Bring back the bell!
Today I read about a horrifying event in Thailand this year. A bedridden lady of sixty-five was presumed dead and placed in a coffin and driven three hundred miles from her home to a Buddhist temple for cremation. As the priest and the relatives were talking before the ceremony, they heard a knocking from the coffin. On opening it, they discovered that the lady, though weak, was still alive. She was taken to hospital for treatment.
Although unusual, such an event is not without precedent. Indeed, one of the commenters on this article disclosed that his great-great-grandmother had sat up in her coffin partway through her funeral service. The custom at the time was to leave the coffin open until the conclusion of the service. The lady, obviously made of stern stuff, stored the coffin under her bed, and lived for a further fifteen years.
In 1999, a teacher, aged thirty-two, collapsed while swimming in Egypt. Having been certified dead, his body was being stored in a hospital refrigerator, when he woke up. Too cold to speak, he grabbed the hand of one of the mortuary staff who was trying to shut the door. Naturally, they were extremely shocked, as were his family members when he ‘phoned them to tell them the good news.
Another reported case was that of an eighty-year-old woman in Los Angeles, in 2010. She had a heart attack and was declared dead. She was put into cold storage in the hospital morgue, but regained consciousness and attempted to escape. The escape was unsuccessful. One can only imagine the fear and panic of her situation.
In 2012, in China, a lady aged ninety-five was found not moving and thought to be dead. In keeping with tradition, her body was laid in a coffin in her home. Six days later, just before her funeral, the coffin was found empty, its occupant sitting in her kitchen, preparing food.
In 2023, in New York, a nursing home declared one of its residents dead and removed the body to a funeral home (why are they called ‘homes’?) The funeral staff discovered that she was very much alive when they began to remove her from the body bag and found that she was still breathing.
It would appear that it is time to reinstate the ancient custom of the wake. ‘Wake’ comes from Old English ‘waec’ which means watch or vigil. If the coffin is to be kept in the house, family and friends can visit at any time, to pay their respects to the dead person, and to commiserate with the living and exchange memories and anecdotes. It also means that any sign of life will be noticed.
Another form is the public viewing, when mourners can go to the funeral director’s premises to see the body in the coffin. This is a source of great comfort to many people.
In the 19th century, when it was difficult to be confident that life was extinct, coffins were sometimes supplied with a bell and cord. The cord might be attached to any part of the body. Should the unthinkable occur, the cord would be pulled, the bell would tinkle, and the body would receive appropriate attention, hopefully before interment.
It is rare, indeed, that people are mistakenly declared dead, but it has happened.
George Washington had taphophobia, a dread of being buried alive. He told his secretary, Tobias Lear, ‘Have me decently buried; and do not let my body be put into the Vault in less than three days after I am dead.’ His coffin also had a number of holes bored in it, so that he should be able to breathe if he were to come back to life.
He also requested that his funeral be a simple, private affair, without pomp or ceremony, but that wish was not honoured. The nation mourned.
