Personal Experiences With
Resurrection Mary
Page last updated:
30-Apr-05
Two years ago on a cold December night, I had attended a wedding reception of a close friend at the Willowbrook Ballroom in Chicago. It was a fun and amazing night, filled with laughter, great conversation, food and dancing.
Being the shy type myself, I asked around if anyone knew her, but no
one did. At the encouragement of my friend, I nervously made my way
over to her with two drinks in my hand. I introduced myself to her, she responded with a nod and bow.
For a while I attempted to make some small talk, but the only responses I received were nods and one word yes and no answers. When the wedding band started to play some slow songs, her face happily lit up and she looked me deep in the eyes. She pulled me close and whispered, "Dance."
At the end of the night she asked me to drive her home, so I gladly obliged.
I've done much research on Mary, but could never find anything on the name James....anything you could tell me would be helpful. She was amazingly beautiful, and I'll never forget those eyes.....
Thanks for listening, and it is my hope you'll respect my wishes and privacy. I hope my account may have helped in some small way.
I would give anything to see her again.
PS My name, obviously, isn't James.....
Submitted By: Danielle - Date:6/1/01 8:07:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time The whole right half of the cemetery as you face the gates is the "older" part, with a monument on
almost every plot, it seems. The left side is the "newer" part, where there are only headstones flush to the ground. In fact, it my be against the rules to put a monument over in that part. I am almost
sure of that. The large mausoleum that has had some paranormal activity is over toward the left of the entrance also. That was built when I was a kid, so it isn't that old but has had its share of
stories also. I have some relatives interred there, and can't say I like that mausoleum too much. I don't like them in general, I guess. To stark and sterile or something.
Back to the picture of the gates. That building you see straight ahead is NOT a mausoleum. It is the cemetery offices and is where the rest rooms and other conveniences are located. I remember going
in there as a kid on a hot summer day and enjoying how cool it is, with the marble floors and all. One thing to know is to never, but NEVER ask about "Resurrection Mary" in the office. I hear that they
want nothing to do with the "legend" and will not answer any questions about it. I think that is partly why there is confusion as to who Mary really is.
When I was a kid, no one had a clue who she might be, and the cemetery office wasn't talking. Personally, I do not believe that she is the Mary Bregovy that everyone claims is "Resurrection Mary",
mostly because the only thing that matches is the first name. There was a period of time when everybody was trying to find out who Mary was, and at that time, all that the cemetery would say
was that there was at least one Mary with a Polish name that died young that was buried at Resurrection, but they would never go any further than that. My very uneducated guess is that
having heard that, someone had enough free time to scout the cemetery until they found a Mary with a Polish name that died close to the right year at around the right age. But in everything I've
ever read about Mary, I have never found a definitive account of how anyone arrived at this conclusion. The cemetery is very close-mouthed about anything "Mary-related."
Those gates are the ones with the infamous twisted bars with the handprints. I have seen them, and yes they are there. I have not been there in about 10 years, but now that your interest has
re-sparked my interest, I am thinking of heading out there next weekend to see what is new or changed. I will also add here that the police presence around Resurrection Cemetery is very
noticeable, particularly around Halloween. I don't remember ever hearing that Mary shows up more then, but it is certainly when you see the most "tourists" around there.
One year, I happened to be coming home down Archer Ave. the weekend before Halloween, and a car slowed down near the gates and instantly there was a squad with lights flashing behind it. They
do not let you slow down near Resurrection, let alone stop, near Halloween. It wasn't until the late 1970s that this story became so widespread that people got parties together to go to Resurrection
and "wait for Mary." Based on the stories I have heard, that is not a likely scenario for Mary to appear anyway. They close those gates at dusk.
