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The legend of La Planchada is probably one of the most popular in Mexico. In it they tell the story of a ghostly nurse who wanders the corridors of the hospital and cares for the sick who need medical help.
They say that one day a girl named Eulalia became part of the nursing staff at the hospital. She was a good-looking girl, with blond hair, pale eyes, and fine features, with a kind and polite demeanor, although with a slightly serious air.
From her early days in the medical institution, Eulalia demonstrated great professionalism and diligence, always showing concern with the medical staff and with the sick poor, to whom she professed a dedication that sometimes went beyond mere duty. On the other hand, Eulalia was always very clean and tidy, her white uniform perfectly ironed and spotless, free from the slightest stain or wrinkle.
As was to be expected, Eulalia quickly gained the appreciation of the doctors, at the same time that, thanks to her natural sympathy, she managed to be free to inspire envy in her colleagues and nursing colleagues.
On the other hand, Eulalia's life was really calm, healthy and simple, since all her time was divided between work in the hospital and care for her small but stable and relatively happy family, made up of her parents and her two brothers. minors, at least as far as their closest circle is concerned. For this reason, Eulalia's usual days consisted of working in the hospital, coming home with a smile, eating with everyone, sleeping for a while, waking up, and spending her next hours doing housework she shared with her mother, playing with her siblings. or in reading.
However, one day everything changed ...
Indeed, one morning the director of the hospital summoned the staff to introduce the new doctor who had just arrived: Dr. Joaquín, an intelligent, handsome and tall man, who came "from a good family", but with a certain air of arrogance. All the other nurses and almost all the nurses went, but Eulalia stayed behind to attend to a patient.
After a few days, Eulalia still had not exchanged a word with Dr. Joaquín, and had barely seen him from afar, although rumors had already reached her ears that portrayed him as a proud guy, as one of those men who stare almost everyone "over the shoulder." That made her not very eager to meet him, but one day she was summoned to help him with the extraction of a bullet in the leg of a patient ...
Despite the rumors, they say that Eulalia fell in love with Dr. Joaquín when she saw him up close, to the point that her hands trembled slightly when he handed her the instruments, even going so far as to make mistakes when it came to handing over the correct instrument ...
After that first meeting, Eulalia began to fall passionately in love with Dr. Joaquín, despite being told that it did not suit her, that the guy was egocentric and that he flirted with one or the other nurse. However, she continued in her eagerness, telling herself that her companions were exaggerating or simply justifying Joaquín when she could not doubt such and such criticisms that hovered over him. Thus, after a few months, she achieved her purpose and Dr. Joaquín gave in to her charms, agreeing to be her boyfriend.
For a long time Eulalia felt like the happiest creature in the world, and her passion grew like a fire despite the fact that Joaquín did not seem to love her with the same intensity and even, according to gossip, he flirted with other girls behind her back.
After a little over a year of dating, Eulalia was surprised when one day Joaquín proposed to her, to which she agreed with the candid enthusiasm of a fifteen-year-old in love. However, it was necessary to wait for the wedding, since before Joaquín had to go to a 15-day seminar in another city.
Before leaving he asked her to iron and prepare a fine suit, since it had to be impeccable and elegant in the seminary. Then she accepted and, just one day before the trip, he went to pick up the suit and visit her, talking tenderly with her and saying goodbye between hugs, kisses and promises of eternal love ...
Just a week after Joaquín's departure, Eulalia already missed him as if he had been absent for several months, so she sometimes adopted an attitude of melancholic nostalgia.
At the same time, just after a week from the last day she saw Joaquín, a nurse approached her when she was alone, declared his love for her and asked her to please accompany him to a party as his dance partner. She denied and told her that if she did not remember that Dr. Joaquín and she had a relationship ... Amazed and somewhat hurt, the nurse looked at her and told her that he did not understand how it was that no one had told him that Joaquín resigned from the hospital and went on a honeymoon trip with his new wife ...
The nurse's words had left Eulalia completely frozen, with that mixture of pain and dismay that someone feels when they are unexpectedly informed that their mother or someone very dear to them has died, although with the enormous and great difference that Eulalia's gaze was beating the disappointment. That is why she could not say anything, and only lowered her head and left, walking with the slight hope that it was an invention of the nurse to go out with her. But the next morning she went and found out in the records, and indeed Joaquín had resigned, so it was logical to assume that the honeymoon was also true, as many more people said besides the nurse ...
Since her disappointment in love, Eulalia has never been the same again. She had never had a boyfriend before, and she had only liked one or another boy during her adolescence, being with Joaquín with whom she knew what love really was. She felt that her heart was a shattered vase on the arid soil of life, and apparently she herself did not want to pick up the pieces and rebuild it, since she allowed bitterness to gradually take over her, until she became a cold, silent and gloomy, in a woman who did not bond with any man again because she abandoned herself to the idea that they were all “equal”, and in a nurse who carried out her work with her soul powdered by boredom and reluctance, neglecting the sick to the point that some died due to her negligence when forgetting to give them the medication, despite this she was not fired because her colleagues and superiors appreciated her and thought that sooner or later she would once again be the hard-working and dedicated girl to the patients that she always had been.
