Tragic/comic incidents

When my mother died and I was the only person left to care for my young sons, I asked my best friend, an experienced foster mother, if she would agree to take them if I too passed away (well, you never know).

She readily agreed and we relayed this information to her 2 daughters and my younger son, all of whom had been playing in the garden.

The girls started leaping up and down with joy chanting and clapping, 'Ben's coming to live with us, Ben's coming to live with us!'
Oblivious to the event which would have precipitated that move.

Wonderful memories posted here.

Here’s mine... on following the hearse with mum’s coffin in on its way to the church and remembering how many times mum had been pulled over for speeding I remarked. ‘. Mum would have hated to go as slow as this’. We giggled all the way to the crematorium.

At a friend’s funeral the family had chosen the song that reminded them of her rocking her grandchildren to sleep so Gracey Fields’ I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles was played. ‘Good job she didn’t drown’ came a remark from the back.

Following the hearse to the crematorium for my dad's funeral my siblings and I couldn't control our laughing and were silently trying to stop our shoulders shaking and laughter coming out. One of his friends had sent a floral tribute among all the very tasteful ones. It was a book standing up right at the back in our eye line. It was made up of bright yellow rose buds surrounded by bright red rose buds. In the middle was the initial of his nick name again in bright red. It must have cost a fortune and was so gaudy but my dad enjoyed his company and it was loud just like his friend and very kind of his friend to send it.

These have made my morning; thank you all for the laughs. At my mother's funeral, a representative of the home she had been in stood up and gave a lovely eulogy about how she would be missed and how sorry everyone was that she had died. Think this must have been his standard speech as it certainly wasn't about my mother. The other residents had previously set up a petition to get her moved, or they were all leaving! She was a difficult lady but it gave us a laugh at the funeral.

My grandma was a regular churchgoer, but she hated one of the church wardens with a passion, some longstanding argument from years before. At the church service for her funeral, before we departed to the cemetery, my auntie and I both noticed at the same time that the duty church warden was the man my grandma had hated so much. My auntie said "It`s a wonder she`s not kicked the lid off and thumped him one!"

When I attended an uncle's funeral some years ago the vicar took psalm 91 as his text for the eulogy. He likened verse four to a mother hen sheltering her brood and, at one point, looked straight at me and said, "so, you see, God is a chicken!" I had to bury my face in my handkerchief and pretend to be crying!

At DH's uncle's funeral at the crematorium, the curtains didn't close around the coffin when the priest pressed the button. Priest asked whether that was what they had requested, and DH piped up, "no, reckon Uncle Dennis didn't want to go!" Doesn't sound funny now, but at the time we were all in fits!

My mum had slight dementia in her latter years. When the last of her sisters died, she obviously wanted to attend her funeral but was slightly muddled in her mind where we were taking her and what for. We got to the crematorium early and there was another service going on. Seeing mum couldn’t stand for long, we sat inside to wait. At the top of her voice, mum piped up and said, ‘When is this pub going to open, I’m fed up waiting’. Next minute, a pallbearer came out (from the service that was going on) asking us to be quiet. I apologised naturally, he went back in and 5 minutes later...we’ll, you can guess the rest. When it was eventually ‘our’ turn, mum kept asking who was in ‘that box’ and when told, said, ‘Don’t be silly, she wouldn’t fit in there’. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but she did give everyone a laugh at such a sad time.

The celebrant at DM's cremation kept referring to her as serene. My sisters, brothers and I were tempted to check in the coffin to see if it had the right occupant, as serenity was never one of her qualities!

These are so funny and touching too.

At my fathers burial at sea - he was ex Naval officer - the urn with his ashes were dropped overboard, but instead of sinking to the bottom of the sea as expected, it floated away: Mum said "just like your father being different and getting an extra sail in!" It put a smile on our otherwise tearful faces and I will always remember seeing the box bobbing across the sea......

