A Massachusetts woman wanted to leave the world laughing.
Linda Murphy’s humorous and heartfelt obituary went viral after she died at 60 years old following a three-year battle with Bulbar ALS.
“Well, if you are reading this obituary, it looks like I’m dead. WOW, it actually happened … I died of FOMO due to complications of Bulbar ALS,” Murphy wrote. “My name is Linda Brossi Murphy, and I was just 60 years old when I died … way too young! As the saying goes, I ‘died peacefully while surrounded by loved ones.’ I was loved, comforted, and hugged until my last breath by my beautiful family and a couple of my besties!”
Murphy, of Framingham, Mass., praised her husband of 42 years, David, and her children as the “absolute best thing about my life” while she reflected on those she was leaving behind.
Murphy, who was unable to speak for the past year, jotted down her obituary in April before she lost the majority of movement in her hands, according to CBS Boston.
“My stupid Bulbar ALS got me to the sad point of not being able to talk,” Murphy wrote. “Never speaking means never being able to say, ‘I love you!’ It means not being able to call my Mr. BoJangles over for a snack, and it means not being able to order at the Dunkin’ drive-through.”
She added, “As far as eating, it totally stinks to sit at the table while people around you are eating juicy burgers hot off the grill, heaping piles of Chinese food, a healthy portion of pasta Alfredo, or Chipotle — and I just have to smile and act like I’m enjoying my bowl of puréed baby mush!”
Murphy briefly worked as a nursing home administrator before she joined the family real estate business in 2000, where she worked when she survived breast cancer and was then diagnosed with ALS in 2022.
She admitted that she tried to keep her struggles private.
“Living had gotten to be such an overwhelming burden every day, day after day,” Murphy confessed. “I always did my very best not to let anyone know ‘the back story’ of my daily suffering and struggles with ALS. Hubby and I just plowed through each day trying to put our best selves out there for the public eye.”
Murphy picked her own casket, music and her funeral and planned a dance party for the celebration of life, CBS Boston reported.
Murphy even joked that one of her “superpowers” was the ability to “drink as much as I wanted” without getting a hangover.
“The real wonder is why I didn’t die of liver failure,” Murphy quipped
She donated her brain and spinal cord for ALS research and asked loved ones to honor her in a very unique way.
Murphy also suggested that only “nice, loving people” would be welcome at her wake.
“If you were a stinker and meanie to me or my family or friends during my lifetime … Please do everyone a favor and STAY AWAY,” she said. “We don’t want your negative drama & energy.”
Murphy’s final wish for the world was to “be kind to everyone.”
“Please be kind to everyone: the telemarketer, the grocery clerk, the Dunkin’s staff, the tailgater, your family, your friends,” Murphy requested. “Speak nicely and positively. Is there really ever a reason to be negative? I don’t think so…”
“So to my earthly existence, I say farewell. It was a blast while it lasted. We sure did have fun!”
Murphy’s daughter Justine Hastings said her mom always did things a little differently, even early in her diagnosis when she walked into Massachusetts General Hospital in 2022 and tasked the doctors with proving her wrong.
“[She] said, ‘I have ALS. Prove me wrong,’” Hastings recalled. “And they did every single test, and she diagnosed herself. That is the most ‘my mom’ thing she has ever done.”
Hastings was pleased with the feedback her mom’s viral obituary has received.
“She was the life of the party. She was the party,” her daughter said. “One of my favorite comments was, ‘I just read this, and I just wish I could have had a glass of wine with her.’”
