Observations placeholder
Monsieur Adolphe Riesbeck's portrait falls off the wall
Identifier
016685
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Death and its Mystery, At the Moment of Death; Manifestations and Apparitions of the Dying – Camille Flammarion
Letter 4291 from Vera Kunzler, Naples, October 27th 1920
At the beginning of the year 1917, my aunt, Pauline Riesbeck, had a husband in the army, but since he was over 40, they thought that he was in the rear line of battle and in consequence, she was not anxious about him.
The morning of February 12th, my aunt went into her room, about half past ten, to look for something. At the exact moment when she stepped over the threshold of the door the portrait of her husband – a large one which showed him in military costume – detached itself from the wall, fell, and slid over the floor to her feet.
When the nail and cord which had held up the frame were examined they were found to be intact.
My aunt, very much struck, related this singular accident to some friends, adding that she was very much afraid that some misfortune had befallen her husband.
Naturally they said to her what they habitually do in such cases ‘Heavens, Madame, are you going to be superstitious? Don’t believe in that foolishness!’
But my aunt, convinced that a misfortune had occurred, put a cross, in red, against this date on her calendar and waited three weeks for news of her husband. Towards the beginning of March she learned that my uncle Monsieur Adolphe Riesbeck had died on the ‘field of honour’ (as they say) from a bullet that struck him in the head, the morning of February 12th, about half past ten.