This Should Be A Ripley's Believe It Or Not....Man Stands Up At His Own Wake

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Here's another news item I heard last night that should fall under the category of a Ripley's Believe It Or Not. It seems for some reason a 24 year old man's wish that if he should die, he wanted to be standing up for his own funeral, rather then lying down in a casket. Police are still investigating why Angel Pantoja was found dead, but true in keeping the promise, at his three day wake at his mother's living room, he was specially embalmed and his body was placed in the corner of the living room...Here's an excerpt from an article. (Quote) [i]SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A Puerto Rican man has been granted his wish to remain standing — even in death. A funeral home used a special embalming treatment to keep the corpse of 24-year-old Angel Pantoja Medina standing upright for his three-day wake. Dressed in a Yankees baseball cap and sunglasses, Pantoja was mourned by relatives while propped upright in his mother's living room.[/i] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26290833/ Uh...now I don't know about you...but to me the whole wake thing is gruesome..it used to be wakes were ALWAYS held at home usually in the "parlor" room, thus that is why funeral homes are still often called funeral parlors....So anyway to me the idea of a wake is weird to begin with...yeah I know the idea is for the living to pay "respects" to the dead...but YIKES...to have the dead body standing up in a living room??? Does anyone see this a bit weird? Wonder if this Angel Pantoja got the idea from that comedy movie "Weekend at Bernie's" Does this just creep you out or what??