Weeping Water Woman 3: Bubby Leiba as the Vila
The Vila is a Slavic nature spirit of the wild, much like a nymph in Greek mythology, so they are not always associated with bodies of water but many are. It also seems unclear if they are the souls of humans or not but many are associated with disappointed brides, murdered brides, or young women who died before they could get married.
My great grandmother Leiba was probably the most unhappily married out of my remembered direct ancestors. I know almost nothing about her, and even recent investigations by my family were unclear as to how to spell her birth town or which country it is in now as the borders of Eastern Europe have shifted quite a lot since she left.
All I know about her is that she had a weird accent and she was angry. She was angry that she had emigrated and was still poor. She was angry she lived in an apartment with a dirt floor and almost no heating in Montreal. She was angry her son (represented by the fawn) was so malnourished he got rickets. She was angry at my great aunt seemingly for existing. In other words she was angry that she was hitched to her husband who couldn't make any money. Clearly I inherited her general inability to be satisfied with anything and also her epic Resting Bitch Face which I felt conveyed the mythic disappointment of a Vila. She is still a figure of nature and fecundity, represented by the strawberries and rowan branches but also of struggle and angst like all disappointed brides.
