that the was that another orphanage you said?

SPEAKER_02 10:26

That's where the hospital originally was. Okay, okay, okay. So the hospital used to have the orphanage in it. And then they wait, no, I've got it backwards. I've got it so backwards. Gran Galvez is where the hospital originally was. Okay. And then the new location where they moved the children to, that's where the Walmart was. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right, now we're straight. Now we're straight. This new orphanage consisted of two large story dormitories with balconies facing the Gulf. Oh. One was for the boys, one for the girls. I know, right? Golf view. Very nice. Is the Walmart that close to the It's right there on the seawall.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Oh, I think it's a great thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

69th and Seawall.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

I think I it's been so long, so I've been on the Galveston.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

But okay. Okay, so they've got a nice little marker there. Saying, saying, you know, a true, you know, what is the word? Honoring the the sisters of the Incarnate Word, yeah. You see, you can say it. I don't know why. My tongue just trips over that. The sisters of the incarnate word. Did that sound normal? That sounds fun. That sounds in my ears, it sounds really wrong. Like I'm which part of the all of it. Oh, okay. Sisters, I got right. Sister. I know, I feel confident in sisters. The rest just sounds like a mess. But yes, they've got a they've got a marker honoring them. Okay. 93 children, both girls and boys, ten sisters of charity of the incarnate word. Did I get it? Nailed it. Nailed it, yes, uh, to care for them. And in fact, the nuns' names are all still on record. So you can look them up. There's um sisters Camellius Tracy, Evangelist O'Sullivan, Elizabeth Ryan, Vincent Cottier, Guinevere Davalos, Catherine Herbert, getting tired just saying them all, Raphael Elliott, uh Felicitas Rosner, Benegis Doran, and Finnegar Creedon.

unknown 12:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

That was a lot of unusual names, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:25

Why are they so unusual?

SPEAKER_02 12:27

I know, those were kind of cool names though. Benegin, Benegus, Benegis, and Finbar.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Are they are those given? Because when you join a monastery, is the same for the women too, it's a monastery. When you join, don't you give up your birth name and you're given Do you? Then why do we have Elizabeth Ryan?

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Look that shit up.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

Why are you so aggressive?

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Oh. You know? You know, you know, why are you so aggressive?

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Ryan?

SPEAKER_02 12:58

No, no, no, not her name. I mean, you can look up her name specifically, but what I'm asking is, are you correct when you ask, do they change their names when they go into the monastery? So I'm gonna say when women, because these are all women, I assume.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Not mom's a story. Just because I say it wrong doesn't mean you have to spell it wrong. No, women joining a monastery or religious community do not always have to give up their birth name. The practice depends heavily on the Jesus Christ. Well, it depends on that too. Yeah. The practice depends heavily on the specific religious tradition, the specific order or monastery, and modern rules within those groups. So this would be Catholic. Catholic tradition. Before the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, Catholic women entering a religious order must always receive a new religious name, like a title, a title like sister, to symbolize dying to their old life and beginning the new one.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

I just wonder where they're getting these names from. We're getting hung up on the wrong thing, I think. We are, we are.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

But it's an interesting topic. How did nuns come up with their names? Yeah, yeah. Yes. All right, let's get back to the storm. All right, so it was a big storm, and it was so big that it was called the Great Storm of the 1900. And it remains the deadliest natural disaster in the United States history. And thank God, because can you imagine a storm so big that half the town gets wiped out?

SPEAKER_03 14:17

I mean that's not by way of hurricane, though, but we've had that happen with like tornadoes and shit taking out full fucking towns. But not the people. Well, that's true. Right? Yeah. Here this this was a lot of people dead. Did they know it was coming? But like what do you do when it's just a qu a pot a quiet, peaceful day that the storm's coming and you just think, ah, it's just rain, and then all of a sudden, right.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

It's a storm. Like there's a lot of wind, but like, am I gonna die from it?

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Or am I gonna lose half the fucking town due to this?

