Three strange stories about death.
ADEAD RINGER. Ademir Jorge Goncalves shocked his loved ones when he showed up, very much alive, to his own funeral in 2009. The 59-year-old Brazilian bricklayer had spent a night drinking with friends at a truck stop—and didn’t know he was “dead” until his funeral had already begun. During the night, he’d been misidentified as the victim of a car crash. And, in keeping with Brazilian tradition, the body was buried the next day. “People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies,” police explained regarding the badly disfigured corpse. A niece added: “My two uncles and I had doubts about the identification. But my aunt and four of Ademir’s friends said it was him.” The crash victim was later correctly identified and buried by his own family.
AT LEAST THEY NEVER ARGUE. When Le Van’s wife died in 2003, the 55-year-old Vietnamese man was so heartbroken that he took to sleeping on her grave. After a year and a half, he decided to dig a tunnel so he could get closer to her. But that still wasn’t close enough, so Van dug up his wife’s desiccated corpse, filled it out with clay to make her look more lifelike, and put her in his bed so he could sleep beside her. Five years later, she was still there, and both Van and his son hugged her every night before going to sleep. Local authorities found out about the morbid arrangement and told Van to rebury her, citing sanitation laws. Sadly, he agreed. “I’m not like normal people,” admitted Van.
’TIL DEATH DO US PART. James and Lolie Brackin had been happily married for 59 years. On the morning of December 12, 2009, they were sitting together in their Florida nursing home watching television when Lolie matter-of-factly told an aide, “I’m going to die today.” The aide returned to her a short while later and found that Lolie had stopped breathing. Moments later, James, 79, also died of natural causes. “They didn’t like to go anywhere alone,” their daughter said.
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