Susie Smith's Weird Encore

In 1874, a young woman’s extremely strange death--perhaps the right word is “deaths”--was widely reported in various newspapers and spiritualist publications.  It is one of those stories where all one can say is, “Make of it what you will.”

Lawrence, Massachusetts farmer Greenleaf Smith had a 16-year-old daughter named Susie, a perfectly normal, average teenager who worked as a dressmaker.  Sadly, she came down with a sudden, severe fever.  On September 25th, Susie told her father, “I’ve attended my own funeral.”  In a very rational-sounding tone, she described all the details of the service, including the hymns that were sung.  The girl insisted it was not some hallucination brought on by her sickness; she had seen something very real.  

Around six o’clock that evening, Susie went into violent spasms.  She became increasingly pale, closed her eyes, and died.  Well, sort of.  As her grieving family surrounded the death bed, all absolutely convinced that her life was extinct, they were shocked to see the corpse’s lips suddenly move.  A harsh, gruff voice very unlike Susie’s ordered them, “Rub both her arms as hard as you can.”

The family did just that.  A moment later, the voice said, “Raise her up in end.”  When the family, confused by this remark, hesitated, the voice snapped, “Raise her up in end--you’re deaf, ain’t you?”  Susie's body was pulled upright.  She began breathing again, but did not speak.  As Mr. Smith sat behind his daughter, propping her up, the voice commented, “If I could move her legs around so I could set her up on the foot-board, she’d be all right.”  As Mr. Smith began to move Susie, they both were lifted in the air by an unseen force and placed on the foot-board.  Susie suddenly sprang back to life, seeming to be her old cheerful self.  Before the family could fully react--it would be hard to know what to say under such circumstances--the same invisible power again pulled Susie and her father upright.  Mr. Smith was placed on his feet, while Susie was carried back to her bed.  As she lay there, she appeared to be, again, quite dead.  A few moments later, the “corpse” began speaking in another unfamiliar voice.  It spoke for three hours about how after Susie died, her corpse had been controlled by several different spirits.  Then, the body appeared to go into a “trance sleep.”

The following morning, the body opened its eyes and said to Mr. Smith, “Please lie down on the side of the bed.”  After he obeyed, the body said, “Who am I, anyway?”  Her father replied, “You are Susie Smith.”  He got the reply, “No I ain’t, Susie Smith died last night.”  During the day, Susie--or whoever was occupying her earthly remains--underwent more spasms, and, by noon, appeared to at last be well and truly deceased.

The next morning, her relatives and friends gathered in a downstairs room to decide where Susie should be buried.  As they talked, Susie herself walked into the room and said, “Right on the School Hill, right on the side of the road.”  Then she vanished, never to be seen--or heard--from again.

Susie’s relatives wisely decided to abide by their lost loved one’s directive.  The girl was buried in the town of Denmark, Maine, (Susie’s hometown) on the schoolhouse’s hillside.

Via Findagrave.com