Early YeARS 

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847-1912) was born in Dublin, Ireland.  He suffered from an unknown illness that left him bedridden and unable to walk until he was 7 years old. While it is unclear what the illness was, there are accounts of several sessions of bloodletting, a common medical practice of the time.  During this time Bram's mother would often entertain her son with "real-life" stories.  She had grown up in northwestern Ireland during a devastating cholera epidemic, and the stories she shared with young Bram weren’t exactly comforting bedtime tales.
Charlotte’s memories were raw and terrifying: mass graves, people mistakenly buried alive, and the chaos of a community overwhelmed by disease. One of her stories told of a man so deeply drugged with opium that he was nearly buried—until a blow meant to break his legs for the coffin actually woke him up. Another involved a neighbor whose wife was declared dead at the hospital. When he went to pay his respects, he found her dumped in a communal grave—still alive, clawing her way out.