You couldn't make it up dept. no. 83: this desirable prize

[fpb]

The eleventh prize in a private lottery in San Marco in Lamis, a small town in Puglia, Italy, was a free luxury funeral, with a luxury casket with pillow and upholstery, a headstone, an "eternal light" made of glass and brass, a place at the town cemetery, and sacred items coming from Padre Pio's sanctuary at San Giovanni Rotondo. Although the lucky winner was allowed to pass it along to anyone, somehow the prize has remained unclaimed.

Comments

[curia-regis.livejournal.com]

I'd take it. :p I mean, free stuff is free stuff!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose the prize is going to be kept for long. Do you know anyone who is about to die?

[guarani]

This may be a wrong way to read about this particular event, but... are people really that scared of death? I remember when my wife (fiancée at the time) and I decided to pay for something like an insurance for death... basically, you hire a funeral and pay a periodic fee that varies according to your life expectancy. Anyway, when the salesperson visited us to explain the advantages of the programs that the company was offering, she always stopped and thought over a better way to express herself whenever she was about to say "death" or "die" or something to that effect. In my opinion, claim the prize, use it, give it away, but get over with it. Everybody is bound to die sooner or later, after all.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I have an idea that the prize was for a definite time. The provision of a space in the city cemetery, in particular, is something that cannot last for ever.

[guarani]

That shows my ignorance of Italian law on this matter (and on everything else, as a matter of fact).

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's not about law so much as about crowded life in a crowded countries. There is a constant problem about cemeteries - they tend to become crowded.

[guarani]

Probably due to the fact that, unlike everywhere else, bodies go there to stay for good.