"Cursing to his death"

Son in obituary: “Dad is now God’s problem!”

Dad Robert and son Charles (r.)

(Bild: Dignity Memorial)

An unusually funny obituary is currently going viral: Charles Boehm has said goodbye to his father Robert in a newspaper with partly sarcastic, partly nasty words, describing him as an always bad-tempered ex-trucker who died on October 6 at his home in Clarendon, Texas, with a final curse on his lips.

"He's God's problem now!" Charles begins his obituary: "Dad carried his lifelong 'own brand' of behavior and decorum through to the end and left us with a curse. After tripping over a 'motherf***ing filthy thing' shortly before and hitting his head on the floor, his life ended with an unintelligible muttered curse."

According to Charles, it is quite possible that Robert, who collected weapons from various wars and had filled his house with unconventional collectibles, had "stumbled over one of these cursed things".

Robert with wife Dianne

(Bild: Dignity Memorial)

Better to marry than be drafted
Charles then writes about Robert's younger years: "By getting my mother Dianne pregnant as a teenager and marrying her, he was able to avoid being drafted as a soldier in Vietnam." The family eventually grew to six people and Charles had three more siblings. "My father probably fathered me out of fear that he would have to serve in a war against Granada."

Boehm continues: "In the end, it's a good thing that he never had to serve. He later put a bullet in the dashboard of his car twice as an amateur hunter. His poor wife Dianne would probably have been safer in the jungles of Vietnam than near him."

His poor wife Dianne would probably have been safer in the jungles of Vietnam than near him.

Sohn Charles

No sense of fashion
The ex-trucker also had no sense of fashion, as the entire small town could testify: "You could always find him outside the door with his trendy, self-sewn leather moccasins, unconventional hats and completely mismatched shirts and pants."

Robert with his beloved dogs

(Bild: Dignity Memorial)

Neighbors had to put up with dogs howling
Boehm Senior made particularly few friends with a "range of harmonicas": "These were not there to play with, but to get his beloved dogs to delight the neighborhood with howling even in the dead of night. He gave them to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren so that they could play them with their parents."

(Bild: Dignity Memorial)

Mother died after 50 years of marriage: "Mercy at last"
 His mother passed away in February after more than 50 years of marriage: "God had finally shown her mercy and taken her out of our home - so that she could finally have peace and quiet." Whereupon his father concentrated on "entertaining the good citizens of Clarendon in his own special way". Which is why he sees his obituary as an "apology to the public".

Father should "not be forgotten"
 Charles revealed to the "Washington Post" how he really felt about his father: "When my mother, who was so cherished by everyone, died earlier this year, my father was increasingly forgotten." He is all the happier now that his obituary is doing the rounds across America: "My whisper has become a shout into the wind. Dad wasn't perfect - but he deserves this kind of remembrance in a big way."