B (10:33)

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A (11:05)

have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end. This is very strange, Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com the next and final story of today's episode is called Her Face. One evening In September of 1885, a young woman named Mary stepped out of the backseat of a carriage onto a dirt road in rural England. She had traveled 100 miles from London to the countryside because her husband's aunt had invited her to come visit. Standing on the dirt road, Mary looked up at the big country house. Then she grabbed her suitcase and walked up to the front door and knocked. Then a moment later, the aunt's maid opened the door. She greeted Mary and took her suitcase and brought the suitcase to the guest room while Mary headed straight down the hallway to her aunt's bedroom. When she got there, Mary gently knocked on the door and then opened it up. And when she looked inside, she saw the aunt lying in bed. And you know, the aunt looked up and saw Mary and she smiled. But she was very old and very frail, you know, not doing too well physically. And now that's part of the reason Mary was here, to just kind of see her while she still could. But the aunt looked up and saw Mary and recognized her and so she smiled and Mary came in and sat down next to her and for A couple of minutes, the two women just had some small talk. And, you know, Mary talked about her journey from London to, you know, the countryside where she was now. And, you know, the aunt talked about what she was up to. It was all just kind of, you know, pleasantries. But at some point, the aunt kind of stopped and looked up at Mary, and she had this obvious look of pity on her face. And Mary immediately picked up on it. And she's kind of looking back at the aunt, wondering, what's going on here? And then the aunt just says to Mary, really, how are you holding up? And immediately, Mary, when she heard this, she felt this knot in her throat, and. And she had to fight back tears. I mean, she knew exactly what the aunt was talking about. So even though Mary was a young woman, she was already a widow. Her husband had died in an accident about two years earlier, and it had sent Mary into this spiraling deep depression. I mean, she was still completely grieving the loss of her husband. He had been the love of her life. And, you know, her extended family and her husband's extended family were all well aware of how badly Mary had been doing. And so they had been extending her invitations constantly to come visit and basically just not be alone. I mean, that was the reason, really why her husband's aunt had invited her here, is because she knew Mary likely wasn't doing well. Now, to Mary, you know, this was nice in a way. I mean, she felt very comforted by the family members, and it did seem like people genuinely cared about her. But at the same time, she started to get the impression from basically everybody in her and her husband's family that they kind of expected her to, you know, grieve this loss, but ultimately move on and, like, find somebody else, basically. You're young, like, get remarried, you know, start a new life. But to Mary, she just wanted to be like, no, I'm never gonna find anyone like my husband. He was the love of my life, and no one will ever match him ever. Like, I'm done. I probably will never get married again. Like, he was it for me. And so at that moment, Mary really just wanted to end this conversation with her husband's aunt. Like, she didn't want to get into how she was feeling about her husband because it was bad. She felt bad, bad. But instead of saying that to her husband's aunt, she just said, you know what? I'm okay. I'm just totally exhausted from travel, and I'm going to go to bed. The aunt nodded and told Mary that, you know, we'll have plenty of time to visit tomorrow, so go get some sleep. So the two women hugged, and then Mary got up. She left the bedroom, headed to the guest room. She found her suitcase, got on some pajamas, and then crawled into bed. But a few hours later, in the middle of the night, Mary suddenly bolted upright in her bed. She was sweating, she was shaking, she was totally disoriented. It took her a few minutes to even remember where she was. But then finally, when she did and she realized she was safe, she realized she had just had this awful, visceral nightmare that she really couldn't even make sense of. In this nightmare, she was looking out at this huge open field. It's nighttime, and there's nothing but this field. But off in the distance, there was this broken down small shed. It was just sitting there conspicuously right in the middle of this field. And even though Mary was terrified of the shed, she felt this overwhelming urge to go to the shed and investigate. And so it's like with every step as she walked through this field, closer and closer to the shed, her fear was rising. And then finally, when she got close to the shed, she began to hear what sounded like somebody moaning inside of the structure. And so now she's really scared, but she keeps walking towards the shed. And then she's right outside. She can't see into the shed, but you can hear, hear the moaning. And she sees her hand just come down and fling the door open, almost like she didn't want to, but her body's acting on autopilot. And then she looks into the shed, and there's this figure tucked into the corner, kind of in the shadows. And it's the thing making these moaning sounds. And it turns and Mary sees it's this woman, this emaciated, destroyed looking woman, but her face is the same face as Mary's dead husband. And as soon as she saw that, it jolted her awake. And so that's where she was sitting in her bedroom, trying to make sense of what she had just seen. And so after 15 or 20 minutes of Mary trying and failing to fall back asleep because of this horrible nightmare, Mary