dead guy standing up at his wake

[Dark Blue]

Dead Guy's Last Request: Body of man kept standing for 3-day wake
(pics at bottom)
He saw himself as a standup guy - even in death.

Angel Pantoja, a 24-year-old sanitation worker in Puerto Rico, told relatives for years that when he died, he "didn't want to be put in a box" for his wake.

"If something happens to me, I want to be seen standing," he said.

The young man, who was found shot to death under a bridge on the island Friday, got his wish for three days over the weekend. He was embalmed upright, and then strapped to a corner wall in his bedroom, according to the El Nuevo Dia newspaper.

His corpse was dressed in a Yankee cap, jeans and a long-sleeve, white shirt under a brown T, and he wore a long, silver chain and cross around his neck. His eyes were covered by Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses.

"He wanted to be happy, standing," said Pantoja's brother, Carlos, who added that they had planned to come to New York at the end of the month in search of a better life.

Pantoja's mother had asked the mortuary to prepare her son's body in the unusual way, the funeral director said.

The funeral home wound up performing "an ordinary process of embalming," the director said.

"Only he had to be secured to the wall with a few straps" to face the crowd, he added.

Pantoja's funeral was far more traditional.

He was laid to rest Monday - horizontally - in a white pearl coffin in a local cemetery, the paper said

[Robbie G]

Well...that's different.

[Emadyville]

The article was interesting but the pics were just creepy.

[Tornado]

Well...that's different.