94 is a great age to live to so when Mary 'Pat' Stokes from Toronto in Canada passed away due to diminishing health it wasn't a huge surprise to her family but the obituary written by her son Sandy following her death was a whole other matter.
The 669-word piece, which was published in last Saturday’s Star, a Canadian newspaper was light-hearted, funny and full of interesting memories from throughout Pat's life, including her questionable cooking skills. It makes a refreshing change to the usual to-the-point obituaries found in newspapers.
Unlike nearly every other obituary, Pat's obituary has taken social media by storm, and has attracted emails from all over North America and hundreds of Facebook shares.
Here are some snippets from the obituary but you can read the full piece here.
The piece starts off with Sandy, suggesting her death was due to some heavy lifting,
It is believed it was caused from carrying her oxygen tank up the long flight of stairs to her bedroom that made her heart give out.
He then goes on to try and get rid of numerous random items from her house before stating that it's 'not an ad for a pawn shop'
She left behind a hell of a lot of stuff to her daughter and sons who have no idea what to do with it. So if you're looking for 2 extremely large TV's from the 90s, a large ceramic stork (we think) umbrella/cane stand, a toaster oven (slightly used) or even a 2001 Oldsmobile with a spoiler (she loved putting the pedal to the metal), with only 71,000 kilometers and 1,000 tools that we aren't sure what they're used for. You should wait the appropriate amount of time and get in touch. Tomorrow would be fine.
He follows up the auction of her stuff with some comments on her affectionate use of curse words.
Her extensive vocabulary was more than highly proficient at knowing more curse words than most people learned in a lifetime. She liked four letter words as much as she loved her rock garden and trust us she LOVED to weed that garden with us as her helpers, when child labour was legal or so we were told.
He then goes on to hilariously describe her cooking kills, or lack thereof.
She believed in overcooking everything until it chewed like rubber so you would never get sick because all germs would be nuked. Freezing germs also worked, so by Friday our school sandwiches were hard and chewy, but totally germ free.
While the piece isn't all in jest and he does have some very heartfelt sentences thrown into the mix, Sandy ensure he finishes the piece on a light-hearted note.
A private family 'Celebration of Life' will be held, in lieu of a service, due to her friends not being able to attend, because they decided to beat her to the Pearly Gates.
Speaking to the Star, Sandy said that if she had read the piece it is 'what she would want'.
When he had finished writing the piece, Sandy gathered the family at his niece’s home to read it and get their approval. There were no objections so it went to print and has since gone viral on social media.
If he could tell her anything now, he said it would be, “I know you wanted everything private, but sorry, Mom, I wanted you to be recognized for what you were because you were great.”
Hat-Tip: thestar.com
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