DH was asked to scatter the ashes of an uncle on the pitch of the cricket club where he had played, captained and then been president of for over 50 years.

It was a windy day and he positioned himself so that the wind would blow the ashes away from him over the pitch, but as he distributed them, the wind suddenly veered and quite a bit of them blew all over him. When we got home he had to have a bath and hairwash, while all his clothes went into the washing machine.

So while most of my uncle's ashes were distributed on the cricket pitch, a fair proportion of them went down the drain and off to the sewage farm as the bath and washing machine emptied.

When my muddied we had a lovely funeral and a do at my house in garden. All her relatives were there and we had a really happy time. When it was time to go my dad came up to me and said thanks, its been a lovely day we will have to do it again.

Father in laws ashes rose up, genie style, just after my husband tipped them into the hole. The whole family gasped then giggled that he's already come back to haunt us, he was a stubborn old sod who never did as he was told!

At my MIL's funeral I was driving the car following the hearse. Off we set and got to the motorway roundabout - I assumed that the hearse would not be going down the motorway, so took the appropriate turn and found myself on the bridge over the motorway, and below me was the hearse driving like a bat out of hell!

It was a long way to the next exit - and we missed the cremation. However, I knew my MIL would think it was very funny.

I once attended an elderly lady with dementia who had broken her hip. After a fairly large dose of pain relief we strapped her to a stretcher to lift her off the floor. She said to me in hushed tones” it’s a long time since I’ve been tied up like this, you know dear”. I nearly choked trying not to laugh but I often wonder about the ‘exciting’ life she’d led. ??

At Mum’s funeral, the celebrant said, “and now we will have a few moments of quiet reflection...” Heads bowed, but instead of the gentle, classical guitar music, Kiss Me Honey Honey by Shirley Bassey blared out! It was our exiting tune choice. The celebrant looked startled and was signalling to someone stop it but this only made us giggle more. When the same song started again as we were leaving we just knew Mum would have thought it hilarious

When my mum was alive I used to give my father a break and take her for days out (she suffered from dementia). When we were out and we met people she knew she would introduce me as her daughter or later on it became someone she worked with (there was an age difference of 40 years between us, she was in her 90's and I was in my early 50's). Then one time when we were out she introduced me as 'someone she went to school with'!!! Needless to say I was flabbergasted but we all had a good laugh.

Oh my gosh... such funny answers.. thank you all for the giggles..
I remember my late FIL was having bowel trouble and was booked in for a colonoscopy... we were all a bit worried but tried to reassure him before he went for the "camera" test by telling him it would soon be over and he'd be fine... "Well yes I'm sure I will"... he said..then added thoughtfully.. "as long as it's not a Box Brownie..". ?

When Mum was still alive, but suffering from dementia, she phoned me to say one of her daughters was dead. Well, I guessed that it wasn't me (I felt quite OK, thank you), so I phoned my 2 sisters to see which one of them was dead, but actually they were both quite alive too, thank you! So heartbreaking about Mum's state of mind, but hilarious at the same time!

Incidentally on the subject of funeral music, I want Queen's "Who wants to Live Forever", followed by Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell. I wonder if my family will go along with these .....
However, our church organist has stated he wants "Disco Inferno", "Burn Baby Burn", and "Come on Baby Light My Fire " at his cremation!

Chezzal My friend wants 'Ding dong the witch is dead'

I've been given a beautifully wrapped 'sweetie' before, which wasn't quite what I expected.

B9 We had a patient called Malteser Annie for that very reason. Before anyone shouts at me they were very different times and our patients were well cared for.

Oh dear, I don't have any good stories like these but they have given me a right good giggle ... sometimes we take ourselves far too seriously!

B9exchange That reminds me of when my choir was entertaining at a nursing home. An elderly lady ‘had an accident’. We waited patiently while she was taken out to be tidied up, and the mop and bucket were used, then our M.D announced the next song, which was “Bridge over troubled waters.” Very appropriate!