finally says, you know what? I'm just gonna go outside, clear my head, go for a walk. I know it's the middle of the night, whatever, you know, I'll bring some brandy along and sip that to calm my nerves and just kind of walk around until I'm calm, and then I'll go back to sleep. So she hopped out of bed. She grabbed her flask of brandy, grabbed her Chicken jacket, got her shoes on and walked out the front door. About 15 minutes later, Mary was walking up a hill with the moonlight casting down on her. She was sipping her brandy as she went and was already beginning to calm down. Now Mary was used to living in the city in London, and so being out here in the countryside was so different. It was so beautiful and peaceful and spaced out that she had kind of just begun walking and not stopped. I mean, she originally thought she would just stay on the ensuite property, but already she was well beyond the property lines and was basically just out exploring in the middle of the night and she was having a nice time. And so up the hill Mary goes. Now remember, Mary has never been to this area. This is basically an all new place. She has no idea what's over here. And she goes up this hill, she crests the top and she gets a look at what's up there for the first time. And when she sees what's up there, she freezes. She's looking out at this huge, huge field basically in all directions. And in the center of this field, maybe a couple hundred yards away, is a single small structure, a broken down wooden shed that looks nearly identical to the shed she had just seen in her nightmare. And as soon as she saw that, she's terrified because she knows it's the same one or it's eerily similar. But worse than that, when she saw it, despite her own fears and trepidations about being up here, she felt herself moving towards the shed. It was like her, her body went into autopilot the same way it did in her dream. It was like she had to go to the shed. Even though everything inside of her logically is saying don't go, but into the field she goes. She deviates off the path and just starts walking towards the shed. Her heart is beating like mad. And as she's getting closer and closer, she even begins to hear moaning sounds coming from the shed. It's like she's living out the nightmare in real life. She can't make sense of it. She wants, wants to go back the other way, but she can't stop herself. She's just going towards the shed. And then finally she reaches the shed and now for sure she can hear moaning coming from in this building. And she sees her hand reach down and she flings open the shed and she looks in and sure enough, there is this dark figure tucked in the corner, clearly moaning like this is her nightmare in real life. But when the person inside the shed turned to look at Mary, it was a woman, but they didn't have her dead husband's face. Instead, it was a woman who practically looked like she was dead or close to death. She obviously needed help. Now, at this point, Mary was kind of relieved. I mean, this whole situation is terrifying. But she was expecting to, you know, somehow see her dead husband's face on this person in the shed. And so when it wasn't, and it was just like a normal person, albeit in a very strange set of circumstances, it was a relief. But now Mary didn't know what to do. It's like she's standing there looking at this woman, having no idea what to do. She doesn't understand how she could have dreamed this and now basically lived it too, like nothing's adding up. But again, it was like her body continued to operate in this autopilot mode. She suddenly had this really intense desire to go into the shed and help this woman. She didn't know who she was. This is a total stranger in the middle of a field in a shed who's moaning and looks terrible. She has no idea what's going on, but in she goes. And she sits down next to this woman who's now kind of eyeing Mary, like, what are you doing in here with me? And Mary says to her, like, hey, what's going on? How'd you get here? What's wrong? Like, what's happening? But the woman, it was clear she wanted to respond to Mary and, you know, tell her what was going on, but, you know, she was too weak. It was like she really was on death's door here. And Mary could clearly see that, like, she didn't need to be told. This woman is in a very bad way here. Now, Mary knew what needed to happen is this woman needs to get to a hospital. But they were nowhere near a hospital, and this woman clearly can't get up and walk. And Mary's thinking, I'm not strong enough to carry this woman to the hospital. Like, what am I gonna do? And Mary's thinking, maybe if I just run and get help and they can come back here. But she's looking at this woman thinking, I don't know if she'll survive. She's probably gonna die soon. This is gonna happen now. And so Mary, again, sort of in this weird autopilot mode, decides, you know what? I'm gonna stay right here with this woman. She can't even talk. She can't tell me what's going on, but I am gonna be here with her. I'm gonna be praying, present with her. And if she dies, I'll be here to support her. And so Mary just made herself comfortable. She took her jacket off, she put it over this woman, and then she began letting this woman sip from her brandy flask to, you know, maybe kind of ease the pain. And all night, the two women just kind of sat there and laid together. Do you love your pets? Do you love suspense? Do you love it when your pets keep you in suspense because they ate something mysterious? And who knows what the vet visit will cost? If you answered yes twice and then no, you should protect your pet with Lemonade Pet insurance. It can save you up to 90% on vet bills for checkups, emergencies, diagnostics, all the stuff that leaves you financially on the edge of your seat. Get a quick and Easy quote@lemonade.com pet and get your suspense somewhere else, like from a riveting podcast.

