Have you ever been to a funeral where the dead person appeared to participate in the ceremonies? Well, you are to receive the shock of a lifetime if you haven’t.
Funeral homes have reportedly being asked more and more often to assist with funerals where the corpse can attend having not been put in a coffin.
Damaris Marin, the owner of Marin Funeral Home, said they worked closely with the family to achieve the desired effect.
1. Jesus Diaz Beato
Jesus Diaz Beato
Fernando de Jesus Diaz Beato died suddenly after an illness and his family decided to have him embalmed and sitting up on a chair during his send off in Puerto Rico .
And it is not the last time a deceased person has put in an unusual appearance at their own funeral.
2. Miriam Burbank
Miriam Burbank
Miriam Burbank was positioned at a table with beer, whisky and cigarettes nearby, and nails painted in the colours of her favourite American football teamfor her service in New Orleans.
Wanting to demonstrate their mum, who died at the age of 53, had been full of life, Miriam’s daughters decided they wanted her exit to have a party feel.
3. Lionel Batiste
Lionel Batiste
The bizarre services began in New Orleans in 2012 with the death of jazz musician Lionel Batiste.
Mr Batiste did not want people looking down at him, so at his service he was standing up, leaning on a lamp post, hands on his walking cane, hat tipped rakishly to one side.
4. Mickey Easterling
Mickey Easterling
And well-known New Orleans socialite and philanthropist Mickey Easterling, 83, was arranged posing with a glass of bubbly in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
She was dressed in an evening gown, complete with ornate hat and a pink feather boa.
5. Billy Standley
Billy Standley
In Ohio, biker Billy Standley, 82, was buried in a glass casket astride his beloved Harley Davidson Electra Glide cruiser.
He had started funeral preparations himself by buying three large plots next to his wife Lorna, big enough to accommodate him and his bike.
6. Willie Stokes Jr
Willie Stokes Jr
But letting the departed, depart in real style isn’t new. Thirty years ago Chicago gambler Willie Stokes Jr was buried in a casket resembling a Cadillac Seville.
Stokes, 28, who had been shot dead on the steps of a motel, was propped up in the driver’s seat. His car coffin boasted blinking headlights, a windscreen, Cadillac grille and a licence plate with Willie’s “Wimp” nickname.
Dressed for the occasion in a flaming red suit, he had several $1000 dollar bills sticking from his fingers.
It is not only in the mainland US that the trend for putting the “fun” into funerals has taken off.
7. Angel Pantoja Medina
Angel Pantoja Medina
In Puerto Rico, Angel Pantoja Medina, who was shot dead in 2008 and thrown over a bridge in his underwear, is now forever remembered as “el muerto parao” or dead man standing.
His corpse was leant against a wall, dressed as a rapper and wearing his favourite New York Yankees cap.
His aunt Ana Delia Pantojas said: “All sorts came to see him – lawyers, judges. Everyone was saying things like, ‘for my wake I want to be in my recliner with a cup of coffee’.”
The wake soon started a trend.
8. David Morales
David Morales
Motorbike-loving David Morales was embalmed sitting on his beloved Honda.
9. Edgardo Velazquez
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Edgardo Velazquez
Then paramedic Edgardo Velazquez was embalmed in his uniform sitting in the driver’s seat of his own ambulance.
Such is the success of the funeral home’s alternative funerals, that they are keeping the embalming process that makes the poses possible a closely guarded secret.
10. Georgina Chervony
Georgina Chervony
Grandmother Georgina Chervony told her family she wanted to be part of her own wake.
So when the 80-year-old died from natural causes her daughter Miriam dressed her in her wedding gown and sat her in her rocking chair taking centre-stage for the whole gathering.
11. Carlos Cabrera
Carlos Cabrera
One family even asked them to pose their son Carlos Cabrera as Che Guevara, cross-legged, head bowed, cigar in hand. The funeral home has even branched out into pet wakes, posing a dead German Shepherd dog called Capitan on his owner’s motorbike
12. Christopher Rivera Amora
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Christopher Rivera Amora
Their most extravagant wake to date was for boxer Christopher Rivera Amora. Standing in the ring, gloves on and head bowed, Amora could have been preparing for the fight of his life. If he wasn’t dead.
The professional boxer had been shot four days previously. Christopher’s body was posed wearing his black boxing robe emblazoned with the words “Thank God” that he had worn in his fights.
