--- title: Funny Obituary description: When Mary Stocks passed away at age 94, she left a bunch of things to her children that they didn't want. So they put them in her obituary. canonical: https://time.com/3969469/amazing-obituary-mary-stocks/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-23T16:39:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:27.962Z og:title: This Hilarious Obituary Celebrates a Woman—And Her Stuff og:description: When Mary Stocks passed away at age 94, she left a bunch of things to her children that they didn't want. So they put them in her obituary. og:url: https://time.com/3969469/amazing-obituary-mary-stocks/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Hilarious Obituary Celebrates a Woman—And Her Stuff twitter:description: When Mary Stocks passed away at age 94, she left a bunch of things to her children that they didn't want. So they put them in her obituary. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Hilarious Obituary Celebrates a Woman—And Her Stuff > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 23, 2015 4:39 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 23, 2015 4:39 PM UTC When Mary Stocks died at age 94, she left a bunch of things to her children that, frankly, they didn’t want. So instead they used the junk to create a tribute to their mother, in the form of a delightfully funny obituary. “She left behind a hell of a lot of stuff to her daughter and sons who have no idea what to do with it,” [the obituary reads](http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?pid=175314461). “So if you’re looking for 2 extremely large TV’s from the 90s, a large ceramic stork (we think) umbrella/cane stand, a toaster oven (slightly used) or even a 2001 Oldsmobile with a spoiler (she loved putting the pedal to the metal), with only 71,000 kilometers and 1,000 tools that we aren’t sure what they’re used for. You should wait the appropriate amount of time and get in touch. Tomorrow would be fine.” Mary’s son, Sandy Stocks, [told Today.com](http://www.today.com/parents/94-year-olds-obituary-what-every-mom-hopes-her-kids-t34051) why he decided to write such a unique obituary: “Everything I could think of about my mother was funny. I didn’t want to write a really boring obituary,” he said. “I did it more for my family, so they would have something to remember her that would be fun.” He said he thinks his mother who, according to the obituary, loved to swear and was a terrible cook, (“If anyone would like a copy of her homemade gravy, we would suggest you don’t”), would laugh if she read it. “I think she would appreciate it.” _Read more viral obituaries:_ [_Teacher’s Sassy Obituary For Herself Is Going Viral for All the Right Reasons_](http://time.com/3768818/teacher-viral-obituary-florida-times-union/) [_Man’s Obituary Asks Mourners Not to Vote for Hillary Clinton_](http://time.com/3827567/man-obituary-vote-hillary-clinton/) [_This Obituary Is Only 2 Words But It’s Perfect_](http://time.com/3943822/best-obituary/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3969469/amazing-obituary-mary-stocks/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3969469/amazing-obituary-mary-stocks/"},"headline":"This Hilarious Obituary Celebrates a Woman—And Her Stuff","datePublished":"2015-07-23T16:39:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:27.962Z","description":"Anyone need a large ceramic stork?","url":"https://time.com/3969469/amazing-obituary-mary-stocks/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Milestones","U.S.","obituary"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3969469/amazing-obituary-mary-stocks/","name":"This Hilarious Obituary Celebrates a Woman—And Her Stuff"}}]}] ```