At the Natchez City Cemetery in Mississippi, there is a grave that, at first glance, looks like any other. But, if you take a look behind the tombstone, you’ll find something rather unique — a mysterious door that opens up to a set of stairs leading down into the earth. You see, this unusual grave belongs to Florence Irene Ford, a 10-year-old little girl who died from yellow fever in 1871. After her beloved Florence died, Ellen Ford had a special window installed at the head of her child’s casket. The narrow stairway goes six feet down to the viewing window. On the cemetery’s website, they offer more details about the little girl and her grave:
“Florence was born on September 3, 1861. She died on October 30, 1871. The website reads: Florence died of yellow fever when she was 10 years old. During her short life, she was extremely frightened of storms and whenever one occurred she would rush to her mother to find comfort. Upon her death, her mother was so struck with grief that she had Florence’s casket constructed with a glass window at the child’s head. The grave was dug to provide an area, the same depth as the coffin, at the child’s head, but this area had steps that would allow the mother to descend to her daughter’s level so she could comfort Florence during storms.
To shelter the mother during storms, hinged metal trap doors were installed over the area the mother would occupy while at her child’s grave. There are trap doors behind little Florence’s tombstone, which covers the stairway her mother used. They can still be opened today. In the mid-1950s a concrete wall was erected at the bottom of the stairway covering the glass window of Florence’s coffin to prevent vandalism. “
Cemetery & #Taphophile fans, 10 yr old Irene Ford grave, Natchez, MS, storm cellar stairs six feet under pic.twitter.com/51II8LzyGm
— Deborah Burst (@debburst) October 1, 2015
This story is just another example of how deep a mother’s love can run, so much so that that this mom could not bear for her child to be alone, even in death. And folks online had a lot to say about this mom’s love for her daughter.
Kat Powell wrote:
Everybody goes through grief in different ways, if this is how her mum can cope till she gets over the worst then let her have that. There is never a right or wrong, specially when it’s your child. Hope she finds peace.
Researching in Natchez. Florence died at 10 in 1871, her mother wanted to make sure that her daughter knew that she was with her. Instead of burying her daughter in a normal grave at the Natchez Cemetery she had a special, tom built. That had stairs leading down to her grave. pic.twitter.com/3sWBn33uti
— Just A Story Podcast (@justastorypod) July 22, 2018
And while some may find it strange, we have to keep in mind that traditions back then were very different from the ones we observe today. In fact, it wasn’t unusual for family members to even take photos of their deceased loved ones, posing them as though they were still alive.
Lili Ren added: This is very sad. Modern medicine has dramatically reduced the mortality rate of children, it’s hard to imagine for a lot of people nowadays how it feels to loss many of your children before they reach adulthood. My great grandma lost 4 of her 10 children very soon after they were born because of tetanus. Judith Evans commented: It’s a bit macabre but if it comforted a grieving mother so be it. It was in the 1880s so perhaps it wasn’t such a.strange thing in that era.
You can also watch a special video about this story below.