In long bygone days at the death of a family member, all clocks in the house would be stopped. This was done for two reasons. First for practicality, this would allow for an accurate time of death for the official record.
This was also done for a symbolic reason. It was a gesture of respect for the dead. Time had stopped for the dead’s mortal life, and now it was time for the mourning period to begin. When the mourning period ended, the clocks were started again. It was time to move on to another period of life.
But there was one case reported in Connecticut where a grandfather clock had been restarted when the mourning period had ended in one household, but the next afternoon it stopped at 3:17 p.m. After it was noticed, it was once again restarted. The next day it once again stopped at exactly the same time.
A clock repairman was summoned but he could find nothing wrong with it. The clock was restarted again and once again the next day it stopped at 3:17 p.m. which the family this time noticed also happened to be the time of death of their beloved grandmother. The clock was never started again. The clock seemingly had a mind of its own and kept stopping at the time of death for the lady who had cared for it for so many years.
