Episode 67 Love After Death

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, folks, this is Jonathan Poenix, the Carolina Storytellers, coming
to you with an important important message. Okay, this is
an adult podcast, so it shouldn't be listened to by children.
And if you're listening to this, I assume that you're
an adult. And if you're not an adult, that's bad
because some of the things that we cover on this
podcast are topics that really younger ages shouldn't be listening to.

(00:25):
There's murder, there's death, there's blood, guts, and core things
that really they don't want to be exposed to.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
So as an adult, I'm gonna ask you to.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Keep the kids away, but I don't think every one
of you is doing it, So I'm gonna have to
do something to curb this behavior. If you don't stop,
maybe I'll tell your kids where sin is real address this,
or maybe I'll tell them where babies come from, or
how to get a hold of the Easter Buddy and
the toothberry, or maybe I'll just tell them why the
mailman always brings them birthday presents and why Daddy is really.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Mad about it.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
So remember, keep the kids away from the adult material
and enjoy the show. This is the Carolina storytelling.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
In the dark ones with shadows, cream stories rise as
the camp art reads.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
John the voice of haunts and thrill with every sale,
he'p fens off, will.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
That goes whispered to night, saws.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
By the fire light, our fierce color line, the general
lot of storyteller Joan.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Through the Stork came of Posan fight.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Fangels of darknessing night in the ries, the night sales
of Frightened.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Tread every heartbeat a path we tread, see expenses.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Welcome back to Carolina storytellers, folks, I am the Carolina storyteller,
Jonathan Phoenix.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm glad to have you here tonight with me.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
I have members of the cast and crew from Valmont
The Black Raven Chronicles here for a couple of episodes.
This is gonna be the first one of those, guys,
say hi, introduce yourselves.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
Hello.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
I am the Vampire Queen Jacquelyn Burns, the assistant director
for Valmont The Black Raven Chronicles, and your resident menace
to society.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Welcome to the show. Next up, I'm Chris.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
I'm not yet cast, but probably will be an extra
in the Velmont series. And I'm spinning r wall with
Carolina Storytellers spins you some yarn.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
To the shows.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
I'm Chriss Patna from all the way down on the
and yeah, I am also here at Spinning on and
listening to some Wilse fun on.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
You know.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
It's funny because Spinning Yarn was actually going to be
the original name for this show, Spinning Yarns, but I
went to go and put the name in there, and
it turned out that there was already a Spinning Yarns
show about spinning, so it became the Carolina Storyteller that
it is today. We also have joining us Edel, who

(03:06):
may be in and out. Adele, are you there? Yeah,
I'm here, So Edel is joining us.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
She's on the Men.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
For those of you who don't remember, Adele is going
to be playing Lucifer and Samantha Morning Star, so she's
a two fer in the show. And you all hear
some freaked stories from the low country of South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
So who's ready for a story?

Speaker 3 (03:23):
I think we're all in Mosco. Ahead and spin us
up a yarn.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Okay, So this one comes from actually Berkeley County, where
I live in South Carolina. Understand I am about twenty
miles north of Charleston, South Carolina, just a little inland.
It's the home of Francis Marion, who is the famous
swamp Fox. In fact, there's a swamp north of me
called Thewamp, which was so named because when it was

(03:48):
put on the map that was given to Cornwallace, they said,
that is one hell of a whole of a swamp there,
and that's what it was named Hellhole Swamp. And it
was where Francis Marion did most of us high during
the Revolutionary War. But we're not going north of me.
We're going south of me to the town of Goose Creek,
which is for I say town, it's roughly sixty thousand people.

(04:13):
So anyway, this story takes place in Goose Creek, South Carolina,
which is not north of me, but south of me
by about fifteen miles. I'm actually closer to Goose Creek
right now where I work at than I am when
I'm at home way technically.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
But it's a little over halfway.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
I think Goose Creek is a nice little community. It
was settled well, people started settling around there in the
eighteen twenties more or less. I think the church that
we're going to talk about was established a bit before that.
We're going to talk about the Saint John's Church there
and the story we're going to tell. I like leaving
names out because I don't know if people are going

(04:48):
to get mad about their names being thrown in there.
And these are some local families their story partakes to.
But the story goes that a young man who was
just settling in Goose Creek was one night a a
soare one of these Antebellum parties. Now this was pre
Civil War, so you know there was poop skirts and
the dresses, and he was from up north, so it

