ALIVE IN HER COFFIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9118, 28 July 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

ALIVE IN HER COFFIN.

STRANGE RESTORATION TO LIFE

OF A YOUNG WOMAN. A Memphis despatch to the Cincinnati Enquirer states :— Mrs. Dicie Webb keeps a grocery of Beale-street, and is known to hundreds of people. Two years ago John Webb, a son of Mrs. Webb, married Sarah Kelly, a remarkably pretty girl, to whom the mother-in-law became greatly attached. Before the first year of their married life had passed, Mrs. Webb, jun., became stricken with consumption. About a month ago the young lady became anxious to visit her parents in Henderson County. A telegram announced her death, and the husband started for the remains. Three days later he returned with the corpse. The mother-in-law pleaded so hard for a sight of the dead woman, it was decided to open the coffin. While looking at the placid face Mrs. Webb became almost paralysed with fright at beholding the eyelids of the dead woman slowly open. Mrs. Webb was unable to utter a sound.- Finally she fell upon a chair near by, but her horror was only increased when the supposed corpse slowly sat upright and in an almost inaudible voice said, "Oh, where am I?" At this the weeping woman screamed. Friends who rushed into the room were almost paralysed at the sight. One, bolder than the others, returned and spoke to the woman, who asked to be laid on the bed. Hastily she was taken from the coffin and tenderly cared for. The day following she related, as her strength permitted, a wonderful story. She was conscious of all that occurred, and did not lose consciousness until she was put aboard the train for Memphis. Soon after being placed in her mother-in-law's home she regained consciousness. A supreme effort was made to speak while her mother-in-law was looking at her, and in that instant, while returning to life, she again lost track of her surroundings, which caused her to ask where she was. Mrs. Webb lived a number of days, when she again apparently died. The doctor pronounced her dead, and she was once more placed in the coffin from which she had been taken, and buried.