Late lamented delivers a bit of a shock

MUKDAHAN: Seventy-two-year-old Wan Sukhampa had been ill with lung problems for five years. On December 8, she felt particularly unwell, so her family took her to the hospital. The following morning her condition deteriorated and she was moved to the intensive care unit. The doctors were unable to help her, however, and within hours she was declared dead. Later that day the family took the body home, where it lay covered with a white sheet and protected by a mosquito curtain while they went about the preparations for her funeral. Imagine their terror when Pradit Chaibun, K. Wan’s granddaughter, alerted them to the fact that something was moving inside the mosquito curtain. As the family watched, the corpse, still wrapped in the sheet, sat up. Screaming and yelling, everyone ran away except for K. Pradit. She opened the mosquito curtain and unwound the sheet. There sat Grandma Wan, confused and disoriented, but most definitely alive. After regaining her composure, K. Wan told her family that she had dreamed of meeting some of her ancestors. They told her, she said, that it wasn’t time for her to “go” yet, so they had helped her return to her body. At that point she had awoken to find herself covered with the white sheet. The news spread like wildfire and K. Wan received visits from dozens of people, most of whom wanted to check various numbers – her age (72), the day she was declared dead (December 8), and her house number (41 Moo 1) – in order to improve their chances in the lottery.