Woman’s obituary gets the last laugh with cremation joke: 'I finally have the smoking-hot body I have always wanted'

Sybil Hicks’s obituary is going viral. (Photo: Sybil Hicks/<em>Hamilton Spectator</em>)
Sybil Hicks’s obituary is going viral. (Photo: Sybil Hicks/Hamilton Spectator)

While one woman recently used her obituary to blame Trump for hastening her death, another turned to comedy.

This week the Hamilton Spectator in Hamilton, Canada, published the obituary for the late Sybil Hicks. Rather than list her age or cause of death — though it’s noted that she died “peacefully” with her eldest daughter by her side on the morning of Feb. 2 — the obituary makes a cremation joke and refers to her “loving husband” as “Horse’s A**.”

The obituary took the comic approach. (Photo: <i>Hamilton Spectator</i>)
The obituary took the comic approach. (Photo: Hamilton Spectator)

Hicks, a native of Baysville, Ontario, and avid gardener, included loving and lighthearted mentions of the “children whom I tolerated over the years.” But there’s one line in particular that has the internet in stitches.

“I finally have the smoking-hot body I have always wanted … having been cremated,” the obituary reads.

She may be off to “swim to the buoy and back,” but Hicks has managed to score a few more fans with her wit.

“Our mother was truly a remarkable woman, and we will miss her terribly,” her daughter, Brenda, told Yahoo Lifestyle. She added that while many people have mistaken the second photo for comedian Melissa McCarthy, it is indeed her mother — but “they would have been great friends.”

Barb Drummond, Hicks’s other daughter, told Yahoo Lifestyle that her 81-year-old mom died from complications of Alzheimer’s, having been diagnosed with early-onset dementia about 18 years ago. She said the family didn’t want a standard obituary because “Mom was never boring.”

“Our mom had a fantastic sense of humor,” Drummond said. “Mom lived large. She would do anything for anyone. It was rare for Mom not to have a smile on her face. Mom was always ready for a laugh. Mom had the ability to laugh at herself — just like the silly picture in her obituary. It was taken at a time when she and Dad were helping our youngest brother build his house. [There was] no running water so she hadn’t showered. It was no big deal to Mom, and she made faces for the camera.”

And the mysterious “Dorothy” so many commenters have wondered about? Drummond confirmed that, with Hicks’s blessing, Dorothy is now her father’s partner and a “dear friend” who helped with her mother’s care.

“Too bad the world didn’t get a chance to know her like we did,” Drummond said of her late mom. “She was pretty cool.”

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