Funerals are one of life’s grim certainties. At some point, we’ll all have to attend one and at some other point, everyone we know will have to attend ours. It’s just the way things are, but that doesn’t mean you can’t inject a little fun into the proceedings.
Generally speaking, funerals in real life are pretty sad affairs. On the silver screen, however, they are occasions for all sorts of potential drama and the potential revelation of deep, dark secrets.
Going off that vibe, author Dana Schwartz recently pitched an idea on Twitter that quickly went viral:
If you pay me $50 I’ll show up to your funeral but stand really far away, holding a black umbrella regardless of the weather, so that people think you died with a dark and interesting secret.
Ok, you’ve got my attention. Honestly, any of the funerals I’ve been to over the years would definitely have been o much more interesting had this happened. Plus, it’s the kind of thing that I would totally do.
Incredibly (though, perhaps not surprisingly), someone actually took her up on her offer and sent her the $50 with details to follow:
As a matter of fact, that wasn’t the only person to go for it. Dana soon had several donations of $50 – given entirely in good faith since they wouldn’t actually be around at their funerals to ensure she held up her end of the bargain.
That said, Dana assured everyone she was a lady of her word.
Besides writing viral proposals for funeral appearances, Dana is also an accomplished author with several titles to her name, including a memoir titled “Choose Your Own Disaster.”
Despite her successes though, I think she’ll always be best known as an expert in morosely gazing upon funerals while