AtHomeWithLorraineKelly2016 - 232

FINAL

DESTINATION
TO AVOID NOT HAVING YOUR WISHES FULFILLED
AFTER YOUR DEATH, IT'S TIME TO GET TALKING...

D

His daughter successfully challenged
the will and, happily, the female-free
learning zone was never built.
If you think that's strange, get ready
for the Burback family from New
Orleans, whose deceased mother went
to her own funeral. Mum Miriam,
who had lived life to the max, joined
mourners at the funeral home, sitting
at a table, glamorously dressed, with
beer, whisky and cigarettes to hand.

eath comes to us all and,
when it does, some of us
like to go out with a big
bang. A prime example
is James Doohan, who
spent his career boldly going where no
man had gone before, as Scotty in the
ﬁrst Star Trek series. His ashes were
blasted into the stratosphere in a
rocket in May 2012. He was joined by
Gordon Cooper, one of America's
famous seven astronauts who orbited
the earth in a Mercury capsule in
the early 1960s, and Bob Shrake, an
engineer who designed spaceship
control instruments for NASA. 

CELEB REQUESTS

The original Starman himself,
David Bowie, a Buddhist since the
age of 19, had his ashes scattered
on the Indonesian island of Bali in
accordance with the rituals of this
ancient religion. And he's not the only
celebrity who, in death, wanted to
honour how they lived their lives.
Actor Philip Seymour Hoﬀman,
who won an Oscar for his portrayal
of the writer Truman Capote and
co-founded a New York theatre
company, didn't want his children to
miss out on culture after his death.
He left instructions that they live in
Manhattan, Chicago or San Francisco,
so they could be exposed to the arts
and architecture that such cities oﬀer. 
One man who was the complete
opposite of the Hunger Games star
was T M Zink, a lawyer from the
American state of Iowa, who died
in 1930. He had such a strong
disdain for women, he wanted his
savings to be used to establish a
library that would allow no works
by female authors or artists, and
would prohibit female patrons.
232 | AUGUST 2016

EMMA FREUD
AND PHILIP
SEYMOUR
HOFFMAN

WORDS: FIONA WALSH, IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK, PA IMAGES

THE FUNNY SIDE

Nearer to home, 30-year-old John
Smith from Halifax in Yorkshire was
given a ﬁtting send-oﬀ. A huge fan
of Only Fools And Horses, his father
arranged a 'cushty' funeral with a
hearse version of the iconic Reliant
Regal three-wheeler carrying John's
coﬃn and with the theme music
playing as the bereaved left the church.
In true Trotter style, the exhaust fell
oﬀ the van and began dragging and
clanking along the ground, and the
CD kept sticking. Fortunately, the
family saw the funny side.
While researching an article for
The Guardian on how to organise
a funeral, broadcaster Emma
Freud asked people on Twitter if
they knew of any good coﬃntopper ideas. One response came
from comedian Dom Joly - his
friend had a bowl of houmous,
as it was his favourite food; one
lady had her best hat placed on
top and the rest of her millinery
collection hung at the ends of each
pew lining the aisle of the church.
The tweets included a coﬃn
carrying a bottle of Guinness and
a bag of crisps, knitted ﬂowers (the
deceased didn't like waste) and a
bunch of bananas for someone who
had particularly enjoyed his fruit.
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