Rip Wasn't Ready to Rest in Peace

Wim Hasman found a World War II mess tin in Germany's Huertgen Forest with the name "Emmit S. Collins" carved into it.

“Under the name — the letters RIP — I thought he was dead,” Hasman said of the information his efforts revealed.

Later, though, a very confused Hasman found mention online of Collins’ death not in 1940s Germany, but in 1999, a world away in Arkansas.

Pearl [Collins], who began communicating with Hasman early last week, was able to explain the engraving.

“That was his nickname when he was in the Army,” she told to a Courier editor when contacted by telephone last Monday. [Link]

Proof of Life After Death

83-year-old Jefrems Ribakovs was surprised to learn that he's been dead for more than 60 years.

Rather than feeling insulted when a relative passed on the news that he died in 1944, the grandfather of three saw the funny side.

The discovery of Mr Ribakovs' death was made by his niece, Nina Mengele, who was piecing together the family tree.

She was stunned when she came across former welder Mr Ribakovs' name on the memorial in the Latvian cemetery.

Carved on the grey stone, was his date of birth – and chillingly, his death. [Link]

Anne Is Alive!

Anne Hathaway of Orono, Maine, was surprised to read in her local newspaper that she had died.

The information in the short obituary and the list of death notices was correct, except for the part about her being dead.

The deceased was actually Ann Hathaway of Bangor.

At 92, Hathaway admits she’s no spring chicken but said that she’s not dead yet.

"I just laughed," Hathaway said. "I went to the pearly gates and opened the door and they didn’t have any strawberry shortcake and they didn’t like the way my hair looked." [Link]

This woman is also alive and well. This woman is almost certainly dead.

[Thanks, Sharon!]

A Tomb With a View

When Timothy Clark Smith was buried in New Haven, Vermont, he had an exit strategy.

Beneath the odd, grassy mound of earth, Timothy's face was positioned beneath a cement tube that led to the surface. The 6 foot tube ended at a piece of 14x14 inch plate glass allowing Tim to gaze upward in the event that he was buried alive. A bell was placed in his hand just in case he needed to signal that he was still alive. Which brings forth the questions...who could hear a bell under 6 feet of earth anyway? If he were alive, how long would the oxygen last if and when someone came to his rescue?

[via Boing Boing]

Grandmother Not as Dead as He'd Thought

Ian Scott was able to confirm a family story concerning his father and a woman he met while visiting a hospital for the mentally ill.

As the story goes, according to my father, he met a woman that was supposedly “insane” in Belfast who called him “Hugh Scott.” This took my father by surprise; his father was Hugh Scott. My father apparently told the woman that he was John Scott, son of Hugh Scott - and this woman - Annie Moore (today I’ve discovered her official registered name was Anna Moore) then told my father that she was his grandson.

My father replied, “Oh no, that can’t be. My grandmother is dead.”

Annie Moore, according to my father then replied, “Oh, is that what they’ve told you?” [Link]

The SSDI Sometimes Lies

Despite being listed in the Social Security Death Index, David Rotolo insists that he's still alive. (Update: As of May 2007, he's no longer listed.) The SSA blames the mixup on the VA.

Veterans Affairs spokesman Ryan Steinbach said his agency had, in fact, marked Rotolo as dead in February 2005. It listed his date of death as Sept. 7, 2002.

He said the VA has no doubt Rotolo is who he claims to be and that he is alive.

"We're very sure that's the guy," Steinbach said. "We're very sorry for the time we did have him deceased and any problems it may have caused him or his family."

Steinbach said he hoped the error didn't cause Rotolo "any undue pain or harm."

"We can say this," Steinbach said. "He now has something in common with both Mark Twain and Paul McCartney." [Link]

The Corpse is Recovering Nicely

Hard as it is to believe, what Americans feared most 200 years ago was not typhoid, cholera, or getting shot by Aaron Burr. It was being mistaken for a corpse. That explains why this item was printed and reprinted in every newspaper in the country in the autumn of 1809.

Caution against premature Interment.

A woman of the name of Proffer residing at Hay, Breconshire (England) who had been for some time in a very ill state of health, was lately supposed by the person in attendance to have died, and the necessary preparations for the funeral had commenced; the body was laid out by a female usually employed on such occasions, who, on returning to the house at about six hours afterwards, and observing the hands had been removed from the situation they had been placed in, concluded some person had been in the room; but on going to close the mouth was greatly alarmed by the supposed corps exclaiming "Do not close my mouth, for I am not yet dead," which threw her into fits.

The sick person has since so far recovered as to be able to sit up in her room, is still living, although in a very languishing state, and she declares that she heard all the conversation which passed relative to her funeral, but from extreme weakness had not the power of speech or motion. [Eastern Argus of Portland, Me., Dec. 14, 1809]