Most obituaries are a way for families and friends to remember the things they loved about someone who has passed away, but one woman decided to have the final laugh by penning her own final message to her closest friends and family.
Sybil Hicks, from the city of Ontario in Canada, died on Saturday and instead of her family pulling together a few words about her cause of death, Hicks decided to write her own message to people in the local community.
It resulted in a hilarious obit that has since gone viral online. The message originally appeared in the Hamilton Spectator, but has since been shared widely across social media.
“It hurts me to admit it… but I, Mrs Ron Hicks from Baysville, have passed away,” the obit began. “I passed away peacefully with my eldest daughter, Brenda, by my side.”
Hicks explained that she left behind her loving husband, who she often referred to as a “Horse’s A**”. She also joked about leaving behind her children whom she “tolerated over the years”.
She called her oldest son Bob her favourite child and made fun of daughter Brenda, who she described as “ever Miss Perfect”.
The gran said she would miss seeing her grandchildren “grow up to be the incredible people they are meant to be”, before boasting about graduating from high school with honours and graduating from Hamilton General Hospital Nursing School. The most hilarious part of Hicks’ obit was when she said she finally had the body she always wanted now that she’s died.
“I finally have the smoking hot body I have always wanted,” she joked. “Having been cremated.”
The sassy wife also insisted she didn’t have any help writing the obit – despite the fact that she was dead by the time it was published.
“For those of you who are wondering who assisted me in writing this… it wasn’t my husband, it wasn’t my oldest, nor was it my youngest,” she teased. “Thank you all for sharing my life with me. I am off to swim to the buoy and back.”
People on Twitter have shared their delight in the refreshingly hilarious piece of writing.
One message read: “She sounds like the kind of person I would have loved to know.” Another person said: “I LOVE this. Someone needs to write a story about Sybil, although it may not be as well done as Sybil herself.”
A third added: “Definitely my only chance of having a smoking hot body!”
It’s not the first time an obit has made headlines, with one woman using her final message as a way of calling out doctors who fat shamed her.
Ellen Maud Bennett, who passed away on May 11 last year, entrusted her loved ones with a final message and asked them to print it in her death notice, slamming doctors who blamed her health problems on her weight before she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
“A final message Ellen wanted to share was about the fat shaming she endured from the medical profession,” the obituary read. “Over the past few years of feeling unwell she sought out medical intervention and no one offered any support or suggestions beyond weight loss.
“Ellen’s dying wish was that women of size make her death matter by advocating strongly for their health and not accepting that fat is the only relevant health issue.”
That passionate obituary was published in the Times Columnist newspaper.