Shelvy Neal was determined not to miss her own funeral.
She was 80 and had just buried her husband in March when she told her daughter in Georgia that she would have loved to be there for her own. Her daughter’s response was as simple as it was brilliant: “Why can’t you?”. And so they did. The family turned the idea into a double celebration: her send-off and her 80th birthday, dubbed the “FOMO funeral”, for fear of missing out.
On Sunday, in Macon, around 100 people came to pay their respects to a cardboard cutout of Neal lying in a coffin. The real Shelvy, very much alive, wore a sash that read “Back by popular demand”. The place had its own history: it was the property she and her husband owned for about 25 years, until they sold it to a funeral home in 2020 on one condition: two funerals, one for each of them.
There was a cake with a staircase leading to the gates of heaven and the phrase “Refuses to miss out on anything… especially her own funeral”. And an open mic, in case anyone wanted to say something unkind. “I’ll be there and maybe I’ll cut the microphone”, she joked. She made the flowers herself and was the guest speaker. “Funeral is spelled F-U-N”, she said.
When the real goodbye comes, it will be a simple graveside ceremony.