So here is one story that happened to me at Resurrection in 1981 or 1982. My cousin and I were heading home down Roberts Road, which goes along one side of the cemetery. It was quite late and
was dark. All of a sudden from the right side of the road, someone ran right in front of us and literally disappeared into the cemetery. My cousin saw it too, because he was driving and slammed on the
brakes. It was SO FAST, I could not even identify clothes or anything, other than it was a person running. There is a wrought iron fence along the cemetery, that can certainly not be leaped or probably even
easily climbed, and yet in the split second it took for the whole thing to happen the person was running far off in the distance in the cemetery (no headstones in this part, remember). I asked my
cousin how it could have got over the fence (after I calmed down and could talk again)! And he could not explain it either, and said it looked like it ran through the fence.
I think the fence is not as high as it is by the gates, but it is high enough that you would have to hoist yourself up to the top and drop to the other side. We were both shaken up. Neither of us
thought it was Mary, because it was not on Archer Ave, but who am I to say she can only walk on one road? And like you say in your website, she's hardly the only entity there
I am 13 years old, I live somewhat near to Resurrection Cemetery, and my name is Danielle. I was looking at your website about Resurrection Mary, and I wanted to share my stories relating to Resurrection Cemetery with you.
My first story is a story of my parents' before they were married. This year, they would be married for 20 years, and so then that would make their story of Resurrection Mary about 21-23 years old.
They were out for a drive, and went down Archer Avenue, and sighted a young woman that didn't look any older than they were, which would be around 20 years old. They had told me that she was
in a white ball-gown, and that she had somewhat long, blonde hair. Since my father had a slight inclination that it could have been Resurrection Mary, he spun their car around to head back toward
where they had seen her, and she had disappeared. My father tells me that between the time of when they had seen her, and when they had turned around and gone back to the exact spot of their
sighting of Resurrection Mary, it had been no longer than about 45 seconds.
It was in early autumn (and about 3-4 years ago) that I had visited Resurrection Cemetery for the
very first time. It was also a very warm, sunny, and not at all windy day. I was with my father, and wanted to look around to see if I could find the grave that belonged to the infamous Resurrection
Mary. I was down an isle of graves, when I had felt something on my shoulder that felt like a small, woman-like, and very cold hand. I spun around very quickly, and caught a glimpse of what looked like
a very petite, young woman, who was very light in complexion, had blonde hair, and had a white, flowing dress on. The image disappeared before I could say anything to my father.
Later on that day, after walking around the cemetery, we went into the mausoleum. Inside the mausoleum, we had heard light footsteps roaming the halls. But the odd thing was, we never saw
anyone else in there, or heard any voices of anyone that could have been making the footsteps. The footsteps sounded like the pitter-patter of a woman's dress shoe when she walks. We had also
heard an intermittent organ playing while in the mausoleum. Both my father and myself were so chilled by this that we quickly headed out the doors of the mausoleum, and back into our car to head home.
I hope I could have been of some help to your website, and I would just like to thank you for taking some time out to read this.
Danielle
NOTE from The Editor:
After I received the above from Danielle, I wrote to her, asking if she had ever located Resurrection Mary's Gravesite. During my research on 'Mary' there was an indication that 'Mary's' headstone may have been removed.
Here is Danielle's reply, dated June 2, 2001:
Unfortunately, I never did find Mary's grave. I had recently heard that Resurrection Cemetery did remove her tombstone too.
Danielle
Submitted by: Martha, Chicago, IL - January 1, 2000
Resurrection Cemetery
A Brief Dialog:
It is a HUGE place, and not at all frightening or eerie. That is probably because most of it is not that
old. Along Archer Ave there are some businesses along the street on the other side, including a floral shop where everyone buys their grave decorations. The road that goes along the Cemetery on the
East (I hope I have the direction right) is Roberts Road, which intersects with Archer Ave. Those wrought iron fences are all along the cemetery, all around its perimeter, I think.
When you are facing the main gates (which are on Archer Ave), our family's main plot is off to the right. It is in a section where there are a lot of monuments and family mausoleums, most of which
were put there in the early half of the 1900s.