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Okay. All right. September 8th, 1900. Okay. When the sky looked pale and the winds were increasing in strength and the great waves were crashing on the beachfront. So that's the whole image I want you to see. Okay. Sister Elizabeth Ryan, remember she was one of the ten nuns. She went into town to collect supplies, provisions for this children's supper. And while she was in town at the hospital, Mother Gabriel, the assistant superior at St. Mary's Infirmary, begged Elizabeth Ryan to stay at the hospital until the storm passed.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

So they knew there was a storm.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

They knew there was a storm. I mean, the winds are raging. They didn't know how bad. The winds are raging, the rain is pouring, they know there's a storm. But yeah, they don't. I mean, it's a storm. I mean, storms happen, right? But Sister Elizabeth said she had to return. She had provisions in the wagon. If she did not return, the children would have no supper.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

How that's very admirable of her. How close was this um store that she had to go to to get back to the orphanage? Three miles west. That's a that's a bit of a trek. On a wagon. On a wagon. Is she does she have a horse?

SPEAKER_02 15:54

I'm assuming the wagon would have a horse. I can't imagine her pulling it by hand.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

I mean, I don't put it past them.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

I'm picturing a horse and buggy. Okay. She didn't know that whether she returned or not, there was going to be no more suppers in the orphanage. She didn't know that staying would have saved her life because the hospital was one of the few buildings that would survive the storm.

unknown 16:13

God damn.

SPEAKER_03 16:14

But then survivors guilt takes over at that point. Especially if you're with the the uh Sisterhood of Traveling Pants um to uh take care of these kids that don't have anybody. Well, I don't think that's gonna be a problem. Great.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Should I ruin the story for you? No. Let's go on. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. So she drove back in that storm by mid-afternoon. The sea had erased the dunes. And in fact, one of the surviving children, so they're there there's a little survivor skilled. One of the surviving children described the 15-foot surges erasing the sand dunes as if they were made of flour. Wow. They just puffed away from the power of the waves. By 6 p.m. the dunes that stood between the children and the gulf were gone. The wind was gusting past a hundred miles per hour, and the waters of the Gulf completely flooded the city. Whole blocks were washed away within minutes. Residents climbed to the second stories, attics, and even roofs of their home. God damn.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

It's a lot of water. It's a lot of water, and you're braving the storm to get out and not be in a place that's going to kill you. So you're getting on the roof of your house and the storm on top of it.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Well, you've already got water coming in from from the the streets are at this point flooded. Yeah. And you're thinking it's only going to keep rising. I need to get higher myself. So that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 17:35

It makes sense to get on the roof, but like if the winds are blowing at 100 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Yeah. You gotta hold on tight to that chimney. Something, yeah. Yeah. So back at the orphanage, the sisters gathered all the children, boys and girls, together, and they moved them to the sturdier girls' dormitory. Uh they climbed to the second floor and they watched the golf come up the stairs toward them. Oh, yikes. Yep. By 7 30 p.m., a tidal wave had struck the south shore. It reached 15 to 20 feet high. God. The water rose so fast it seemed impossible, and houses along the beachfront were lifted from their foundations and sent like battering ramps into other houses. To keep the children calm, the nuns had the boys and girls sing a French hymn called Queen of the Waves. This was a song traditionally sung by fishermen and sailors to ask the Virgin Mary for protection during violent storms. Oh man. Now I tried to look this up because you know I thought with my tone-deaf ears, I could sing a little piece of it for you. And it was gonna be magical. Okay. Looking it up brought me Barbie's song. She has Barbie has a song called Queen of the Waves all about surfing.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Barbie? Barbie. The doll.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Barbie has an album? She has a video on YouTube. Oh wow. So you try to look up Queen of the Waves, that's what you're gonna get.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Is Barbie.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Okay. But I do have some of the words and I can read them to you. Okay, so I can't sing them to you, but I can read them to you. So it goes, Queen of the Waves, look forth across the ocean, from north to south, from east to stormy west. See how the waters with termulous motion rise up and foam without pause or rest. But fear we not, thou storm clouds around us gather. Thou art our mother, and thy little child is all the merciful, our loving brother. Ninety-three children sang this hymn. Two and three-year-olds who didn't know the words.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Um, thirteen-year-olds who understood exactly what was happening. And they sang this because the sisters told them to sing it, but also because the hymn was louder than their own fear. Okay. And they had reason to be afraid. Like a ship was being tossed in the storm, hit the boy's dormitory across from them. And the children watched terrified as the dormitory was lifted off its foundation and washed away. Oh, good dog.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Right? We're right next to it. You know if that one goes out, what's stopping mine from going out? Yeah. So as the winds raged at 150 miles per hour, the water reached the second floor, and the sisters made a decision. How many stories was this? Uh two stories.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Two, okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Have you heard the decision before? Maybe. But I'm gonna let you tell me. Oh, okay. So they had clothes line in the dormitory and they cut that rope into sections and they used it to tie the children to the cinctures around their waist. Damn. Yep. They thought that no matter what happened, they would not drift away. The children would not drift away from the sisters' helping hands. That was the whole idea. Just keep them close no matter what, nobody's gonna get washed away. Or they all get washed away. Oh, don't ruin a good story, don't ruin it. You know?

