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While most people approach death with fear and trepidation, some approach it courageously and at times with specific instructions that those left behind either view as hilarious or simply confounding. NAILANTEI NORARI looks at some of the strangest last wishes

Smoke the inheritance

One Samuel Pratt decided to get his comeuppance from across the grave. Before his death in 1960, his wife made it impossible for him to smoke his favourite cigars as he was ill.

To get even, he left a will bequeathing her £330,000 (Sh40million) so long as she smoked five cigars a day.

A rose a day

Jack Benny had a rose delivered to his wife every day after his death till she breathed her last.

Though the marriage was far from ideal, with Jack alleged to be a serial philanderer while the Mrs was alleged to have been vain and demanding, Mrs Benny received a rose a day from her husband till her death, nine years after his demise.

Married at nine

Jayla Cooper had been battling terminal leukemia since she turned seven. Her only wish was to hold a wedding to fulfill her childhood dream of having a beautiful big white wedding; however, it was becoming increasingly unlikely that she would be old enough to have one.

With donations pouring in from well wishers; from flowers to the banquet hall, Jayla got her happy last wish and wedded a fellow patient at her children’s hospital. She was nine.

 Dog takes all

Leon Helmsley is best known for leaving her dog Trouble with US$12 million (Sh2.2 billion) while she left her brother with US$10 million (Sh1 billion) and her grandchildren with nothing.

The dog’s share was in a trust the brother was to manage and set for taking care of the pet. The dog was also to be buried next to her grave after its death.  

Joked to the grave

Charles Millar was a renowned Canadian practical joker. His last wish was bequeathing US$9 million (Sh9.5 billion) to a woman in Toronto who would manage to birth the largest number of children within the next 10 years after his death.

What followed was a circus the media covered, dubbing it ‘The Stork Derby’.

Four families got their money after each got nine children while two families with a similar number of children went to court demanding to be included in the payout.

Another woman went to court after three stillbirths, which would have upped their children to 11. She was given a settlement of US$200,000 (Sh21 million).

 A womanless library

One lawyer with an extreme disdain for women left US$35,000 (Sh3.7million) to be put in a trust for 75 years, and the total amount plus interest accrued to be used to build The Zink Womanless Library.

The library was to have no female patrons and carry no works by female authors or artists.

The daughter who had been bequeathed US$5 dollars only contested the will and won.

 Seated in death

English philosopher Jeremy Bentham best known for utilitarian theory died in 1832, though he still roams the halls of University College of London (UCL).

In his will, Bentham instructed his friend, a doctor, to preserve his head and skeleton, dress his remains in a suit, seat him in a chair with his cane and display him in a cabinet or case on the university campus with a placard reading ‘Auto-Icon.’

Bentham has been there since 1850 and even has a virtual 360-degree rotatable version for those who can’t make the trip in person.

UCL did replace his real head with a wax one, partially due to decay and partially because students stole it all the time.

 Remarry for inheritance

This is not what you think it is. It is not the story of a fortune hunter marrying a wealthy spouse for the loot.

This, instead, was a husband leaving the wife an inheritance so long as she remarried. The famous German poet Heinrich Heine was married to a Frenchwoman alleged to be of scandalous character.

Heinrich left his fortune to her on condition that she remarried. That at least one person would understand him and regret his death was the reason he gave for this strange condition.

Forever in attention

In Puerto Rico, a 24-year-old man wanted to be standing at his wake according to his will.

The mother honoured her son Angel Pantona Medina’s wish by having him don a New York Yankees cap and sunglasses and propped up in the living room during his three-day wake. 

All to science

Solomon Sanborn was a Boston hatmaker who left his body to science in 1871.

Sanborn further stipulated that his skin should be made into two drums, which his friend would beat to the tune of Yankee Doodle on Bunker Hill each year on the June 17.

But wait, there’s more. Sanborn wanted each drum inscribed: ‘One with Alexander Pope’s Universal Prayer’ and the other with The Declaration of Independence. Crazy patriotic or just plain crazy? You decide.