The embalmed body of Fernando de Jesus Diaz Beato was sitting on a chair with his legs crossed, his eyes open and a cigarette in his hand, as if presiding over his own send-off ceremony.
"We didn’t want to see him lying in the coffin. We wanted something different. And also, we wanted him to be remembered by his friends and family the same way he was when he was alive," Ihizz Diaz Beato, sister of the deceased, said.
Fernando de Jesus was gunned down in the Villa Carolina neighborhood of San Juan on March 3, and his grief-stricken family decided to pay tribute to him as if he was still alive.
"We decided to embalm him like this because he was a very happy person, very active and we want to remember him as he was," the sister of the deceased added.
Damaris Marin, the owner of Marin Funeral Home where the ceremony took place, pointed out that that was in fact the 9th unconventional funeral that they’ve held, and that they "have seen that the families wish to see the dead men just as they were when they were alive."
"We gave [the family] a surprise by leaving the eyes of the dead man open. I think that this time [we had] the most impressive reaction to any of the work we have done," the owner remarked.