SPEAKER_03 20:25

Nailed it.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Ah, thank you. A few of the older children climbed onto the roof of the orphanage, but the rest of them were tied to the sisters. Each sister tied herself to between six to eight children. Good list.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

So do you have visual in your head? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Because then it happened. The roof crashed down, the floor fell out from beneath their feet, and although the goal of the sisters was to have not one child wash away with them, when the water crashed over them, the weight of the group dragged everyone under the water together. Every one of the sisters drowned tied to the bodies of children who could not swim. Oh God.

SPEAKER_03 21:00

That's like one of my biggest fears.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Being tied to children? You shouldn't be dreaming about tying yourself to children. Well, you know. I mean, you know, that's the first problem. I gotta I gotta live a life somehow. So out of 103 people in that building, only three boys survived. The boys Were they tied to somebody? No. Okay. The boys, the ones who, if you remember, they crawled up onto the roof. They wound up in the water and they awoke to find themselves clinging to a tree which floated for nearly a day. Uh-uh. Mm-hmm. Then they were later rescued by a small boat and returned to the town where they discovered the sad fates of the orphanage, the ten nuns, and the other children in the house.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

And they apparently were passed out because they woke up. They woke up. Woke up.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

They woke up probably exhausted. Yeah. Did I that's the first word I've enunciated enunciated all night. Exhausted. Exhausted. That was some good enunciation there, girly. You know? No, you're supposed to be drinking. Mm. So one of the surviving boys remembered when the nuns were tying the children to themselves. He remembers the nun telling the little one, I will never let you go. I mean, that was the whole point of tying them to each each other, right? Yeah. Well, the sisters were buried wherever they were found with the children still attached to them. Oh God. One of them was tightly holding two small children in her arm. So even in death, she had kept her promise not to let go.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Isn't that just beautiful?

SPEAKER_03 22:23

Terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

I don't know. I mean I mean just the power of the love that they that they had for these children. That was just you you you picture orphanage the way you picture Annie, right? You? I do. I picture I picture Annie. The movie. Oh. Miss Hannigan.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

Oh, she hated it. Little girls, little girls.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

I remember that. That's how I picture it. Oh, that's funny, because I see the opposite. You do? I see it as like a call to service with these people where, you know, a lot maybe these women couldn't bear children of their own, and so they feel obligated to go and join like a monastery or whatever and just take care of people who can't take care of themselves.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

So this is where I really regret my memory. I know there's a place in Ireland where uh they had an orphanage, and because there were too many orphans? Too many orphans and too many women coming in pregnant that they kind of helped the situation out and reduced their numbers.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

I don't understand what you mean.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Oh, you understand what I mean. You understand what I mean. They reduced their numbers. Killing people? Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Mm-hmm. Children. They were killing children.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yes. There are graves in mass. Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Just because there were so many? Because it was just too much to take care of. Someone ha they had to have someone have had to have figured it out. Oh yeah, well, of course, how would we know otherwise? Right? Because you there's gotta be paperwork. I would think that goes with um these kids.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Nearly 800 babies and young children died at the at St. Mary's mother and baby home in TAM, County Galloway, Ireland, between 1925 and 1961. God bless. Run by the Bon Schowers sisters. God please don't let me be saying that wrong, but I probably am. The institution was for unmarried mothers and their children to make it.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

Yeah, you see, I don't have the cleanest feelings towards Towards orphanages. Orphanages because you think you just immediately go bad. Immediately go that is okay. So I guess my buttons.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

