This little girl has been dead for over a century, but that doesn’t stop her from doing this terrifying thing every night. People from around the world have gathered to see the mystery of little Rosalia. When Rosalia Lombardo was diagnosed with pneumonia during the terrible Spanish flu epidemic in 1920, her parents were horrified.
The sickness had been spreading like wildfire across the country, and the Lombardos had done everything in their power to protect their daughter, but it wasn’t enough. Rosalia was just shy of turning two years old when she suddenly developed a horrific cough; sure enough, within hours, her once warm and rosy cheeks had turned scalding hot. She became non-responsive and extremely sick, so her parents called for a doctor. But by the time he arrived, it was too late; Rosalia succumbed to the horrific pneumonia.
Mr. Lombardo was beside himself with grief; he could hardly move. For days, he sat by her bedside and just cried his heart out. Who could God have done this to, his one true miracle? Why had he taken a sweet girl from him? He felt that he had failed to keep his promise; he had failed to keep his little girl safe, away from harm’s way.
The Lombardos had always wanted a child, and for years had prayed for one. It had been a very challenging time for them; while everyone around them was having more and more children, they were struggling to conceive just one. Mr. Lombardo, especially, had been particularly devoted to his religion, going to church every day on his way to work to talk to the Lord and beg for the unborn child of his dreams. And when his wife had finally fallen pregnant, he thought it was a miracle, only to have it taken away from him a mere two years later because of the horrific flu, something he couldn’t protect his precious girl from.
So when the time came for the family to bury her sweet little body, Mr. Lombardo could not face the reality that awaited him, a daily life without his little girl seemed simply unbearable. He could not face life without her; he needed to see her every day, just as he had when she was alive. He knew that he wanted to try and keep her alive in some way. He considered some strange voodoo magic, but his faith brought him back to reality. He knew that if he was going to do something, it had to be in respect of his darling girl. So he did something bizarre, something so strange that many people considered him to be slightly crazy; he decided to embalm and preserve his little girl.
Mr. Lombardo approached a man of science and academia, a man who was highly revered for working wonders in preserving bodies: the brilliant Alfredo Salafia. At first, the doctor was not so keen on the idea, one because her body was ridden with disease which he was fearful of contracting, and two because she was a little girl; the act of preserving her little body felt somewhat gruesome in a way.
However, upon hearing the desperate father’s story, the compassionate doctor Alfredo obliged. He wanted to be able to preserve the little girl in all her beauty for her father; he could see just how much the man was grieving and how much the little girl meant to him, so he went to work. In some ways, he knew that this would be one of the most important jobs of his career; little did he know how right he was going to be.
He had been experimenting with a new formula that he hypothesized would allow him to preserve the dead in an excellent fashion. This seemed to be the perfect occasion to try it out; he just really didn’t realize how successful he would be. He used the method that today many people find simply amazing. For the time period, he used methods that were unseen before, using an exact mixture of formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin.
He was able to do something simply remarkable; he worked with each component in a very careful manner, that way it would work in keeping everything just like it was. It was pure science more than anything else; Mr. Lombardo didn’t quite care how it was done, all he wanted was for his little girl to stay just that and not a rotting corpse in the ground. She had barely lived for two years as it was. And using his very particular and careful methods, the doctor was able to preserve Rosalia’s body in the most pristine way. He was able to capture her still at the very moment that she took her last breath.
Mr. Lombardo couldn’t get over how wonderful she looked, just as he would always remember her looking, her sweet rosy cheeks plump with joy while her sweet little blonde curls sat happily on her shoulders. There was just one issue: when the authorities took Rosalia away from the house, Mr. Lombardo thought she was being taken away to the morgue to be prepared for her funeral. So when she was returned to the Lombardos’ home looking like she was alive, Mr. Lombardo thought something evil had happened; he screamed with horror at the sight of her sweet daughter frozen in time, just like any other grieving mother would. It took a few hours for Mr. Lombardo to fully explain what he had done, and for her to understand it. They made a space in their bedroom for her to stand in; that way they could talk to her and see her every day, just as Mr. Lombardo had wished for.
What he didn’t quite anticipate, though, was that his little princess would stay just like that for over a century after he had passed. For weeks after her death, people of the community came to pay their respects, partly more so because curiosity had gotten the better of them. Everyone was in awe at the rumor of the little girl being preserved; it just wasn’t something people did back at this time. When she was eventually discovered by a family years later, they turned her over to the museum to be studied and displayed for others to see. Such a phenomenon was so unique that scientists from around the world were completely stunned. For some, they had never laid eyes on such brilliant work before.
Today, she can be found in a museum where at first glance you might think of her to be a lifelike doll. Her beautiful blonde locks and crystal blue eyes are still quite visible and rapturing your attention when you look at her. One thing is for sure: she definitely doesn’t look to be over 100 years old, that’s for sure. Despite her age, she still seems to get up to some mischief. She’s preserved in a glass case filled with nitrogen today to help keep her in the most pristine condition possible. This gives her the creepy appearance of looking like a doll neatly packaged in a cellophane cardboard box, only she’s human-sized.
While this is simply unbelievable, it’s not just her beautiful state that keeps her audience captivated; there is something very special about this mummy that shocks people from around the world. Every night, she does something that keeps scientists both equally terrified and baffled. In her frozen, lifelike state, many people have claimed to have seen her open and close her eyes; some people have even filmed her doing it. It is said that she lazily opens and closes her eyes at night, as if to wish everyone a good night. Some have called it a conspiracy, while others swear to have seen it with their own eyes.
With such a lifelike appearance, it’s no wonder that this looks so realistic. Imagine going to a museum to see a mummy blink at you; when you gaze upon her pretty face, one can begin to understand the love and endearment Mr. Lombardo had for his daughter and why he wanted to keep her around all the time. Truth be told, she probably didn’t want to leave either; some even said that her sweet little spirit is still hanging around and blinks to show her sweet, playful nature.
The love for one’s child can certainly make you do the craziest things; this has been seen in history time and time again. But with Rosalia, generations have been able to see the living embodiment of how much her family loved her.
What a crazy story of love surpassing the boundaries of time! What do you think of what Mr. Lombardo did? Would you have done the same thing? How do you feel about what he did for his daughter? What do you think about her blinking?
