'He's God's problem now,' son says in viral obituary for his father
FILE (Getty Images)
CLARENDON, Texas - When Charles Boehm’s father died, he was tasked with something he’d never done before – writing the obituary.
His father, Robert Adolph Boehm, died Oct. 6 after falling and hitting his head at his home in Clarendon, Texas. He was 74 years old.
"So I decided to Google, ‘What do you put in an obituary?’" Charles Boehm told The Washington Post.
After reading a viral obituary for Joe Heller of Centerbrook, Connecticut, Charles said he decided to make his father’s tribute something that would make people smile.
"Robert Adolph Boehm, in accordance with his lifelong dedication to his own personal brand of decorum, muttered his last unintelligible and likely unnecessary curse on October 6, 2024, shortly before tripping backward over "some stupid mother****ing thing" and hitting his head on the floor," the obituary starts.
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Charles joked that his father had three children to avoid serving in Vietnam, then later had Charles in 1983 because he was "possibly concerned about the brewing conflict in Grenada."
"This lack of military service was probably for the best, as when taking up shooting as a hobby in his later years, he managed to blow not one, but two holes in the dash of his own car on two separate occasions, which unfortunately did not even startle, let alone surprise, his dear wife Dianne," the obituary continued.
Charles wrote that his father was a roofer and employee of the City of Amarillo before "eventually becoming a semi-professional truck driver—not to be confused with a professional semi-truck driver."
"A man of many interests, Robert … had a penchant for fashion, frequently seen about town wearing the latest trend in homemade leather moccasins, a wide collection of unconventional hats, and boldly mismatched shirts and pants.
"Robert also kept a wide selection of harmonicas on hand—not to play personally, but to prompt his beloved dogs to howl continuously at odd hours of the night to entertain his many neighbors, and occasionally to give to his many, many, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren to play loudly during long road trips with their parents."
After Robert’s wife Dianne died, "getting her the hell out of there for some well-earned peace and quiet," Charles wrote that his father "shifted his creative focus to the entertainment of you, the fine townspeople of Clarendon, Texas."
"Over the last eight months, if you have not met Robert or seen his road show yet, you probably would have soon," he wrote.
When the funeral home director received Robert Adolph Boehm’s obituary, he knew instantly that it would "get us some attention," he told The Post. The funeral home shared the obituary on their Facebook page, where it’s been viewed more than a million times.
"We have all done our best to enjoy/weather Robert's antics up to this point, but he is God's problem now," the obituary reads.
Charles Boehm said some people may think the obituary was "irreverent and offensive," but he believes "it sounds about perfect."