Death carriage
There are amazing cases of "otherworldly" warnings of people about the approaching death of their relatives. Such warnings can be expressed not only in the appearance of a ghost or double of a person who is destined to leave this world in the near future, but in omens, prophetic dreams and other forms. And of course, the simpler and most widespread channel of perception of this kind of signs is sleep, since a dream is a natural connection of a person with the world of another reality. But besides prophetic dreams, there are also many so-called signs, which are a symbolic warning, expressed on the earthly, and not on the subtle plane. All this indicates that the other world takes part in our life much more actively than we can imagine.
Almost every nation on the planet has its own signs that indicate an impending disaster. In Russia, it is a broken mirror or cracks that suddenly appeared on home icons, and in Ireland, for example, the ghost of an old hearse - a black carriage with horses, which the Irish call “the death carriage” is a harbinger of death …
Is it possible to trust such signs? You can, of course, refer them to the category of superstitions - in fact, they are. Their specific form is quite subjective, spontaneously developed among various peoples in ancient times. But because in the traditions and minds of people of this nationality it is this and not another sign that is a symbol of impending misfortune, to the extent that warnings from another world are usually given in the form of such a sign, the meaning of which is not difficult for a person of this nationality to decipher.
Who exactly can send such a warning? They can come both from the higher, spiritual "I" of the person himself, who, unlike the ordinary mind, has the ability to foresee, and from the inhabitants of another world, for example, the deceased relatives of the one who is given a warning.
The fact that the famous Irish "death carriage" can be seen by strangers, despite its ghostly nature, is told in the following story.
Maureen Wakefilo's parents once visited Ireland in their youth. For a time they lived in a hotel room owned by the McCrory family. About the incredible incident that happened to her mother at this hotel, Maureen says:
• “My mother developed a keen interest in the new country and its people, but every time she ridiculed the stories about spirits, ghosts and various supernatural phenomena that the Irish love to talk about. Mom came up with the name for all these stories "Celtic Swirls." But one evening - it happened in mid-April - my parents went to bed early. The night was unseasonably stifling, and besides, in the fashion of those times (it was 1906), the room was almost hermetically sealed with closed shutters and heavy curtains.
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After a hard day, my father immediately fell asleep, and for some reason my mother could not sleep. Lying next to him, she suddenly heard the approach of a wagon - hooves clinking rhythmically, wheels creaking, harness jingling. In the silence of the sleeping city, all these sounds were heard especially clearly.
Looks like a hearse, she thought. Meanwhile, the sounds were gradually approaching, and when the carriage drove into the town square, they became even more distinct. Then, to the surprise of my mother, the horses drove up to their hotel and stopped just before the entrance to it. Not realizing what the carriage might need in the middle of the night outside the hotel, Mom got out of bed and went to the window. Pulling back the shutters, she looked out into the street. The square was illuminated by the radiance of the moon, in the light of which a large black carriage was clearly visible, a coachman standing still on the box with a whip raised up and a four black horses calmly standing in a harness.
Still not understanding why the carriage drove up to the hotel, my mother returned to bed and, probably, fell asleep very quickly, because she did not hear anyone entering or leaving the hotel to leave in a black carriage.
The next day, when she met the wife of the innkeeper, Mrs. McCrory, my mother asked:
- And what could that huge black carriage do at night near the hotel?
Her face changed and pale, Mrs. McCrory crossed herself in haste and, muttering something unintelligible, quickly left.
In a short time after that, my mother, for some reason, entered the owners' apartment and accidentally saw a strange scene. The McCrory family was in full force in the living room, and the parish priest was present. Kneeling, everyone prayed with zeal for something, some had tears in their eyes. Strongly surprised by this, mother afterwards found the eldest daughter of the owners, Eileen, with whom she managed to make good friends, and asked her to explain what was the matter. Oddly enough, at first Eileen did not want to explain anything to her.
“Well, that's just an old prejudice,” she finally said reluctantly. - Allegedly, the appearance of such a carriage means that someone from McCrory must die.
