Just had the weird experience of hearing that someone who's been on the same mailing list as me for the last few years has died. I'll let him have his say.
"As far as people choosing their own epitaph--I recently chose someone's epitaph for them by accident. My wife's older brother died recently of AIDS. He'd been quite the drug user, particularly back in the wild days of Haight Ashbury where he hung out with Bob Dyland, among others. Well, my wife and her sister were on the phone trying to pick an epitaph for their brother.
Unfortunately, no one in the family had liked him very much because he had been an addict (among other vices) and had done considerable harm to various family members. In a moment of sarcasm I suggested that the only logical thing to carve on his headstone was, of course, "Everyone must get stoned." Both sisters laughed hysterically and now, somewhere near Fergus Falls, Minnesota, my late brother-in-law lies under a headstone with his name, birth date, and favorite Dylan lyric. In pace requiscat."
- John Hall, 1996