A Georgia widow who “refuses to miss anything” held her own funeral this weekend and scores of guests paid their respects to a cardboard cutout of the 80-year-old.
Shelvy Neal came up with the idea after laying her husband to rest in March, she told WMAZ.
“I said, ‘You know, I’d love to be at my own funeral,’” Neal recalled telling her daughter.
“Well, why can’t you?” her daughter questioned.
Neal and her family then set out to begin planning her own memorial service that doubled as her 80th birthday bash which they called “FOMO funeral” — for fear of missing out.
“It’s gonna be about celebrating Christ and my life, 80 years of my life,” Neal said before her own funeral. “It’s been a good one.”
The “FOMO funeral” was held on Sunday at a property in Macon, Georgia that Neal and her late husband owned for about 25 years before selling it to a funeral home in 2020.
But the sale came with a catch — two funerals, one for each of them.
Around 100 people paid their respects to the cutout of Neal lying inside a coffin while the still-living 80-year-old donned a sash that read, “Back popular demand.”
There was also a decorated cake that featured a stairway seemingly leading up to the gates of heaven which read, “She refuses to miss anything…especially her own funeral.”
“FOMO: The funeral she refuses to miss,” the cake read.
Guests were also invited up to an open microphone to share fond memories of Neal, who was prepared for whatever they might say.
“If they want to, they can say bad things,” Neal said before the funeral. “But I’m gonna be there and I might cut the mic.”
“I’m gonna control my own funeral,” she quipped.
Neal indeed took control of her own funeral, making the flowers herself and was the guest speaker.
“I think it will be easier on my family to do something like this, but also, you know, funeral is F-U-N,” Neal said.
“And I like fun,” she added.
But when the time comes to actually say goodbye, Neal said it will be a simple graveside service instead of a traditional funeral.
