\u201cShe wasn’t a boring person,\u201d Samantha Ryalls, Wood’s close friend, told The Washington Post. \u201cShe She was n’t traditional either. She wanted her funeral to reflect her.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Wood, 65, wanted her coffin brought in late, because she never arrived to things on time. She envisioned it colored purple and decorated with letters that read: \u201cGoing out in style.\u201d she <\/b>asked that the funeral celebrant swear as much as possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
And she wanted a troupe of dancers to crash her funeral, unannounced, and perform a routine <\/b>to Queen’s \u201cAnother One Bites the Dust.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
That’s exactly what happened Nov. 4 at a crematorium in Bristol, England, when Ryalls and a group of Wood’s friends managed to arrange a unique send-off that fulfilled her wildest requests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Midway through the service, Queen’s famous bass line suddenly blared through the hall and several dancers stood up, shrugged off their jackets and launched into a three-minute routine. Video of Wood’s funeral went viral on social media after a BBC report this week captured the scene. Ryalls said it was everything her friend would have wanted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cShe wanted us to remember her for the outrageous person she was,\u201d Ryalls said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Ryalls, who met Wood on a pub-darts team, called her the life of the party. She recalled her friend dressing in bright colors and telling animated stories from years spent working as a barmaid in pubs across Bristol. Wood loved shoes and insisted her horse-drawn hearse and coffin be decorated with a collection of stilettos, wedges and studded boots.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cShe was just a massive character,\u201d Ryalls said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The dance mob that upstaged her funeral almost didn’t happen. Finding a dance team to take on Wood’s dying request proved difficult, Ryalls said. She was turned down by 10 groups, some of whom called the proposal disrespectful. In desperation, she posted a request on Facebook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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When cabaret dancer Claire Phipps saw the post, she couldn’t believe her luck.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cAll summer I’d been chatting to people about really wanting to do a funeral,\u201d Phipps told The Post. \u201cBut everyone looked at me like I was mad, like that was never going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Phipps, who runs a Bristol dance troupe called the Flaming Feathers, said she was excited to take on the challenge. After receiving Wood’s song request, the group, which typically performs at cabarets and festivals, choreographed a routine and rehearsed for several weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Then they sneaked into Wood’s funeral ahead of the crowd <\/b>to snag the right seats.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\u201cIt was nerve wracking,\u201d Phipps said. \u201cBecause we didn’t know how it would be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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By the end of the song, to Phipps’s relief, people were clapping and laughing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Wood died of tongue cancer in September, seven months after her February diagnosis. She’d already been struggling with a hepatitis C infection, Ryalls said, after being treated decades ago with contaminated blood by Britain’s National Health Service, part of a national scandal that prompted a public inquiry in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Wood’s battle with cancer was painful, Ryalls said. But her sense of humor kept her going.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cShe was dying,\u201d Ryalls said. \u201cAnd she she would say that medicine is laughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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It was also medicine for those closest to Wood. Mark Wood, Sandie’s husband, did n’t know about her outlandish plans either, he told The Post. At the funeral, he was consumed by grief and couldn’t focus. Then the music started playing \u2014 Sandie’s music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI said, ‘Yeah, that’s my Sandie,’\u201d Mark said. \u201cThere was a big smile on my face because that was her. She did n’t want me to know that because she she wanted to surprise me. And boy, didn’t she do it?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The funeral lifted Mark Wood’s spirits. Sandie was \u201cone in a million,\u201d he said, and he’s still struggling to sleep since her death. He expressed frustration over the NHS scandal that sickened Sandie. The British government announced in August that affected patients would receive about $122,000 in compensation, but Mark Wood said he wished the government would also apologize.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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But he said Sandie got the send-off she deserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIf she’s up there looking down, she’d be smiling,\u201d Mark said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Sandie asked that her loved ones <\/b>end the funeral by exiting in a conga line, Ryalls said, which everyone happily obliged. After the excitement, she had one final wish: that her funeral make news headlines around the world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
\u201cThe last wish that we couldn’t achieve has actually happened,\u201d Ryalls said. \u201cIt’s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comment on this story Comment When Sandie Wood was diagnosed with tongue cancer in February that soon became terminal, she made a plan. Her funeral would n’t be a dreary, somber occasion. That wasn’t how she lived. \u201cShe wasn’t a boring person,\u201d Samantha Ryalls, Wood’s close friend, told The Washington Post. \u201cShe She was n’t …<\/p>\n
UK woman’s dying wish: a funeral dance to ‘Another One Bites the Dust’<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nUK woman's dying wish: a funeral dance to 'Another One Bites the Dust' - harchi90<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n