Mom knew many Irish families of purely local origin, who had their own harbingers of misfortune - banshees, sidhe or some other fairy-tale characters. As you can see, McCrory believed that yesterday's appearance of a huge black carriage was related to a number of supernatural phenomena - for them it was a family bad omen. After asking Eileen, my mother found out that, in general, few people had seen that black carriage, and some only heard how it was approaching. Moreover, it was rather unusual that a phantom could be seen by a person from another family and generally belonging to a different nationality - in fact, a stranger.
Throughout the day, members of the McCrory family scurried back and forth, now leaving the house, then returning back. Gathering behind closed doors, they whispered quietly to one another. And only in the evening, April 20, 1906, did my mother receive new information for thought.
At that time, bad news spread very slowly; the English newspapers did not arrive until the next day. And when the evening train nevertheless delivered them, their flashy headlines told of the great San Francisco earthquake on April 18, 1906.
Three days later, McCrory received a telegram, which was awaited with horror - after the earthquake, the body of their son Andrew, who served as a priest in San Francisco, was found in the ruins.
Remarkable in this case is that the phantom of the death carriage had a materialized form, which, in fact, made it possible for him to be a visible outsider, and not the one who was intended to omen. However, according to eyewitness accounts, death carriages can appear in dreams or visions. It is especially surprising that this kind of sign about the imminent or already occurred death of loved ones is received, in the main, only by people of Irish origin. This is evidenced by the story of Elizabeth Phillips-Miravelli, published in the American magazine "Faith".
Elizabeth's mother, an American citizen, always spoke with pride of her French heritage. She loved everything French, apparently, she really liked to feel like a Frenchwoman. When Elizabeth started in high school, her mother insisted that she study French. It was then that Elizabeth learned that in French Mary's name actually sounds like Marie. However, then Elizabeth did not pay any attention to this fact.
When Elizabeth's father died a few years later and problems with the inheritance appeared, she began to look through some of her documents to help her mother deal with them. As it turned out, some of the names in them sounded not at all French. When Elizabeth said this, her mother hastily took her papers from her and did not show them to her again.
Years passed, and one day Elizabeth's mother was diagnosed with severe heart disease. To care for her, Elizabeth moved into her house. At first, she felt a little better, but over time, the drugs stopped helping her. The operation, according to the doctors, was out of the question - the patient would not have been able to endure it. Thus, her death was only a matter of time. In December, her mother's condition worsened, and for several days Elizabeth was with her in the hospital. On the night of December 10, Elizabeth's husband insisted that she go home with him and get some rest. Once at home, in her own bed, Elizabeth immediately fell into a deep sleep.
Early in the morning she was suddenly awakened by the snorting of horses and the sound of hooves. Opening her eyes, she saw a black carriage in front of her, harnessed by horses with black plumes. Having approached her directly through the bedroom, the carriage stopped. The horses scraped their hooves impatiently and shook their heads, and when they snorted, icy breath escaped from their nostrils. Death itself was sitting on the box, dressed in all black, with a black top hat on his head!
When she turned to Elizabeth, as if to make sure she was looking at her, Elizabeth was terrified. But then she felt that she was not in any danger personally. Somehow she realized that her mother's soul was in the carriage. After standing still for a second, the driver touched the reins and the carriage drove away.
With her heart leaping out of her chest, Elizabeth woke her husband, and then immediately called the hospital. There she was told that her mother had died just a few minutes ago.
Elizabeth's husband, whose ancestors were Indians, took it all for granted. Having said that it was her mother who came to say goodbye to her.
This mystical vision made a deep impression on Elizabeth. She had heard that the so-called death carriage appeared only for the souls of the Irish. The fact that the girl herself had Irish blood never crossed her mind, especially since her mother always looked down on the Irish, considering them “common people”.
Elizabeth set up an entire investigation, looking at heaps of death and marriage certificates of her relatives, as well as census data. There was nothing to suggest that her mother's family came from France. Elizabeth sent inquiries to several pedigree societies asking if anyone had encountered the unusual surname Ogle, but for a long time she did not receive an answer to her question. It was only on March 13, 1996 that the Celtic Research Society confirmed that Elizabeth's grandmother was Irish. A long search for Elizabeth was crowned with success.
Why her mother hid her national roots, Elizabeth could not understand, but she was convinced of something else: the death carriage is really people of Irish descent - even if they themselves do not consider themselves Irish!
N. Kovaleva