The fact that these nuns cared about the children so much that they sacrificed their own lives. I mean, like that really touches my heart.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Yeah. I I just I always I guess I I always assume that the best of people until told or shown otherwise.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

You're such a better human than me.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

So well, it's that's my little aquarian heart. Oh. Oh. That's all I can say. Oh. Bless your heart. Bless my heart, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

All right. So now you want to hear how the uh children um how the story relates to me, right? Yes. It's gonna be a minute. Oh, I just thought you'd go poop or something. I draw it out a little bit more. So, like I said, the second site, the one where the storm, the one that the storm swallowed the dormitories of, right? Uh, that's the Walmart now. Okay. It's a super center right there on the Seawall Boulevard. And just outside of it, I told you this before, it's a Texas historical marker honoring the sisters of the charity of incarnate word. Inside, employees have learned to expect certain things like child, like toys. I was gonna say children being rearranged at night. No, no. Children are not there at night. That you know of. That I know of. Yes. Toys are found rearranged at night, and sounds, children's sounds, in the aisles where no children are standing. One employee recalled hearing a little girl calling for her mother. She went to go look, she searched the toy department. Um, she was calling out. Other employees also heard and joined the search, as well as customers. Customers also joined the search. Eventually the sobbing stopped, but they never found the child. So that's just one person story. This Walmart has been considered one of the most haunted locations on the island.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

But if we're narrowing down spots to hotels, that goes to Hotel Galvez. The Hotel Galvez, otherwise known as the Grand Galvez, was built in 1911 on the original orphanage site. So this was in the hospital inside the city where the sisters first cared for the children. Now I can tell you from personal experience that this is a grand hotel, it really is. It has cozy white tables for having tea. Oh. I know, right? It has a grand staircase. It still has the original telegram office in perfect condition, and it even has a beautifully restored 1900s car parked in the lobby. Presidents have stayed there. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Johnson, and Nixon, actors like Jamie Stewart have stayed there, musicians like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, tycoons like Howard Hughes. This is the kind of hotel where you do not see children running loose in the halls because it simply isn't that kind of place. Yeah. And yet doors open and close on their own, lights turn on and off, guests and staff frequently report hearing phantom children running, giggling, and playing with balls throughout the halls.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

Oh. Balls in the afterlife.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

You know, you know, now that you mention it. So let me tell you about the four most haunted spots in the hotel. Okay. First is the spa. So if you ever go to the Grand Galvez, go to the spa. It's uh it's situated on the former site of the hotel's old ice cream parlor. That's how fancy this hotel used to be. It had its own ice cream parlor.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

Is there no ice cream parlor anymore?

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Not anymore. Now it's a spa. That's even better. Come on. A spa? A spa. Talk about massages.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

Yeah, but I like ice cream.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

I know. But there's the Walmart. Go down to the Walmart and get the usual haunted ice cream. Yep. Visitors and staff had reported hearing the voice of a little girl whispering, ice cream. See if she walked by. Even they want ice cream. They even, yep, she does, anyways. Staff members have repeatedly reported cleaning tiny phantom handprints off. Could we have this thing about handprints? Hand prints, yeah. We do. So they've reported cleaning the phantom handprints off the lower section of the spas glass doors, sometimes multiple times a day, even when no children are present on the property. Wow. So just go check out those doors. But the real place I think to check out is the elevator. Okay. Okay. So the hotel's elevator is the site of one of the most visible spirit sightings. So local historians and ghost tour guides have documented guests stepping into the elevator only to find a young, visible girl standing inside with a violent sash and a violet ribbon in her hair. That seems oddly specific. It is. Well, she likes purple. This one. Unaware that she is a ghost, guests will casually step in and assume that she is simply riding up to her room. Is she not wearing clothes that's She is wearing clothing, yes.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

She's not naked. Thank God. That's weird. Um, is she not wearing clothes from that period? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

