Grief is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. Often, the pain of loss can feel overwhelming. You may experience all kinds of difficult and unexpected emotions, from shock or anger to disbelief, guilt, and profound sadness.

Thawin Sopajorn, 73 years old from Thailand just experienced an intense type of grief when his beloved wife, Phinij Sopajorn, 70, passed away in a Thai hospital on October 20, 2019, as she was experiencing thyroid swelling.

The doctor let her family take her body for a Buddhist funeral where she was kept in a cold coffin at the local temple for three days. However, Thawin thought that it was strange that her body was not stiff. During the funeral, Thawin said that he was the last person to touch her before the cremation, he performed the traditional custom of washing her face with a damp flannel, and just before they were scheduled to load his wife’s body into the incinerator, Thawin noticed that she was breathing and her eyelids were flickering.

Thawin then called for help for his wife, as soon as he realized that his wife was still moving but his family thought that he was just hallucinating. However, Thorin’s daughter-in-law who is a doctor checked and confirmed later that Phinij was still alive although her pulse was very weak.

The paramedics were called to the scene. They performed CPR and then were able to confirm that Mrs. Sopajorn was very much still alive.

Naturally, Thawin was delighted. He said that he’d had doubts about whether she was really dead or not, as her body hadn’t succumbed to rigor mortis.

You’d have to imagine that someone is getting a telling off in the aftermath of this.

Mr. Sopajorn said: “After she stopped breathing on Sunday we put her into the coffin and I thought it was strange that her body was not stiff. I bathed her and her body still moved.

“Then during the funeral, I was the last person to touch her before the cremation. I wished for her to live a happy next life and then I saw her eyes start to move.

“I am so glad that I was right about her being alive. I gave her a hug and called my children, but they thought I had a hallucination.”

He said that if she had been cremated while she was still alive it would have been very bad and it would have been the wrong thing to happen.

“I am very thankful that I noticed my wife was still alive. We will continue caring for her until she has passed away.”

Though Phinij was clearly alive she couldn’t talk or respond properly, she is currently at home receiving care but is not expected to pull through. Her husband said that her condition is severe and doesn’t think that she can ever be cured.

Thawin added: “My wife’s condition is severe and I don’t think she can ever be cured. But she was still alive and it was not her time to die.”

Sources: Awm, Sanelinews, Laopinion