(05:10):
really didn't interest him much.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
So he decided he was going to go out and
take a walk.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
And as he's taking a walk in this relatively wooded area,
one of our famous Carolina storms comes on, which you know,
these things can come on with absolutely no warning and
just drench you, Jackie.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
You can, especially living near.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
The mountains where I get to spend every day seeing
the most bright sunshiny skies, and yet I look out
see the mountains over off in the distance and they
just have the most powerful storms above them, and I
don't know if I'm actually going to get to see
them or if they're just going to pass me by.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yep. South Carolina has the weirdest weather ever.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
I think it just we never know what the weather
is going to be in South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
They say that they can predict the weather.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
If they can't predict the weather, they can't even predict
where hurricanes are going to come through.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Right like seriously.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
But this man gets caught in this storm as he's
out walking, and so he runs to find shelter, and
he finds shelter and the chapel of an old church.
And the first thing he noticed is the symbol above
this church is a goose that looks like it's feeding
it's young, but it looks like it's ripping pieces off
of itself to feed its young.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
So that's the first thing that stands him.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
And he walks into the church, into the chapel, and
I guess back then they didn't really worry about you
walking into the church.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
It was kind of a you could go in at
any time you wanted to.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Nowadays, if you ran into a church in the middle
of the night, Popo would.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Come and get you. But back then, I guess they
didn't care. A church is a church.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
It's a place for you to seek refuge, no matter
what time, no matter when. He seeks refuge from the
storm in this church, and for a few minutes he's
taken in by the artistry that is its construction and
the beauty of the building itself, because you know, these
older churches, they kind of put some work into them.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
You know, they didn't.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
They're not these thrown up things that they do nowadays
that are mini malls converted.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
No, they put some work into the artistry of the church.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
And this is important because he's not paying attention, and
hears something in the church with him, and it occurs
to him that he's not alone. And he looks back
and there is a lovely young woman just kind of
sitting there praying. And of course, man, I beg your partner.
I didn't mean to disturb you. I was just trying
to get in out of the rain. She's like, it's fine.

(07:18):
She was here visiting her family. She liked to come
and visit her family at night and speak to them.
It made her feel better because they had passed on.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
She liked the company.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
And the two of them began to talk and she
had the most strangest conversation.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
It seems she's about death and die, how she thought death.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Was like being at peace, and how she felt that
we lived life afraid of death, but really it's not
something to fear, it's something to welcome. And this was
just the most unusual conversation he ever had with a woman,
and of course it fascinated him. She was equally beauty,
so he was taken aback by her. So she asked
him if he wanted to go with her to see

(07:58):
her family, and he said, yeah, yes, sure, why not,
but I'll walk with you, pretty lady around this graveyard.
And so he walked with her through the graveyard. She
introduced herself as Edith by the way. They walked around
the graveyard, and she showed her the family vault where
her family was buried, and where the other gravestones of
her family were buried, and she of course spoke to

(08:18):
them and you know, things like that, and then they
walked back out and bid her good night. Asked if
he could see her again, and she said, well, I'm
here most nights. You're welcome to come and see me.
So he said he would. So he goes back to
his party. Now that the rain is quit, tells his
friends of this strange woman that he's met most captivating,
And of course his friends are all happy because he's
just moved down here and he's already found someone that

(08:41):
he's taken with, and that just means he's more than
likely to settle down and stay here and you know,
be part of the community.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
They're happy about it, so they're happy for him, and
so the.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Following nights he would continuously go and he would have
these conversations with Edith, and they would have just the
most deep and interesting conversations while strolling through the cemetery.
And after a week or two, he is so taken
with her. He reaches out and he says, Edith, may
I court you and every and immediately she's just just

(09:11):
like you can't court me, can't understand or bathom love
in a true way.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
I don't believe that.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
I don't believe that you can love me as much
as you say you do.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
We just know we just met. And he still he comes.
He talks to her, and he.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
Tries to profess his love for her day after day,
until finally she says, if you are really this in
love with me, then she showed me, come catch me,
and she runs off into the graveyard, and she starts
running towards the family vault, and he follows after her,
and he loses sight of her, doesn't know where she's gone.
He looks around everywhere he can't find her. And then

(09:47):
he's standing in front of the door to the family
vault and for a moment he thinks he hears her
scream help me, but it's coming from inside the vault.
And he's really bewildered by this, but you know, it's
his Edith. She's in trouble. So he grabs the iron
bar to the vault banks it open, and when he does,

(10:09):
corpse of a woman falls upon him, and for a minute, he's,
you know, like, oh my god, what the And then
he starts to recognize the dress she is wearing, the
jewelry that she has on, and he realizes that this
corpse is his Edith, and he just breaks down into tears.
Next morning they found him there holding her body. Edith
had been the eldest daughter of the family that owned

