Two businessmen planned to spend the night in a small town while en route to Montgomery, Alabama on business. Travelling down the low country road, they spotted a figure in the distance. When they grew closer, they realized it was a demure, tidy-haired elderly woman in a crisp, clean pale lavender dress walking at a brisk pace alongside the road. She turned around with a smile as the men slowed to speak with her. When they inquired as to why she was out on the road at such a late hour, she laughed and explained she was headed to visit her daughter and grandchildren in Montgomery. She had hoped to hitch a ride for a portion of the journey, but no one stopped to pick her up.
The men offered to take her as far as the next town, two hours away. Delighted, the woman accepted and hopped into the back seat. On the road, she spoke of her daughter and her three grandchildren, sharing their names, where they lived and went to school, and the typical selection of other details shared in casual conversation. Once the topic exhausted itself, the men began talking business among themselves, forgetting about their elderly passenger.
When they reached their destination, they found the woman was missing and began to panic, fearing she had fallen out of the car. Desperately, they turned around to search for her, but there was no trace of her aside from tiny footprints where they had first talked to her.
The pair drove to Montgomery and spoke with the woman’s daughter to share details of the mysterious disappearance. The young woman shared three photos sitting on the mantel to see if the businessmen could identify their passenger. The photograph they selected was indeed the young woman’s mother. When they described how her mother looked when they found her, the young woman burst into tears, saying it was the dress her mother wore when she last saw her – at her funeral three years ago to the day.