I mean, I I I picture a church-going dress and yeah. All right. So unaware that she's a ghost, guests will casually step in and assume she is simply riding up to her room, only to look back and realize that she has vanished. Into the walls. Into the walls. She's just gone. So if you go to Grand Galvez, definitely use the elevator. So I've been there. How many floors does the Galvez have? Oh, I'm going off memory. Okay. I'm not looking this up. I'm going off memory. Don't give me that look. I'm going to say eight floors. Okay. Okay. That's not so bad. The fifth floor is famous on its own for a different ghost. Okay. But we're not going to go into that this time around. Okay. So the third spot is the lawn. While many ghosts are the children themselves, they say the most heartbreaking view is that of Sister Catherine Herbert. The figure of the nun is almost always seen pacing the southern front lawn of the hotel, staring directly out to the Gulf of Mexico.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

That also goes back to are they not alarmed by what she's wearing? Because I know she has clothes on. Well, this one it looks like a ghost. This one it doesn't fool people. Oh they know. They immediately clock it as. But what other questions do you have about this one? That's it. Just I'm sure what they wore back in the 1900s probably does not look normal today. Well, how do they know that it's sister Catherine Herbert? How do they know it's that one specifically? Exactly. There were ten nuns. Her name tag.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Oh my god, you're so brilliant.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

You know you're just so brilliant. You know, it's a big silent drink, like a video game that just says Catherine Herbert with the arrow pointing down.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Right. No, research says that uh psychics and paranormal investigators who have visited the site claim to have channeled or communicated with a specific entity, and she identifies herself as Catherine. Huh. So that's how we know. Because otherwise, that was my question. I'm like, wait a minute. How do you know it's Catherine? I mean, that is that was the answer to the question I had, which is how do you know it's Catherine? Yeah, yeah. So I had to Google that one. All right, finally the fourth spot. That's the west end of the hotel where the guests often report Ethril children are playing with balls that they throw to each other. So this one you can see the children, but they do look a little wobbly, so they don't look like actual you know they're not fooled like the elevator girl. They're not as solid. But you can see them playing ball with each other and you can hear them giggling. All right, so my connection last June, I stayed at the Hotel Gavez. Okay. I was personally there. Eric and I were there for an art show. And at some point, Eric, of course, he had to drive back to Houston. For those of you who do not live in the area, that's about 30 to 45 minutes away. And he wanted to watch an MMA event. After he left, I had a headache. I never get headaches. Well no, you're on so many drugs. You've said that yourself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

So I'm I'm I'm cured of headaches because I'm on so many drugs, I'm always relaxed. Was this the art event where your one of your favorite artists is down there? Goddard. Goddard was down there. Is this for some Chris? Have y'all met him? And it's Michael Gard. Michael.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Michael Goddard. And yes, oh my god, he is so funny.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Oh really?

SPEAKER_02 32:34

He is hilarious. I mean, if you ever get invited to a show with Michael Goddard, go.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Okay. It's it's it's great. Just for the comedy alone? Just for the comedy alone. And who cares about who cares about his paintings? Who cares about the art? Please. Olives. So how did y'all find out about this art event in Galvez? Oh, we were personally invited. Because we spent way too much on a cruise ship. Of his paintings?

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Of co no, not just of his, because this was a West Park uh what do you call it?

SPEAKER_03 33:01

So what you're saying is like you went on this cruise, this West Park auctioneers who has their group of artists that they enjoy using. You spent too much money on that. Yes. And so they were doing a standalone art event in the Grand Galvez. Yes. And y'all got invited because y'all spent too much money. X amount of money on this. Would y'all have gone if he wasn't down there, being that he's one of y'all's favorite artists?

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Yes, it was a free room at Grand Galvez. So yes. We were gonna go either way. Either way, yes. We were going. Okay. We were just gonna go. And the fact that we saw art that we wanted there was irrelevant. But we did. Did y'all buy anything? Yes, we did. Yes, we did. You know, we got a problem.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

No, I think because like is that why I bought the big wine glass with the heart? Or is that that was given to us? Oh, that's really cool. Trey gave us that.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Oh, no shit. Yes. Good job, Trey. I know. Trey's amazing. So he knows we like Goddard, so he bought us that. Oh, that's cool. No, what we bought was uh about five or six thousand dollars worth of art for our son. God damn, Annie. I know. It's stupid. Can I be a kid of yours? Alright, alright. So you don't drink much when you're telling your stories. This is true. I do. Fill me up.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Load me, dear. As I said, do you want me to pour you more drink or shake it? Shake it and pour it. Shake it and pour it. Yes. I like this one. Last week's was fine.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

