It was the life and death of Rosie the Roach.
Michael Alvard, an anthropology professor at Texas A&M University, posted earlier this month a series of photos of a spontaneous shrine built for a dead cockroach in a campus stairwell.
“There has been a dead cockroach in the Anthropology building’s stairwell for at least two weeks,” he wrote. “Some enterprising person has now made her a little shrine.”
Whoever started the shrine erected a paper headstone and flower for the deceased insect in early December.
Over the following days, the memorial grew as people added more flowers, stuffed animals, coins, candles and cigarettes.
On his Facebook post, Alvard noted that the janitorial staff were aware of Rosie’s shrine and thought it was “hilarious.”
One crafty mourner even built a funeral pyre for the roach and a cremation ceremony was held two weeks after the headstone first appeared.
The absurd story went viral after a Redditor reposted the photos.
Rosie the Roach is being compared to Conrad (a.k.a. #DeadRaccoonTO), a dead raccoon that became a worldwide trending hashtag after he was enshrined on the streets of Toronto.
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