Guest of Honor At Funeral Wakes Up

A centenarian woman appeared to have passed away on January 19 of this year, but came back to life a little more than half a day later. The woman, Peng Xiuhua, was from Shenshuidong Village in China. Recently, she had an accident and fell down. This prompted her daughters to come and look for their mother. About 10 days after she fell down, her daughters believed that they had found her dead in her home. According to her daughters, she was not breathing and she had no pulse.

The community where she lived prepared for her funeral but Peng had other intentions. After they placed her within her coffin, Peng “suddenly opened her eyes and smilingly said, ‘Hello, there.'” Those who had come to mourn her were unsurprisingly shocked to discover that she was still alive. The villagers had celebration that night to celebrate this woman remarkable longevity instead of remembering the life she led. There are other stories of this happening, like the 28-year-old Egyptian man who woke at his own funeral after his family thought he suffered a heart attack or the woman who “rose” from the dead to cook her family lunch.

See e.g., Fan Junmei, ‘Dead’ Centenarian Revived At Funeral, China.org.cn, Jan. 23, 2013; 28-year-old Egyptian Man Wakes Up At His Own Funeral, MSN, May 5, 2012; Grandma Returns From The Dead, Fixed Lunch, Scares Family, MSN, Mar. 1, 2012.

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this article to my attention.