Living with the Dead

Death is inevitable, but how we deal with it is often based on cultural practices or religious beliefs. In some cases, mental illness, criminal intent, fear of what may happen to oneself, or simple indifference determine how a person responds to a family member’s death. In general, however, the deceased’s remains are given some sort of respectful disposition.


That’s not always what happens, though. In most cultures, when people respond to the death of a family member by continuing to live with the dead relative for days, weeks, months, or longer, people feel a line has been crossed, not only between life and death, but also between the socially acceptable and the taboo.

Below are two supposedly true stories of people who continued to live with the dead for a period of time....

Arbury-skeleton

Brookline Hoard

Neighbors called the $1 million Brookline, Massachusetts mansion , haunted ( mansion pictured in post) but they had no idea of what actually went on inside the house of horrors.
One of its residents, a 67-year-old woman, lived with the corpse of her 66-year-old sister for over a year.

The reclusive women were hoarders who’d boarded up the front of their house a year before a cousin found the younger sister’s body under the kitchen table during a December 2016 visit to their home. Although neighbors had offered to maintain their yard for them, the sisters had refused.

According to Dr. Kimberly Glazier Leonte, who specializes in hoarding, hoarders typically isolate themselves from others because they feel embarrassed. The older woman may have lived with her sister’s corpse, Leonte said, because she was afraid to notify the authorities.


Police suggested another reason the woman might not have notified them. They said she herself learned of her sister’s death only after they told her of it. Despite the fact that they lived in the house together, the surviving sister was unaware her younger sibling had died. Imagine the smell if she had no idea there was a decaying corpse under her kitchen table😑😑

Due to the property’s neglect, the health department condemned the house as unfit for human habitation.

Mary Ellen Lyons

Michael Lyons, better known as “Sonny,” shared a rural County Mayo, Ireland, bungalow with his two sisters, Agnes and Mary Ellen Lyons. The sisters, who shared a double bed, were so reclusive that Sonny never knew Agnes had died until a year later, during which time Mary Ellen continued to sleep with her sister’s skeletal remains. Agnes had been in poor health for a long time prior to her death and was probably bedridden.

Devoutly religious, Agnes indicated in notes she’d written that she never wanted to be separated from her sister. John O’Driscoll, a superintendent with An Garda Siochana, the national police service of Ireland, said the sisters chose to isolate themselves from the outside world and to severely limit their contact with their brother, communicating with him largely through notes and shopping lists they left for him.

Sonny, who respected his sisters’ privacy, last saw Agnes four years before her death, when she’d returned home from the hospital. He discovered Agnes’s remains on August 4, 2004, when he went to tell her that Mary Ellen was ill, and immediately notified the police. Following an inquest into Agnes’s demise, authorities decided not to press charges against either Mary Ellen or Sonny.

#urbanlegends #myths #paranormal #paranormalexperiences

Photo credit for the Bronze Skeleton https://www.nobodyinlondon.com/