In the heart of Mexico City, in a time not too far from our own, a renowned hospital stood tall and proud. Known for its dedication to healing and care, this hospital had within its walls a diligent nurse named Eulalia.
Clad in a pristine white uniform, starched and ironed to perfection, Eulalia was the epitome of professionalism. Her passion for her work and the care she showed her patients earned her respect and admiration from her colleagues and those to whom she tended.
Yet beneath the calm, composed exterior was a heart filled with passion. Eulalia fell deeply in love with a doctor at the hospital. Their romance blossomed within the walls where they worked. For a time, life seemed like a fairy tale.
As days turned into weeks and weeks into months, however, Eulalia noticed a change. The doctor’s gaze began to wander, settling often on a younger nurse. Whispers of a clandestine affair started filling the hallways.
The heartbreak was too much for Eulalia to bear. One evening, after a particularly grueling shift, Eulalia returned to her home, only to never awaken the next morning. Some say she died of a broken heart. Others believe her untimely end was from a more mysterious cause.
But Eulalia’s story didn’t end there. Soon after her passing, hospital staff and patients began to report sightings of a nurse in an impeccably ironed uniform, wandering the halls late at night. This ethereal figure, believed to be Eulalia’s spirit, came to be known as “La Planchada.”
Legend has it that La Planchada visits sick patients, offering unparalleled care that leads to miraculous recoveries by morning. Her presence, though eerie, is not considered malevolent. Instead, many believe she continues her duties in death as she did in life, offering solace and healing to those in need.
But the staff quietly advises people to never challenge or confront her, for though she might be benevolent to patients, the fate of those who cross her remains unknown.
So if you ever find yourself wandering the corridors of a Mexican hospital late at night and come across a nurse with an immaculate, ironed uniform, remember the tale of La Planchada and let her continue her eternal rounds, offering comfort to those she encounters.
La Planchada in Spanish means “ironed lady.”
The following is a well-known ghost legend in Mexico and the southwestern part of the U.S. It is a story of a ghostly nurse who is seen in hospitals in central Mexico in urban areas. This nurse is seen wearing an old-fashioned nurses uniform. There are several versions of this story. The following is one that has been told many times. This story is connected to the Hospital Juarez, located in Mexico City. In the 1930s, a nurse by the name of Eulalia worked at the hospital. She always wore clean, crisp ironed uniforms. She was an excellent nurse, and her patients were lucky to be under her care. But this changed when a handsome young doctor joined the hospital’s staff. Eulalia and this doctor started to see each other socially. It was not long before Eulalia fell in love and the two were engaged. Shortly after they became engaged, the doctor left to attend a medical seminar. To Eulalia’s surprise and concern, he did not return the following week. Then another week passed, and the doctor still did not respond. Eulalia was beside herself with worry. She felt that something terrible must have happened. It wasn’t until several weeks had passed that the hospital got word from the doctor—it seems he had met a woman in the town that hosted the seminar and the two had wed. Heart-broken, Eulalia lapsed until a deep state of depression. She was so distracted by her sorrow that her work suffered. She started to neglect the patients that were under her care. One night one of her patients died as a direct result of her neglect. Realizing her terrible error, Eulalia became ill herself. Not having the will to fight for her own life, she died in the hospital where she worked. After her death, strange things started to occur. Patients, nurses, and doctors began to see a nurse in the emergency room area. Some stories state that she appears to glow and floats instead of walks through the hospital corridors. Other witnesses say she seems to walk normally. But in all of these reports, it is stated her footsteps are not heard. Hospital staff started to call this ghostly nurse, “La Planchada” because she always appears wearing a clean, freshly pressed uniform. The reports from patients are the most intriguing. This ghostly nurse not only appears but cares for patients in the emergency area of the hospital. * It is often reported that at night when some of the hospital staff neglect their patients, this nurse cares for them instead. In the morning, these patients are well enough to be moved to less intensive care rooms. When asked how they are feeling they reply, “a nurse came in and healed me.” It is stated that Eulalia returns as a spirit nurse because of a sense of guilt. It seems she is forever doomed to pay for her mistake in life. As mentioned above, there are several versions of this story. In one version, it is stated that the nurse was a cruel person who mistreated her patients, so when she died, her punishment was to take care of patients for eternity. In another version Eulalia was never actually engaged to the young doctor, this version states he rejects her interest in him and marries a woman he is engaged to. She then takes her disappointment out on her patients. The result is several of them die. Regardless of the story—several hospitals in Mexico lay claim to her ghost. Many witnesses state they have seen her or have been under her care at night.
* It is sometimes stated that she specifically takes care of patients that stay in the room where she died.
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