[...] at the West Virgina Surf Report, Jeff Kay asked a question not to long ago about funny funeral stories , and if we had any would we post them in the comments section for all to see. (I say [...]

My great-uncle passed away in the Spring of 1969. An unrelated issue I was suffering from chicken pox; thus spared the funeral.

His youngest nephews were in their early 20′s and felt that he needed a proper Irish wake; so they stayed up all night drinking and lamenting the loss of their beloved relative.

The next day they were barely fit to be pall bearers; as that some were still quite intoxicated. When they arrived at the cemetery one of them fell into the grave and broke his leg. So the funeral was put on hold while police, fire and ambulance workers had to come, extract him from the grave and transport him to the hospital.

We put the fun in funeral

My Grandfather was an old car nut and in the time I knew him he worked through restoring many projects, including a ’38 Chev, ’63 Chev, ’60′s? Fargo pickup, ’32 Model B, ’29 Model A roadster pickup, ’39 Dodge and passed away owning a ’58 Impala and a ’58 Biscayne. In his life and especially during retirement he travelled to many local car shows and met a lot of like minded folks. Many came to pay their respects upon his passing. After the funeral, my cousin-in-law the cop arranged for a presidential level police escort to shut down the roads as the procession of old classics and muscle cars made it’s way to the Legion for the wake.

Now all of this is similar to some other stories noted above, where friends and family sent off loved ones with personal touches that they would have enjoyed. However, my Grandfather got in one last personal touch of his own, he pre-arranged to cover the bar tab at his own wake. I’m sure he was smiling somewhere up above, his f & f gathered in the Legion beside a parking lot full of classic cars, enjoying a few pints of the golden elixir in his honour (and on his dime!)