I Am Still Here. Please. – The 4,000 Marks on the Door of a 29-Year Prisoner

I Am Still Here. Please. – The 4,000 Marks on the Door of a 29-Year Prisoner In the autumn of 1789, in a quiet farming county nestled between the Blue Ridge and the Massanutten in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, a 23-year-old woman named Patience Reed was pronounced dead of a long wasting illness. She was buried before sundown in a private family plot behind her father's orchard. The coffin was plain pine. The stone remained unmarked for the first forty years. And the funeral was attended by no one outside the Reed household and their personal minister. The county coroner, a cousin of her father by marriage, signed the certificate without ever laying eyes on the body. For the next six generations, her name appeared in no family Bible, no tax roll, no church register, no letter, and no will. And yet, when workmen restoring the old Reed farmhouse in the 1890s opened a sealed door behind the kitchen pantry, they found carved into the inside of the oak frame—at about the height of a seated woman's shoulder—the words, "I am still here. Please," along with nearly 4,000 other marks scored into the wood with what appeared to have been a sewing needle. This is the true story of Patience Reed – a woman who was locked away for 29 years by the most respected family in the county, and whose imprisonment remained a secret for over a century. Patience Reed, Augusta Hollow, Reed family, 29 years imprisoned, false wall, Virginia history, true crime history, dark family secrets, 18th century America, American history, forgotten stories, historical true crime, family tragedy, Patience Reed story, Shenandoah Valley history, colonial America, dark history, locked away Patience Reed, Augusta Hollow, Reed family, 29 years imprisoned, false wall, Virginia history, true crime history, dark family secrets, 18th century America, American history, forgotten stories, historical true crime, family tragedy, Patience Reed story, Shenandoah Valley history, colonial America, dark history, locked away, daughter imprisoned, family secrets, historical mystery, true crime documentary, American frontier history, 1783, 1812, Silas Reed, Thomas Trimble, Ezekiel Cawthan, Alexander Gisham, covered bridge, Virginia true crime, Lavenia Reed Ballinger, A Daughter of Augusta Hollow #PatienceReed #TrueCrime #AmericanHistory #ForgottenStories #VirginiaHistory #DarkFamilySecrets #HistoricalTrueCrime #FamilyTragedy #ShenandoahValley #ColonialAmerica #DarkHistory #LockedAway #DaughterImprisoned #FamilySecrets #HistoricalMystery #TrueCrimeDocumentary #AmericanFrontier #18thCentury #19thCentury #ForgottenWomen #womenshistorymonth #PatienceReed #TrueCrime #AmericanHistory #ForgottenStories #VirginiaHistory #DarkFamilySecrets #HistoricalTrueCrime #ShenandoahValley #DarkHistory #LockedAway