We got a notice a few years ago about the possibility of the cemetery relocating where my great grandmother and aunt were both buried.

I remember thinking that it was really weird and almost thought it would be illegal to do so, but nope. Cemeteries CAN indeed be relocated just like any other business, only they are required to give advanced notice about it and take care of a bunch of legal stuff.

Well we started getting more notices about this as the months got closer to the proposed “transfer date” until the final notices arrived. We were scheduled to go witness the removal and reburial, and we decided to do another ceremony for my aunt and great grandmother.

Not many people were going to go, it was going to be me, my mother and some other distant relatives that were called about the ceremony and wanted to be present to honor them once more.

My aunt’s grave was dug up through assisted heavy machines that pulled her casket right up, placed on a truck, literally a pick up truck with a camper on it.

My great grandmother’s grave was a little different. It was in a very old part of the cemetery, and the dirt was more like rock.

This one was dug up with drills and men with shovels. When the casket was finally brought up, they were supposed to place it inside of a bigger type of cement casket for protection during transport. As they lifted it up, since it was so old, the top fell off and the rest of the box fell straight down, revealing my great grandmother’s dried up corpse.

I wasn’t really shocked, the thing looked like it was going to break anyway. What bothered me was what we discovered next.

Her dress was on backwards. Wait, no. She was facing down.

Her arms under her body, her hands under her face. Deep scratch marks all around the inside of her casket. That’s when we all realized, she had been buried alive.