Monday, November 9, 2009

Dead Wrong

Ademir Jorge Goncalves was 59 years old and lived in Parana State in Southern Brazil. He worked as a bricklayer. He went out of town on some business.

Monday morning police informed the bad news to his family. He died in a car accident Sunday night. Police asked the family members and friends to come and identify the body. His sister and 4 of his friends made positive identifications. The police released the body to the family.

It is a custom in Brazil to hold the funeral the very next day. Family had made arrangements for the funeral. Friends and relatives had gathered to say goodbye to Ademir.

Finally a guest arrives at the funeral. Who is he? Ademir Jorge Goncalves himself. Everyone was relieved.

What happened?

The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing. Ademir spent the night at a truck stop drinking with his friends. He did not get word about his own funeral until it was already happening Monday morning.

His niece said she and her two uncles had doubts about the identification. But since an aunt and 4 of his friends identified the body, they went ahead with the funeral. End of story.

But I have some thoughts.

This man should take the names of the people who did not come to this funeral and then write them out of his will.

Why don’t they go with DNA testing?

When someone is late for everything, we always joke that he would be late for his own funeral. Looks like this guy really did that.

He should have sat incognito in the audience. After everything is done, he should have said: So that is what you thought of me?

28 comments:

  1. Wow! That is an amazing story.
    Sometimes real life stories can be stranger than fiction.
    How many people have attended their own funeral and then lived to talk about it?

    Anyway, it’s just unbelievable that people can be certain that you’re dead when you are really alive.
    And sometimes people believe that you’ve been dead for over 25 years!

    Regards,
    Abe Vigoda
    aka Fish
    aka Tessio

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  2. Sounds like a scene from our daily Indian soaps....but it happening in real life is really amazing.I liked your thought about to struck off the names of the people from his will(not attending the funeral).He would have heard only nice things about himself...people are always nice to one after someone dies.

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  3. Thanks for your comments Abe. We miss you. The last time we saw you in a movie was Godfather in which you acted as Marlon Brando’s assistant (Capt. Tessio). We have not seen you since then. In 1982, People Magazine did a disservice to you by reporting you had died. They later issued correction. You being a nice and funny guy posed for a picture by lying in a coffin. Now everyone thinks you are really dead.

    I hope you live until 100 years old.

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  4. Thanks for your comments Kavita. Yes, people say nice things about a dead person in the funeral.

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  5. I read this!! I read this!!
    2 days back on paper. It was hilarious; but on serious note; it was such ignorance on people's part. It seemed that his mom always thought that the dead man lying there was not her son...

    But lucky man, he got to see his own funeral :-P

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  6. Thanks for your comments Insignia. Looks like I never can have a "oneupmanship" against you. Whatever news I want to write about, you had already read it. Do we both watch the same channel?

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  7. :-D I do read it on paper or sometimes watch on TV. I sincerely hope you do have a "oneupmanship" sooner.

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  8. Ademir Jorge Goncalves- His name makes me think of a lost Columbian arms dealer, seeking solace in drugs, while family assumed he was dead, for he was in arms:)

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  9. whoa how bizarre is that!
    this definitely qualifies as a plot in soap queen, ekta kapoor's serial ;)

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  10. Recently saw a Hindi movie called Golmaal returns where u had scene exactly like this.

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  11. that was one hilarious post SG...

    btw, I am reading this for the first time :D

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  12. Thanks for your comments Insignia. I said that as a complement.

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  13. Thanks for your comments Kish. And, welcome to my blog. You are correct. The name sounds like that Columbian guy. It is natural because one of the countries that border with Brazil is Columbia.

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  14. Thanks for your comments Shruthi. Indian soap opera will go one step further and say at the end "it was a dream".

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  15. Thanks for your comments Nazish. Was this a comedy movie?

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  16. Thanks for your comments Neha. Nice to know you like my blogs. I am honored.

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  17. answering on behalf of nazish, but it is not going to be a long comment :D

    it is a comedy and a pathetic one..though it was a big hit all over India..

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  18. Thanks for your reply Neha. I love long comments from you. So, please don't hesitate to write long comments in my blog. You have carte blanche.

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  19. thank u for the power SG...I was just saying this for "you know who", who has this habit of answering on behalf of others in the form of "a novel comment" as Karthik put on Insignia's blog...i quite liked your second comment there :)

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  20. This was quite unbelievable.something similar had happened to one of the guy i know. He got the news that his mother had expired, so he was on his way back home. On the way, he was traveling on a rickshaw and suddenly saw his mother coming from the opposite direction!!It was found that it was just the other side of namesake.The mother of some one else with the same name as this guy had expired and this guy got the bad news as both were from the same village!!.But i wonder how would that feeling must be to see your own mother in front of you, which u had some other thoughts just minutes back

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  21. Thanks Neha. I understand what you say.

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  22. Thanks for your commens Mustaf. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. I feel sorry for that guy who got the wrong information that his mom passed away.

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  23. I loved the last four paragraphs, SG! Our attitude towards other people will change completely in this situation.

    He had the option of recording everything incognito and show them later...so many options are there. Thanks for a good laugh!

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  24. Thanks for your comments Sandhya. As you said, I wish he had recorded everything.

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  25. wow.. amazing.. i didnt quite get wat u had suggested.. r u suggesting to take revenge on those who didnt come for the funeral in the will??
    lmao@ late for his own funeral..

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  26. Thanks for your comments Vishnu. Yes, if they don't show up for your funeral it means they don't care for you. In that case, why leave any money for them?

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  27. True! Very true. A lot of ppl though get diplomatic at such times…I wonder if its that useful. I want to die young and see my funeral :)

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  28. I must say, the title of your new post Paranormal Activity is apt for this one :-)

    Your after-thoughts were good. I wonder though - when he actually does die one day, people will be so skeptical that time ;-)

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