Into The Mine…
May 9, 2008
Years ago I heard a story about a woman who checked into a somewhat upscale hotel without any luggage. She didn’t even have her purse or any I.D- somehow it had been left behind.
This was back in the early 1950’s and I’m guessing they let her do this because people were more trusting back then- that and from all accounts the woman was well dressed, well spoken and by appearances seemed like a real lady.
At any rate, it was on it’s way she told the Hotel Clerk- in fact it was going to be showing up any minute so could she just check into her room- it had been a long day.
The Clerk let her check in and the next morning when the maid went into the room they found the woman dead, sitting in a chair facing the window.
They authorities would only ever learn one thing about the woman- she was dead from cyanide poisoning- an odd thing to use to kill yourself, but that was the cause of death and that’s what was reflected on the death certificate.
The woman’s luggage never did show up, and no one ever came forward to I.D Jane Doe- and somewhere in Seattle under a little grey stone with numbers on it- probably overgrown with grass now is a woman who according to some never existed.
So I wonder.
Can a person who never existed-
Truly Ever Die?
Heather Blakey
Anita Marie
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What defines our existence? Things we own? Ways we are “identified” by others? This gives us something to ponder….
Great image, by the way….
I guess what haunts me is that this woman took carefull measures to not be indentified and she died looking out a window and not on the bed.
She came from nowhere and then…
Perhaps she knew exactly why–and was a wise woman. Fran
I got that feeling too-
I keep thinking that there’s a short story in her last hours of life … or whatever would be shorter than a short story. While I could never understand what she did from a personal level (its just not in me to think that way), I have always liked trying to get into the mindset of my characters. And its been running through my head since yesterday … the elegant, well-dressed woman, who chose to end her life in such a horrible way.
This is a really meaty one Anita Marie. To not have left footprints is the ultimate tragedy. But in another way her existence is rich. Her action is still being written about. I think the image is stunning and agree that there is a piece of fiction just waiting to be drawn out here.
I hope this does inspire a tale or two or three- few of us can master or destiny…but death too?
Hmm! What an interesting question! If there was some evidence, any evidence at all that a person existed such as a body, then yes, I think they can die. Or maybe cease to exist if that evidence were to ever disappear?
I LOVE the image by the way.
Bodies tell a story all on their own.
This woman did everything to strip her own identity and then she ‘turned off the lights’…and she did it so well that almost 60 years after her death no one has been able to I.D. her.
Even with a corpse.
On the other hand- just say someone opened that grave.
Would anything be in it?
Just curious