It was it was a very fruity drink. This one is still fruity, but not as because the cranberry is kind of taming it a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

Yeah, and like I said, I I like cranberry. I don't know what's wrong with me.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

I like it. Yeah. I like it. It definitely grows on me.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Uh huh. Alright. So where we left off. Okay, so you went down to Eric Alma's.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Yeah, Eric had gone to the MMA event. I was left in the hotel. I had a headache. I never get headaches, but I had a headache, and so I decided I was gonna lay down, right? Responsible headache living. What floor are you on? We were on the second floor, if I remember correctly. Okay. Not the fifth floor. Was the hotel completely booked up? In fact, when I heard about the fifth floor ghost, I was very disappointed that I was on the wrong floor.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Did you um was there a bunch of people that were actually in the hotel as well for this art event?

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Or was it just okay? Yeah. So outside my room, though, I'm laying down, trying to get a little rest, trying to ignore the headache. And outside my room, children are running up and down the hall, they're laughing, they're talking, and they are completely tearing it up. This was probably around two o'clock in the afternoon. Oh wow. I'm getting really irritated. I'm thinking about going out there and telling them to find their parents because again, this is not the kind of hotel where you do that. You just don't run around wild at the Hotel Galvez. It's not a thing.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Well, eventually I gave up trying to rest. I got dressed and I went out into the hall trying to pull off my best Karen, but there was nobody there. At all?

SPEAKER_03 35:55

Nobody.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

The hall was empty.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

As you were walking up to the door, was the noise still happening? Were the kids running?

SPEAKER_02 36:00

As I'm as I'm getting dressed, I hear all the noise. Oh my god. I walk out, I open the door, and there's nobody out there. But I I didn't hear anything anymore. Okay. Everything was done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

It was. Since I was already dressed, I went downstairs, I went out to the beach, and I was thinking, well, the air, the fresh air will help clear my head. Immediately, I walked out to the beach and my head just cleared. Wow. So I came back inside, stopped at the front desk, because I'm looking for something to drink. Um, I'm asking her where's the bar and everything, even though it's like pretty obvious where's the bar. But I'm I'm making conversation, right? I'm polite. Somewhere in the conversation, I mentioned the children I'd heard running in the hall. And uh she was just looking at me very confused, and then all of a sudden, it was like something clicked into place, and she says, I think I know what happened. Oh and she told me about the orphans. Oh, how was that not her first thing? I I think because she was very confused. I'm talking about kids playing, and it it took her a minute just to connect and go, Oh, wait. Did I work in a place like that though?

SPEAKER_03 37:01

My first go-to is haunted. 100%. Right? For her to be like, Oh, I don't understand. There's no kid here. Oh, well, that's how she did it. Okay. That's how she did it. Maybe maybe she's like a healthy skeptic where she just wants to try to explain things away. Like, yeah, there is a family of four that are is on the second floor, and I'll talk to room 268. Right. Oh, pulling shadow my butt.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

268, that's exactly where it was.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

Is that your room number? No. Oh shit. Hey, I don't even remember my room number anymore.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

I remember the second floor, and that's it. Okay. I remember that you get off the elevator and you go to the left, and then you round a corner, and ours is like the second door after. I don't know what room number that was.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

So you talk to the receptionist.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

She clicks into place. She clicks into place. She says, uh, I think I know what happened. Okay. And then she tells me all about the orphans. And I want to be clear, before this moment, I had never heard a thing about them. Okay. I didn't know about St. Mary's, I didn't know about the storm, the sisters, the rope, three boys in the tree. But when she said it, everything clicked for you? Everything made sense. Everything.

SPEAKER_03 38:07

How does that happen?

unknown 38:08

Oh God.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

I don't know how it happens. I uh Okay. Yeah. Yeah, okay. But I was I I so I went into this not knowing anything. And I think that's the part I really want to emphasize. I didn't go in there thinking, oh, this is where the orphans died, and then heard children playing. No, I went into this thinking this is a hotel, I'm at an art conference, I'm excited to hear Goddard speak, they're giving me free dinner tonight. These are my thoughts. Oh yeah. And instead, I heard children making such a mess of a noise.

