DRAMATIC RETURN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22907, 15 June 1936, Page 14

DRAMATIC RETURN

"DEAD" WIFE APPEARS

SHOCK FOR HUSBAND In January a grief-stricken husband walked behind a coffin Supposed to contain his wife and saw it buried in Weaste Cemetery, Lancashire. Every week-end after the funeral he went to the graveside and placed flowers there. One day in April the husband was standing in the market place at Eccles when a pretty young woman approached him and smilingly exclaimed, "Hello, Frank, I've come back." That was the amazing experience of Frank Williams, of Eccles. His wife, Ethel, who is 23, is now back at home with him. It was in October last that Mrs Williams disappeared. All efforts to find her failed until January, when the husband was called to Hope Hospital, Salford, to identify the body of a young woman recovered from the River Irwell. OPERATION SCARS. By means of operation scars he identified the body as that of his wife. Au open verdict was returned at the inquest, and the woman was buried in Weaste Cemetery. Here is Mr Williams's story of the dramatic meeting as he stood, a sorrowing man, in the street by Eccles Cross. " Somebody tapped me on the shoulder," he related. "I turned, and, seeing Ethel, thought my senses had left me. I trembled from head to foot. "She was saying, 'Hello, Frank,' and for a moment I could not speak. " I stammered,' Wh-wh-why, I—l—have buried you.' " She smiled, You can t have. Itn here.' "Until she touched me again I would not believe she was real. Then I knew, and I felt happier than ever before in my life. "Off we went to my lodgings, and we restarted our lives where we left off. It was a strange coincidence that it was on October 13 that Mrs Williams vanished; the reunion was on April 13. Mrs Williams's explanation was that when she left her husband's home J she went to Hull, then on to St. Helens, and later, in Manchester, got work in a cotton mill. Then she took to selling bootlaces in Salford. f " While in Salford," she stated, I met a woman who told me I was 'dead and buried.'

" I was seized with a longing to Bee my husband again, and hurried to the Northern Nomads football ground, where I though he would be. " I could not find him, so I wandered to Eccles Cross, and there, to my joy, I found him. He has forgiven me for leaving him, and I will never leave him again." VISIT TO GRAVE. After their reunion husband and wifa went to the police station, and on their way home Mrs Williams expressed a desire to be shown the grave in which she was supposed to have been buried. Mr Williams took her to the cemetery, where she placed flowers on the grave of the mystery woman. When the declaration that Mrs Williams is alive had been made to the coroner, it was forwarded to the Registrar-general and the death certificate altered. Only then did she become leeally alive. It is not thought likely that an exhumation of the other woman will be necessary.