Article: Obituaries --the long and the short of them

IT'S probably not known when the

first obituary was published, but the

shortest death notice in history may

have been written in Winnipeg.

All it said, or was supposed to have

said, was: VIC DIED.

Funeral director Neil Bardal said

Vic was a local embalmer who told him

before he died 25

years ago that he

wanted his obituary

to be just those

two words and not

a centimetre longer.

"He went on the

assumption that

those who knew

him would know

all they needed

to know with just

those two words. He felt quite strongly

about it."

Bardal said he believes Vic got his

wish, but the passage of time has a way

of playing tricks on the mind and he

wasn't quite sure anymore if the newspapers

of the day ...

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