Grandfather writes own obit, gets last laugh

[Hum]

 Walter Bruhl Jr. got the last laugh.

The Delaware man, who died Sunday, penned his own humor-tinged obituary and left it for his family to find. Family and friends honored him with a private luncheon on Saturday.

"Walter George Brulh Jr. of Newark and Dewey Beach is a dead person; he is no more; he is bereft of life; he is deceased; he has rung down the curtain and gone to join the choir invisible; he has expired and gone to meet his maker," he wrote, quoting from Monty Python's sketch about a dead parrot.

"Right away I was crying," Walter's grandson Sam Bruhl said. "I laughed and cried the whole time."

The obituary included fill-in-the-blank spaces for the date and location of his death.

The 80-year-old grandfather of four wrote about his years in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, saying "Hollywood propaganda" prompted him to join the war effort.

"This was him to a T," said his son Martin Bruhl, who describes his father as a man who loved life and making others smile.

"There will be no viewing," Walter Bruhl Jr. wrote, "since his wife refuses to honor his request to have him standing in the corner of the room with a glass of Jack Daniels in his hand so he would appear natural to visitors."

"I'm sure he is laughing back down at us," Martin Bruhl said. "It has helped to lighten things for us."

Sam Bruhl first posted the obituary on Facebook and later on Reddit.

In the last line of the obituary, Walter encourages people to "do an unexpected and unsolicited act of kindness for some poor unfortunate soul in his name."

Bruhl's words have generated an outpouring of support.

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