Epitaph: Spike Milligan (1918-2002)

"Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite".

Irish for: "I told you I was ill."

After I originally sent this out as an email some time ago, one of the readers, Steve, responded:

Spike was also famous for publicly calling Prince Charles "a little grovelling bastard" during a dinner in his honour. As you can imagine, the comment reverberated around Buckingham Palace and was repeated on the front page of every newspaper in the land. The following day Spike sent Charles a telegram saying "I suppose a knighthood's out of the question?"

A clip of that comment is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_iLElHqv-w

Epitaphs: John Laird McCaffery (1940-1995)

John

Free your body and soul
Unfold your powerful wings
Climb up the highest mountains
Kick your feet up in the air
You may now live forever
Or return to this earth
Unless you feel good where you are

Missed by your friends

The above epitaph is on the tombstone of John Laird McCaffery, who is buried in Montreal.  The cemetery has strict rules on what is, and what is not, allowed on tombstones, hence the true message being hidden in the epitaph.  It can be found by reading down the first letter of each line.

Kristian Gravenor of the Montreal Mirror spoke to the man who made the tombstone:

The cryptic message occurred to the monument maker after he finished sandblasting it into stone. “Afterwards, as I’m done, I’m looking at it and I’m like, ‘Wow.’ I noticed it just like that,” says John, whose full name won’t be published here for professional reasons. “This guy’s ex-wife and mistress came in together and ordered the stone. They said the message represented him. It was a thing between the three of them.