The Emerald Ring Story

This Story has scary parts and is meant for Webelos scouts.
Decide for yourself if it is appropriate for your younger scouts or not.

---

 
There was once a very rich young man that fell in love with a beautiful woman. They dated and were engaged. For an engagement gift, he gave her an exquisite emerald ring appraised at $135,000. She loved her ring and wore it all the time. The man also had a new house built for them to live in once they were married.

The morning of their wedding day, in the church before the ceremony, the woman suddenly became very sick so the bridesmaid called 9-1-1.
Paramedics arrived only 15 minutes later, but it was too late, she had already died. The husband-to-be was heart-broken and distraught with grief. He told the priest to hold the funeral that very afternoon instead of the wedding ceremony and bury her the next day. He then locked himself in the attic of his new home and would talk to no one.

The priest that was to perform their wedding agreed to lead the funeral but, as it turns out, he was greedy, very greedy. He agreed to do the funeral but demanded extra pay for his time, taking advantage of the rich young man's grief and wealth. Of course, the families agreed since they had no options on such short notice.

All the wedding guests came to the funeral where the bride was wearing her wedding dress and her big emerald engagement ring. Everyone marveled at how beautiful she was, even in death, and how sad it was that the groom was taking it so hard.

After the short service, all the guests left and the coffin was sealed. The next day, it would be placed in the ground.

That night, while resting in his room above the church, the priest could not stop thinking about the beautiful young woman's emerald ring. It sparkled and twinkled in the lights and would now never be seen again - what a waste. What a waste of so much money! Finally, he could stand it no longer and decided to take the ring for himself since no one would ever know.

He pried up the lid of the coffin and tried to pull ring off her finger, but it would not budge. He twisted, yanked, and pulled with no luck. Frantically, he ran to the kitchen and returned with a butcher knife.

He hacked off her finger and then pulled off the ring. What an amazing ring! As he reached to close the lid of the coffin, the dead woman's eyes popped open, her mouth twisted into a grin, and she reached towards him with both hands, the severed ring finger dripping dark blood.

The priest screamed, dropped the ring, and ran up to his room where he hung himself from the rafters because he knew this ghost was after him for stealing its ring.

Little did he know that the woman was really alive and was only going to thank him. She had not actually died, but had slipped into a deep coma. The trauma of cutting off her finger had shocked her back to consciousness, saving her from being buried alive the next day.

Wearing her wedding dress, the young woman walked through the night to her new home and knocked and rang the bell but no one answered. Circling the house, she saw a light on in the attic window so she threw a rock at it. The young man opened the window and peered down.

He saw his bride and said, "Begone, ghost! Leave me in peace and stop torturing me!"

But, his bride said, "No, I am no ghost. Look, I am bleeding. Now, get down here right now or I surely will die before morning!"

The man ran downstairs and brought her inside. The doctor was called and they were married (by a different priest) the next day and lived happily ever after.