04/03/2023
Greenbrier County, West Virginia, is best known for its ghost that returned from the grave to divulge the truth of her death and send her husband to jail. However, you may not know, but the county also has an Angel of Death—
The May 31, 1888, Greenbrier Independent stated this: "Maud Montague, third daughter of Capt. And Mrs. Alex Mathews, aged 11 years and 7 months, died yesterday evening May 30, 1888. She was an unusually bright and attractive child-the sunbeam of a happy home." Who would have known the statuette honoring her would be granted a curse?
Maud Montague had succumbed to pneumonia, gasping for breath until she died that evening. Her grieving parents erected a carved statue of an angel over her grave at the Old Stone Cemetery beside the Presbyterian Church. During the ceremony marking the tomb, two of Maud’s cousins, about 14 years old, crept forward and, consumed with the moment, kissed the cheeks of the angel. It was not long after one died from influenza. She suffered horribly like Maud, trying desperately to catch her breath as her lungs filled with fluid. The second was in a carriage accident, breaking several ribs which punctured her lungs, filling them with blood, causing her death—another casualty so much like the air-gasping last moments of Maud. Some noted the similarities of the deaths, linking them to the kisses on the statue’s cheeks, and deemed it The Angel of Death. Those foolhardy enough to kiss her cheeks would die within the year.
This is from my West Virginia Ghost Stories: The Classics (a story from each county) https://www.amazon.com/West-Virginia-Ghost-Stories-Classics/dp/1940087457
(And no, I did not try this one. There was a gate around the angel. That excuse aside, I wouldn't have anyway. I have enough creepy stuff keeping me up at night staring at the ceiling wide awake and ridden with anxiety or giving me dark and dreadful nightmares because I write this stuff. So nope. No. Not happening.)
