A woman’s candid and humorous obituary has readers all over the country laughing and crying while reading the death notice.
Sybil Marie Hicks, from Baysville, Ont., passed away on Feb. 2, leaving behind a husband whom she called a “horse’s ass,” and five children whom she “tolerated over the years.”
The obituary was penned by Hicks’ children who wrote it in the voice of their mother.
Included in the death notice are funny things they felt their mother would say including, “I finally have the smoking hot body I have always wanted … having been cremated.”
However, among the jokes and shots at Hicks’ husband and kids, the obituary also included a heartfelt message to her grandchildren, saying she will miss watching them “grow up to be the incredible people they are meant to be.”
The obituary also contained the details of Hicks’ life.
She graduated from Waterdown High School before attending the Hamilton General Hospital school for nursing, where she graduated in 1957.
In 1972, Hicks, her husband Ron and their five children headed north to Baysville where they ran a school bus company for over 20 years.
She was an active horticulturalist, a member of the Eastern Star and a member of the Lion’s Club in Baysville.
The obituary ends with a tender thank you to her loved ones.
“Thank you all for sharing my life with me. I am off to swim to the buoy and back.”
A service for Hicks was held in Bracebridge on Thursday.
Speaking to Global News on Friday, Sybil’s son Brian Hicks said the humorous ode to his mother was penned by him and his siblings.
“I guess the reason why we decided to do it in first person was simply the fact that we haven’t heard her voice for a lot of years because she was afflicted with Alzheimer’s,” he explained.
Sybil was diagnosed with early onset dementia 18 years ago. Brian said composing her obituary in the first person was their way of having a final conversation with her.
They never imagined – or intended – for their cheeky farewell to go viral. The obituary has garnered reaction from around the world.
“I honestly think that she’s travelling the world and it’s not costing her a dime for air fare,” he said. “My mum didn’t know what the internet was and she has now got hundreds of thousands of new friends as a result of somebody’s kindness and sharing her obituary.”
The 82-year-old spent her last years at the Pines Long-Term Care Home in Bracebridge. Brian, who now resides in Devon, Alberta, got emotional while expressing gratitude for the men and women who looked after his mother.
He said ultimately, Sybil would have been tickled by the attention.
“The line about her finally having the smoking hot body that she’s always wanted — it’s something that certainly made most people in the comments laugh out loud,” he said.
“One of the comments today was, ‘She definitely made an ash of herself.’”
—With files from Shallima Maharaj
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