B (21:40)

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of angie, and one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update, and renovation, it becomes a little more your. So you need all your jobs done. Well, for nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter, from plumbing to electrical, roof repair to deck upgrades. So leave it to the pros who will get your jobs done well, Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find a pro for your project@angie.com.

A (22:14)

When the sun finally rose the next morning, Mary looked over at the woman and saw she was still alive. And in fact, if anything, she seemed like her condition had maybe improved slightly. She seemed maybe a little bit more comfortable, you know, maybe that was from all the brandy. Who knows? But the woman seemed like she'd stabilized a little bit. Still couldn't talk or really tell Mary anything, but she seemed to be doing a little bit better. And so Mary's thinking, okay, you know, the sun's up now. Now I can run out, get help, and get this woman the care that she needs. But before Mary could even do that, she began hearing a stomping sound somewhere outside of the shed. And she realized it was a horse approaching. And so Mary, she bolts out of the shed, and she looks over towards the road, and there's a horse pulling a covered wagon going right by. And Mary screams and yells and says she needs help. And a man pops his head out of the wagon and says, what's going on? And Mary runs over to him and explains this weird situation how there's this strange woman over here and she's clearly dying. She needs our help. And the man agreed to help. And so he went with Mary to the shed, he picked the woman up, he put her inside of his wagon, and then the three of them together in this wagon drove to Mary's husband's aunt's house. When they got there, the man carried the strange woman inside of the aunt's house. And then Mary told the aunt's maid to go call for the town doctor. And so she said she would. And so at this point, Mary was actually completely relieved. I mean, this was kind of a wild, very unexpected night. I mean, she doesn't even know who this woman is, but she's definitely happy that she's getting some level of care here. But Mary sort of felt like her role in this was kind of diminished. Now, you know, she's gotten the woman here and she's feeling so tired and weak from being up all night. And so Mary decided she would just take a nap. I mean, she had been up all night with this woman. She was exhausted. So into her bedroom she went, she climbed into bed. And as she's laying there, she realized she wasn't just tired, she actually felt kind of sick, like ill. And over the next few hours, as she kind of tossed and turned in her bed, not really able to sleep, she would develop this horrible fever. And this fever would just get worse and worse and worse. And Mary would become bedridden, dealing with this mystery illness for weeks, just drifting in and out of consciousness the whole time. It was October by the time Mary's fever finally broke. And on the day that it did, when Mary opened her eyes in this bed, you know, she was clear headed for the first time. I mean, really, it had been a very rough stretch of a few weeks. And so she's looking around the room, kind of taking stock of her entire environment, and she sees there's this strange person sitting in a chair in the corner. And her immediate reaction is, oh, this must be like a nurse or a doctor or somebody here that's kind of overseeing me. Mary was aware she had been very sick for several weeks. And there were people in and out of the room. But she looked back at this person and realized she actually knew who it was. It was the woman she had rescued from the shed on the night she got sick. It was that woman. But now she wasn't sickly and dying. The woman looked completely healthy and happy. And she was smiling ear to ear at Mary, like, this didn't make any sense, like what's going on here? And Also, Mary just couldn't help but think, like, wait a minute. Why is this woman still here? It has been weeks since I rescued her from the shed. Why is she still here? Like, nothing's adding up. But before Mary could ask any questions, this woman, who clearly was super excited to see that Mary was now fully awake and attentive, this woman just starts talking a mile a minute like she had been waiting to dump all this information on Mary as soon as she was. Well, like, clearly this woman has been waiting diligently for her chance to tell her story. And the story that she dumped on Mary at her first chance, like, this day was incredible. The woman told her that a couple of years earlier, she had boarded the ship in England that was bound for Brazil. But about five days into their journey, while. While they're out on the open sea, the ship caught fire. This horrible fire. Everyone's trying to evacuate. And this woman said she was in her bedroom asleep. She didn't even know it was happening. And while she's laying there and the ship is catching fire and beginning to sink, this stranger comes barreling into the room, literally wakes her up, scoops her up and takes her to the top deck and gets her into a lifeboat right as the ship sinks, I mean, this stranger completely saved this woman's life. And so this woman, the stranger who had saved her, and a handful of other lucky people