The Grave with a Window: Visiting the Mysterious Final Resting Place of Dr. Timothy Clark Smith

[staarker]

Thanks to thousands of accidental burials during the 18th and 19th century, taphephobia, or the fear of being buried alive, was was an especially prominent fear of the period, so much so that many people had their graves equipped with a bell to ring just in case they woke up six-feet under. One man, however, took his fears to the next level, and had a window installed in his headstone that peers directly into his grave – and you can still shine a flashlight down into his final resting place to this day.

With all of our modern advances in medical science, the fear of being buried alive isn’t quite so prevalent today as it was in the past, but back then, there was good reason to be worried. In the 1800s, it wasn’t uncommon to hear reports of the sick or dying experiencing a phenomena that become known as Lazarus Syndrome, which is described as “the spontaneous return of circulation after failed attempts at resuscitation”. Exhumed coffins would often contain deep scratch marks on the inside of their lids, corpses twisted in fear, and other tell-tale signs that someone had woken up underground.

Timothy Clark Smith was a doctor in the rural town of New Haven, Vermont who’d heard of so many Lazarus Syndrome cases that he’d developed a crippling case of taphephobia. Not only was he worried that he might send his patients to an early grave, but he became concerned that should he kick the bucket, someone with less expertise than him might make the wrong diagnosis and ship him off to the cemetery for a premature burial.

As Dr. Smith became more and more obsessed with waking up in a coffin, he began to design a special grave, one that would let him signal mourners on the surface just in case he was accidentally buried. http://weekinweird.com/2016/11/21/timot ... -a-window/

[ricky1874]

This is the first time I ever heard of taphephobia. This is one of my greatest fears in life...to be buried alive. I read that during the "Black Death" in Europe, a lot of people were buried alive. But anyways, this is an excellent way to get buried after death...along with a cell phone and charger haha.

[dave23]

This seems like a great idea. I mean who would want to be buried alive? I know the likelihood of being buried alive nowadays (at least here in the US) is slim. but it's better to be safe than sorry. To me it just seems like something like this could or should have become popular and take off. I know now that my plans for my burial will include some type of window or way of communicating with the outside world

[veronikam]

Another great story about a grave with a window

A Little Boy's Grave Has A Window And The Story Behind It Will Restore Your Faith In People
https://www.buzzfeed.com/sydrobinson1/a ... -behind-it

In December 1865, an 8-year-old boy named Merrit Beardsley died from a fever. His family lived next to a cemetery in Oxford, New York, where his father, William, worked as both a farmer and a stonemason. Like most little kids, Merrit was terribly afraid of the dark — so much so that before he died, he asked his father not to bury him in the ground so he wouldn't have to eternally rest in the dark. Granting his son's dying wish, William built Merrit a beautiful tomb that had a little window so he'd never have to be in the dark.