Shelvy Neal, 80, took the microphone at her own funeral Sunday in Macon, Georgia.
The Georgia widow staged the living memorial after burying her husband in March, she told WMAZ. Neal came up with the idea while mourning him and pitched it to her daughter. “I said, ‘You know, I’d love to be at my own funeral,'” Neal recalled. “Well, why can’t you?” her daughter questioned back.
That exchange launched months of planning for what Neal and her family branded the “FOMO funeral” — fear of missing out — held on a property she and her late husband owned for roughly 25 years before selling it to a funeral home in 2020. The sale came with an unusual condition: two funerals, one for each of them.
Around 100 guests gathered at the Macon site to pay respects to a cardboard cutout of Neal posed inside a coffin while the still-living guest of honor wore a sash reading, “Back popular demand.” “It’s gonna be about celebrating Christ and my life, 80 years of my life,” Neal had said before the event. “It’s been a good one.”
The cake carried the same irreverent spirit, decorated with a stairway leading toward heaven and the message, “She refuses to miss anything…especially her own funeral.” Another inscription on the dessert read, “FOMO: The funeral she refuses to miss.”
Neal handled much of the production herself, making the flowers and serving as guest speaker. She also kept editorial control over the open-mic portion where friends and family shared memories. “If they want to, they can say bad things,” she said beforehand. “But I’m gonna be there and I might cut the mic,” She added with a quip, “I’m gonna control my own funeral.”
The event doubled as Neal’s 80th birthday celebration, blending mortality and merriment on her own terms. “I think it will be easier on my family to do something like this, but also, you know, funeral is F-U-N,” she explained.
When her actual death comes, Neal has already planned a simpler farewell: a graveside service with no traditional funeral attached.