Stranger from the grave, or mother’s curse

This story happened in a small provincial town, about a hundred years ago. Here's what happened. The town’s authorities issued an order: to demolish the old abandoned cemetery where, for more than fifty years, all new burials were banned. The territory was freed to create a city park, which is by now has grown extensively. 

Day in and day out workers dug up old decayed remains and coffins. And then – a surprise! In one of the graves, which by the way collapsed long time ago, found a new, untouched by decay coffin. The workers immediately called the police. They decided that this way someone planned to hide the traces of a recent murder. They also called a priest just in case. In the presence of the authorities and the church that unfortunate coffin was opened. Inside of it they found a body of a young man, about thirty years old, with absolutely no traces of decay. A typical corpse, except for one strange detail – around the hands of the dead man was wrapped a blond braid of a female, and his facial expression was distorted by the traces of painful suffering.  

People present at the opening of the coffin were shocked. Moreover, as we already mentioned, it was a small town, and all the people knew each other well. In the coffin there was a stranger. On a decaying cross with great difficulty they could make out the name and inscription. It turned out that the grave was about sixty years old, and of the family mentioned on the cross, there was only one very old lady who was still alive, who was still in her "own mind." 

So, they sent a car for her and brought her to the cemetery. The old woman glanced at the dead man and murmured angrily: "Well, of course I know who that is. It’s my oldest son – Frank. Still lies there, damned, with my braid in his hands.” She got closer to the coffin and said to the dead man: "Ah. Frank, I told you until I take off my braid; you will not get rid of your mother’s curse. And so you will stay - neither alive nor dead." She spit in his direction and went away. 

All the people who gathered there, caught up with her, the priest approached and they began to persuade her to remove the mother’s curse. And they were also wondering that had her son done to deserve that. So then the old woman told her story... 

Many years ago, when her Frank got married he became a different person. Maybe it was her daughter-in-law’s fault, who knows now. But Frank became very angry, started throwing fists at his mother and beat her terribly. One time he started beating his mother right on the street, in front of all the neighbors, and pulled off her head scarf from her head. And in those days for women - especially the elderly - to present yourself to people bareheaded was a shame. So, the mother’s blood boiled, she grabbed a knife and cut off her long braid. Frank calmed down, sat on the bench, and his mother came up to him and said: "Give me your filthy hands here , I will tie them up with my braid so you could never hit your mother again with them.” Frank, in a daze, stretched out his hands, and his mother added: "This braid will be a mother’s curse to you, Frank, and no one but me can remove it from your hands.” Frank lay down on the bench and died. And so he was buried with that braid around his hands.  

For a long time people tried to persuade the old lady to remove the curse, saying that Frank has already redeemed his sins, and many years have passed since then. Hesitantly, the old lady came up to her son, removed the braid and said: "I forgive you, Frank, the Lord be with you."  

The next day the old woman died.