SPEAKER_03 38:42

Yeah. Did you get scared after that when you found out? I mean when you heard the story? Excited is the word I go with. Okay. Yeah. Like you you weren't gonna be like, okay, and now I'm not staying here tonight. No, I was like, what else?

SPEAKER_02 38:53

What else? What else? Okay. Alright, so the next part I wanted to say was. Um, let me see. Oh yeah, I'm I'm wrapping it up. Ready?

SPEAKER_03 39:02

I'm ready for you to wrap.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Rap-wrapping it up. So more than a hundred years later, people will still speak of hearing children in these halls, employees still talk about toys moving in the Walmart, tour guides still tell the story of the sisters. So here's what I want to ask you.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

If there wasn't a ghost story attached to it, do you think we'd still be talking about these orphans? I think so. You think we'd still remember their story?

SPEAKER_03 39:22

I think to preserve the memory of and the way that they were tied together and the way they went, is important to tell. That uh there are people who are so committed to saving these children that they would have done anything. So what do you think about that choice the sisters made of tying them up? I don't I think in the moment it made sense. Um it's not the best idea because like I said, it's Well now that we know how it ends. Yeah, I mean, I I already knew, or I I don't want to say I already knew the story, but I already, by law of physics, you tie a rope to one another and one person goes down, it's basically a domino at that point. Everybody's gonna be dragged along with you. It's just like when you're playing a game of uh rope tug. Tug of war. Tug of tug of war. Yeah, that's the word. Um, where like if you let go, or your whole group lets go, that whole group on the other side is gonna go down.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

Um, so I think in the moment it made sense because you have to give these kids some sort of sense of security. You know, singing hymns is not obviously gonna change anything. You've seen the boys' dormitory go up in in waves.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

Um Did you know they still sing that hymn every year on September 8th? Do they really? They do. This is at the Galvez. Mm-hmm. Not at the Galvez.

unknown 40:44

No.

SPEAKER_03 40:45

At the Walmart. Bike section.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

The Walmart on 69th and Seawall Boulevard. Probably where the memorial is what I'm assuming. Not inside. No, I would have to. Probably over there on the seawall. Totally would have gone into the bike section. Go into the bike section. Yeah, they they every year they will meet the sisters of the incarnate word. This is still a thing. This is still a thing. There's a still But they will meet, but also bystanders will meet, and they will all sing the song. They will still to this day sing Queen of the Waves. That's it's powerful though, right?

SPEAKER_03 41:18

Yeah. Yeah, I uh I think it's smart to always talk about the history of things, even as bad as it can be, just because we don't want to repeat something like that again.

unknown 41:32

Right.

SPEAKER_03 41:32

And hurricanes are so prevalent in the Gulf already. Right. Um Was there a hurricane named Hurricane Alice? I'm thinking maybe Allison. 2001 was Tropical Storm Allison.

SPEAKER_02 41:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

And that fucked up a lot of shit too.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

Okay. The reason I ask is because what you're saying about yes, we would remember anyways, is because it reminds me of a story Eric would tell me. And he tells me, and there's no ghost attached to it. But he would tell me about how the hurricane hit, it flooded Houston so badly that one guy he was trying to get home, so he went down the elevator. And when he went down the elevator, yep. It opened up and he drowned. Yep. And so that story still sticks, even though there's no ghost attached to it.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

Do you remember the camp floods? No. Fourth of July last year, the summer camp of the the girls? Who doesn't watch the news?

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Hand raised. Oh my god. Hand raised. Annie. Right there.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

They're still missing two girls. Are they? They can't find them.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

I love a good story, and I don't watch the news.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

I don't blame you for not wanting to watch the news.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

It's yeah, it just seems like everybody has- Everything's bad.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Everything's bad, everything's sad, everything's mad. People are pissed.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

And I know there's better things happening in the world, but that's not what they're talking about, and that makes me mad.

