Lying on Husband's Grave

Detroit Free Press, October 5, 1901

Sitting up with the dead has not always proved therapeutic for the aggrieved living parties but especially in the case of spouses. Suicides and attempted suicides at the site of their loved one's graves were not a rarity. Detroit had a few of its own.

Emma Kraft could not live without her husband John. He was a Detroit fireman who had committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid a few months before in August of 1901 and she attempted to reunite herself with her beloved by drinking the same toxin while lying upon his grave in Elmwood Cemetery. 

When she was discovered by a cemetery worker, who just happened to walk by the fireman's lot, a pitiable note was found beside her:

"Dear Parents:

Forgive me for all the trouble I brought upon you. I am going to John; I cannot live without him. Do not fail to have John removed and buried alongside of me. I see him before me night and day with outstretched arms calling for me. I must go. Your loving daughter.

EMMA."

Despite her injuries she was expected to live.

Detroit Free Press, October 7, 1901