One foot in the grave...

As you might have noticed, I'm catching up on some slightly-older news items that have been sitting in my inbox patiently awaiting my attention over the last few months. One of the more singular "weird news" items was pointed out to me by the folks at the New England Anomaly, as well as one of the editors over at our local Port City Life magazine. It originally appeared in the Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel back in October.

Grave mishap: Funeral director now recovering after fall in cemetery and hearse ride to hospital
By BETTY ADAMS, Staff Writer
10/10/2007

AUGUSTA -- There are falls from grace and falls into graves.
Take Leo Murphy's, for instance.

One misstep at the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery during a Sept. 20 burial service, and the longtime funeral director from Augusta found himself in a grave, looking up through a cloud of dust.

"I fell in the grave backwards," Murphy said, two and a half weeks into his recovery. "I hit my left side on the corner of the grave. All of a sudden, I saw a cloud of dust, and that's where I was in the hole."

A gloved hand reached down and Murphy, who will be 80 in two weeks, reached up with his right hand and was raised from the grave.
...
Then his son, Pat, convinced him to get into the Plummer Funeral Home hearse to ride to the emergency room at MaineGeneral Medical Center.

"I was in the front seat when the security guard came around," Murphy said. "He said, 'Usually they don't come in this end.'"

Murphy was treated for two fractured ribs and a chest wall contusion, said another son, Michael.
...
He said it was his first mishap at a grave in his 61 years as a funeral director.
...
Full article available online here: [Source]