(10:32):
that mausoleum, and she had taken ill and been buried.
And it turned out that, you know, they didn't do
a lot of embalmbing back then. They just went Oh
you're dead, We're gonna put you in a cat. Didn't
put you in the you know? Then put her in there.
She was still alive, and when they examined the caskets,
they found that it was torn to shreds from her
tearing her way out of the casket, and there remarks

(10:53):
all over the door as she was trying to make
her way out of the door. And they determined that
she died of starvation waiting for someone to come and
find her. It is said that the young man ever
found love again, never married, and after he passed, it
is said that you can find his spirit wandering around
the graveyard of the shape of the Saint John's Parish

(11:14):
Church in Goose Cree looking for Edith's spirit, hoping that
in death he can reconnect with the woman he loves
so much when he was alive.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Love.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
But you guys are still there, right, okay? Making sure
wait on commentary on the story or something.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Not really sure any commentary to give. It's just a
very tragic tale.

Speaker 6 (11:31):
It really is the reason they made safety caskets back then.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
But it doesn't help when they make a safety casket
and then put it in a giant vault.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
With a big iron door. Yeah, true, Yeah, but if.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
You can afford a giant vault with a big iron door,
you're probably someone of a significant amount of wealth and influence,
which means you're really nothing.

Speaker 6 (11:52):
Small tragic because if you can afford that giant vault
with the big iron door, you can afford to have
somebody stand watch over it for several days to make
certain you know.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
You would think that, And that's that's the big kicker here,
is that she well, she basically was buried alive from
what may have been a very feelable situation, but they
didn't didn't pay attention, I guess, and for that suffered.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I guess what some would say is a faith worse.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Than death, a slow, painful death like that.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
I mean, buried alive, you know, that's the fate worst
than death, to be dead but not be dead, you know.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
Yeah, I mean my mind goes immediately to who profits
from not checking if.

Speaker 6 (12:35):
She's actually alive?

Speaker 3 (12:37):
That's because I'm a cynical bitch.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
That's a good question is who could have profited? Who
would have been so.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Cruel as simple as to answer just be oh, has dead?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
What a shame?

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Don't worry about doing an examination. She seemed perfectly dead.
Just shug her in and worry about the next one.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Yeah, you know, the oldest daughter passes away. Maybe it's
because he didn't want to pay the dowry on our marriage.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Who knows.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
I mean, that's what I had to do with my
first three than to pay the dowry, then to kill
her off more or less. Now I wanted to pay
the dowry for me. So the first three men who
tried courting me wound up well, let's just say they
went to pieces.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
So we all talked about how horrible this story is.
And yeah, you guys might notice there's some cuts and
edits in this episode that are a little bit different.
And that's because I am surrounded by idiots. That's my
best scar impersonation for the day.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Besides that, this story is really well known in the area.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Of course, it has those ties of lost love and
love unrequited and loving someone that you really can't have
ties into all of that. Doesn't it hits you with
all those hard, hard points. Don't you think I want
to thank the guys from Beaumont for being with me tonight. Guys,
what are you looking forward to about the show? That's
going to be coming less than ninety days.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Well somebody else will start. I'm definitely looking forward to
seeing all the amazing talent I have and all of
the wonderful work that we've put into it come to
fruition and an amazing show that is likely to change
the landscape of podcasting and audio drama. Get for no
other reason in bringing back the old audio storm tilling
formats that used to be used back during the days

(14:17):
of radio.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
I mean, I'm not bringing it back, I'm just catching
on to it. I'm hoping to add a little bit
more into it with these stories, and I think Frag
is definitely character that is going to bring some interesting
stuff to it. For the cast and crew of Valmont,
and of course the Carolina Storyteller, I want to thank
everybody for tuning in today. Remember to go over to
patreon dot com forwards last see Carolina Storyteller to support

(14:40):
the podcasts. You can get behind the scenes stuff from
the Carolina Storyteller and Valmont there. And remember Valmont is
going to be airing on December first. Wherever you listen
to your podcasts, you just got to look up Valmont
the Black raven chronicles and get ready to have your
mind as blog.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
We'll see you next time. Stay spooky, my friends.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
And remember everybody at the band, your ride is over.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
About time you woke up.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, you guys close for a private function.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
You'd prefer a three hundred year old vampire.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Wait on your doorstep?

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Who are you? And where the fuck am I? And
I will always win. The FED started hiring people that
can read.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
Just leave this file with you and trust you still
got the undercover skills I remember so well. Are values
and mortality that we can only dream of.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Gabe Valmont, you gave me blood?

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Who do you think I am a vampire?

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Hey? Why don't you ask Satans? You guys are family, right,
Miss morning Star?

Speaker 4 (15:55):
In the dark of decay streets, I see the carcass
bleeding track.