who had made it onto this lifeboat just began rowing in a single direction, you know, hoping they'd find land. And luckily they did. They found this deserted island, and so they landed there. And for a year, this woman and the stranger and those few people subsisted on this island, you know, barely clinging to life, you know, praying for rescue. And amazingly, after a year of being shipwrecked, they flagged down a ship that did rescue them and brought them to England. However, when they actually got to England, things weren't that good. The stranger who had saved this woman had basically lost his mind from living on this island. You know, not expecting to be rescued. Even though they got rescued, it was like he wasn't coherent anymore. He had lost it. Not to mention he was really ill. From the way they were living on this island, you know, scavenging things that weren't necessarily edible, but just to survive, they were eating, eating whatever they could. I mean, it was a very rough lifestyle. And this man, he just hadn't really handled it well. And so he got thrown in a hospital and placed in a particular ward for people that were mentally unwell, and he was basically forgotten About. However, the woman would tell Mary that, you know, when this happened, she felt awful because she felt like this stranger had saved her life and she kind of owed him a debt. And so she decided it would be her mission to find the stranger's family and let them know where he was. And so the woman said she did some research, and she figured out where one of his relatives lived. It was really far away on the other side of England. And so she spent all her money, you know, using every vehicle she possibly could, every ride she could take, getting as close to this location as she possibly could. And then when she ran out of money, she just kept on walking towards this destination, and she kept going until she literally ran out of food and water. But she wasn't quite there yet. She knew she was getting close, and she's just walking and she's basically falling apart, you know, so hell bent on finding this family member for this stranger, but she can't quite make it. She can't quite get to the family member's house. And that's when she finds this shed out in the middle of the field where she just collapses, thinking, okay, this is where I'm gonna die. And so back in the guest room, Mary is listening to this woman tell this unbelievable story. And at some point, the woman just kind of stops when she gets to the shed scene. And Mary's looking at her like, I don't really understand where you're going with this. I don't understand why you're here telling me this. And the woman, she just starts to laugh, like this joyous laughter, just nonstop laughter. And then she goes, don't you get it? And then seconds later, Mary hears footsteps. And a man walks into the bedroom. And it's Mary's husband. He was the stranger who rescued that woman. He didn't die in an accident two years ago like they thought he was in a shipwreck, but he survived. He was the man who got thrown in the hospital and forgotten about. And it was this woman who was making the journey to his aunt's house to tell her that he was still alive. And it was only because Mary had that totally bizarre nightmare that sort of led her to that shed that she found this woman who would have died in that shed and never quite gotten to the aunt's house. And so never could have told the family, never could have told Mary that her husband's still alive. It was because of that dream that fate aligned, and now her husband was back. Mary and her husband's story wound up being published in newspapers all over the world. I mean people really could not get enough of this story. But despite how far reaching this story became, nobody was ever able to come up with a logical explanation for how so many coincidences and this crazy dream Mary had. How it all came together to reunite Mary and her husband. A quick note about our stories they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories is hosted and executive Produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen. Produced by Jeremy Bone Research and fact checking by Shelly Shue, Samantha Vanhus, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway and Camille Callahan Research and fact checking supervision by Steven Ear Audio editing and post produced by Whit Locasio, Jordan Stidham and Cole Locasio Production coordination by Samantha Collins Production support by Antonio Minotta and Delaina Corley Artwork by Jessica Claugston Kiner Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. And just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballin podcast you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballin YouTube channel that very same day. And trust me, some of these stories you truly have to see to believe. Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. If you want to to listen to episodes one week early and ad free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com podcastplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's gonna do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time. See y. Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end. This is very strange Angie. The one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com

B (32:19)

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