Word: alina
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...high on Haiti's Plateau Central, it was a day of both sadness and fun. The older folk, according to the Haitian custom, alternately wept & wailed, feasted, played cards. For the younger ones there were endless ghost stories and riddles. It was the day of 26-year-old Alina Souf-frant's funeral...
...Alina, a sturdy, black peasant girl, had been paralyzed in both legs for six months or more. One day she became feverish and lapsed into a coma. Three days later she stiffened and turned cold; then the wake began. One ancient Haitian custom was omitted: no hill-country witch doctor poisoned her or stabbed her to make sure that she would never become a zombi...
...Catholic Church. Suddenly, the pallbearers began to exchange uneasy glances; the weight of the coffin was shifting for all the world as though someone was moving inside it. They broke into a terrified trot. Inside the church, they set the coffin in the aisle and opened it. They found Alina lying there with her eyes open-dazed but unmistakably alive...
...French-born parish priest, scurried for a cup of black coffee. By the time he had returned with it, 'Alina, her paralysis gone, was able to sit up and drink. She was rushed off to the hospital at nearby Gonaïves, then moved 'to another at Port-au-Prince. There, some 600 curious Haitians visited the ward to gape at la revenante (the returned one). Many nodded knowingly and whispered tales of the walking dead. Said Alina: "When I died, I found myself in a place where a lot of people were talking and taking their pleasure...
...last week, except for a stiff neck, Alina had almost completely recovered. Physicians attributed her deathlike state to a severe attack of malaria. Her awakening, they guessed, might have been caused by the noise and motion of the funeral. For the stiff neck they had an even simpler explanation: her coffin had been too short...