A drive-thru funeral sounds strange at first, but Vegas has had drive-thru weddings for years … and one fan of fast food was bade goodbye in this memorable fashion.
88-year-old York, Pennsylvania resident David Kime was described as having “lived by his own rules,” so the drive-thru for a funeral was a fitting end for a man with a taste for the unusual … and for Whoppers.
The drive-thru for his funeral was indeed a Burger King , and as Kime’s loved ones paid their respects, the York man got to pass through his favorite fast food stop for a final order of O Rings.
Daughter Linda Phiel — depicted in a moving shot on the York Daily Record placing her dad’s last value meal atop his flower-decked coffin — explained her father’s drive-thru funeral and penchant for the chain’s fare, saying :
“He always lived by his own rules … His version of eating healthy was the lettuce on the WHOPPER JR.”
While the idea sounds lighthearted, Phiel says the drive-thru for her dad’s funeral was not meant to make light, but to honor. She adds:
“All of us are going to be in this position … And I think there’s a certain group who think we should be crying. But on the other hand, he lived a wonderful life and on his own terms.”
She said that as her dad got older, she stopped trying to urge him to eat healthy, as he’d earned the right to live as he wished. And, Phiel says, they enjoyed many fast food excursions together:
“He would take his Cadillac, which he loved, and drive up to Hanover and have a gut-buster … If it wasn’t the kind of day to drive out to Hanover, he would drive out to Wiener World on Memory Lane.”
Burger King manager Margaret Hess was there for the drive-thru funeral and says it was “nice to know he was a loyal customer up until the end — the very end.”
