American widow lived with husband's corpse for 10 years...

Jean Stevens, 91, also shared her home with the corpse of her twin sister, who died last year. After her family members died, Mrs Stevens had their embalmed bodies dug up and stored at her house. She maintained the corpses as best she could until police were finally tipped off last month.

"Death is very hard for me to take," Mrs Stevens said.

Mrs Stevens said she wished she could be reunited with James Stevens, her husband of nearly 60 years who died in 1999, and June Stevens, her twin who died last October. But their bodies have been moved to the Bradford County coroner, which is off-limits to the woman who loved them best.

"I think when you put them in the (ground), that's goodbye, goodbye," Mrs Stevens said. "In this way I could touch her and look at her and talk to her."

She kept her sister, who was dressed in her "best housecoat," on an old couch in a spare room off the bedroom and sprayed her with expensive perfume

"I'd go in, and I'd talk, and I'd forget," Mrs Stevens said. "I put glasses on her. When I put the glasses on, it made all the difference in the world. I would fix her up. I'd fix her face up all the time."

She offered a similar rationale for keeping her husband on a couch in the detached garage. Mr Stevens who had been laid to rest in a nearby cemetery, wore a dark suit, white shirt and blue knitted tie.

"I could see him, I could look at him, I could touch him. Now, some people have a terrible feeling, they say, 'Why do you want to look at a dead person? Oh my gracious,"' she said.

"Well, I felt differently about death."


/Telegraph.co.uk/