SPEAKER_03 42:49

So when the floods came in the middle of the night, they tried to get the girls out, but couldn't get them out fast enough. And oh my god, like the devastation. I yeah, I there's this one photo that's oh my god, cars just buried in layers of mud and dirt, and I don't it's it's insane. It's crazy. Anyway, yeah. Watch the news is it's all bad. And it's very upsetting.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

It is.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

It used to be more educational now. It's just like, how can I shock you? How can I get you all up in arms about things? I mean, we we mostly watch um local news for weather purposes. Um but yeah. No, I I think or feel like I was gonna say about ghosty stuff.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Well, have you ever been to, say, a place and uh had an experience and learned about the story afterwards? I don't think so. But I think I think it helped me believe even more because if I had gone in already knowing. And then I heard the children.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

You would have immediately gone to that?

SPEAKER_02 44:03

I I would have thought how much of this is me wanting to have heard it. I see. But the fact that I knew nothing about the story until after the fact really helped me believe it more.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

But that's really cool that you had this experience. I really thought when you told me that you were doing your Gallison story, it was gonna be about the woman in red, blue, white, white, one of the colors.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

One of her wedding dresses, her wedding dress.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 44:32

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

She she intrigued me so much. But the problem is there was no image too much information to back it up.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Did you know oh I see. Did you know about that story before staying in the Galvez? No.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

But I learned of it at the same time, I believe. I went and looked it up. I discovered her. I was like, oh my god, I wish I was on the fifth floor. Um but uh I never got to experience it. Okay. But she is on the fifth floor. I know this. Uh I know the beautiful story, it's so hauntingly beautiful, uh, about her uh losing her husband or her her fiance actually at the time. Um she was she thought he was dead, so she killed herself, and then he came back a few days later, said, Hey, where's my bride to be? They said she killed herself. I mean it was a very sad story, beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

But you can't find anything to like corroborate just as a as a legend at this point.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

So it's just a legend. So I was like, I can't cover that. I I need some details.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

Oh, well. Has anybody seen this woman?

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Oh, yes. Many people have seen her. Yeah, but is there a story?

SPEAKER_03 45:37

I see. Other than what you just told us. Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

I mean, there there's a there's a story, but it's a story that people have told. Is there any in other words, if you go into the historical data, can you find her name anywhere? Can you figure out even what her name was? Yeah. Was there even a woman who jumped to her death in the Hotel Gavez? But there is no record of it. But if you could find Catherine. That's true, because she existed. Oh there is absolutely no historical record of anybody jumping to the death in the Hotel Gavez. Oh. So that kind of eliminates that story.

SPEAKER_03 46:09

All right, well, this has been awesome. It's been a great day. I always enjoy Any Day Jay drinking with you is a great day. I always feel like, you know, you know, I always feel like, you know, uh when you're telling your story, I enjoy listening to your stories much more because you are a definite storyteller. I am just like, let me read my notes from A to Z and and uh not really give any feeling behind it. So it's always it's always your saying I have a dramatic voice. Um I it's no, it's not that at all. I enjoy like listening to the stories, and even if I know a little bit about it, um hearing the things that like like with the ghost tracks thing, it was like, what do you mean it wasn't Utah? What do you mean it was his own goddamn kids' fucking street names? That's not something that was ever told to me. I've been believing this lie my entire goddamn life. I'm gonna go tell everybody about this problem. So I always I like listening to your stories because I feel like I'm just so one note, one note Johnny.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

You aren't when I tell stories, what I love is that you always ask the questions. When you're telling a story, I'm just uh dumbfounded. I'm like, let me hear more. Let me just keep going, keep going. Like you ask the questions and I love it. Okay. We've got into a whole other world. We have. How about we end like this, okay? Okay. You and I have both drank every time we said you know, because we're good girls. And our glasses are now empty, you know? Oh, there's a whole bottle.

SPEAKER_03 47:38

There's a whole bottle downstairs. We really want to slurring our words more than we already do. Okay, well, thanks again for listening, everybody. This has been fun. We were having a great time. Thanks for all the likes and the suggestions and the whatnots. At some point, maybe we will have some guest artists. That sounds exciting.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Go ahead. Do your line, do your line. So you know, you know. With that being said, we can't drink to that one. Our glasses are empty.

SPEAKER_03 48:11

That's all on you guys. That's there's more in the bottle. Um, with that being said, drink responsibly and hunt existentially. You almost got it, Annie. We'll get there. Almost, we'll get there. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.